ROCK HILL, SC--The upcoming year will be an extra busy one for Winthrop coach John Sung who will launch Winthrop's first women's lacrosse season in February and then serve as head coach of the Haudenosaunee Nation in the 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Cup in July.

Sung was hired to serve as the first women's lacrosse coach in April, 2011 and has assembled a young and talented roster that will hit the field for its first official game on Feb. 8 at Howard before making its home debut against Marquette a week later.  But while he has been busy recruiting and training the Eagles for their inaugural season with the help of assistant coach Amanda Shimp, he has also been preparing his World Cup team for the upcoming Champions Challenge that will be held Jan. 25-27 at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World in Orlando, FL.. That tournament will pit a group of national teams against top collegiate competition in games that will be broadcast by ESPNU and ESPN3.

Sung is no stranger to international lacrosse competition. This is Sung's second go around as head coach of the Haudenosaunee Nation team which is comprised of athletes from the Iroquois Confederacy, which is a group of Native Americans that originally consisted of five nations: the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca. 

While coaching at Adrian College in Michigan, Sung was selected to coach the national team in the 2009 World Cup that was held in Prague, Czech Republic.  Begun in 1982 and held every four years, the 2009 World Cup marked the first time the Haudenosaunee Nation was invited to play in the games.  They were among the 16 teams that competed and they finished 11th after winning two games in pool play before defeating The Netherlands 16-2 in the quarterfinals.  Sung's team lost to the Czech Republic in the semi-finals before knocking off New Zealand in the consolation round.

This summer 20 teams from 19 countries and the Haudenosaunee Nation will converge on Oshawa, Ontario Canada for the 2013 World Cup that will run July 10-20. 

"Being able to coach for the Haudenosaunee Nation for two World Cups is an unbelievable opportunity," said Sung.  "The 2009 World Cup was an eye opening experience for me to coach at the highest level.  This gave me the knowledge and ability to take my college team at Adrian to the next level. The Haudenosaunee Nation was competing for the first time at the 2009 World Cup.  There were a lot of growing pains, but that team established the foundation for all the rest of the teams to follow," he said. 

"The 2013 team is a bit different.  I have been able to build this program into one of the top teams in the world," said Sung.  "Before the 2013 tryouts began the Haudenosaunee Nation women's team and the Iroquois National Men's team started the process to operate under one umbrella  which has helped in many ways.  One of the biggest changes for the 2013 team was the ability to add more coaches to our  team."   Sung has added Farrah Perkins (head coach of Six Nation U-15), Gregg Gebhard (head coach, St. Francis University) and Randall Goldsborough (head coach, Bucknell) to the staff.  'Each one of them brings a specialty in coaching which has helped excel our training.  Being able to work with these coaches has been an unbelievable experience so far.  Their knowledge and passion for the game has also helped me bring back things to assist in developing our team here at Winthrop." 

Sung says that being able to represent Winthrop in the 2013 FIL World Cup is a huge honor.  'To give exposure of our young program to the world will give us the ability to recruit some of the top players to Winthrop."

So how has Sung been able to manage the dual responsibility of starting a new NCAA Div. I program at Winthrop while preparing his national team for the ultimate in lacrosse competition at the World Cup?
 
"With many of the countries that are represented in the World Cup, most have players and coaches that are participating  in the NCAA.  So with that being said our time line for training  for the World Cup is scheduled around what is happening here with my Winthrop program," said Sung.

Sung says the Haudenosaunee roster is currently at 26 players, but he and his staff will be making a cut to 20 after the Champions Challenge next month in Orlando. "There, we will have an opportunity to  play Florida Southern, Rollins College, Stetson, Syracuse  and the English National Team.   After that  event we will have a final Training Camp in June at the Six Nation Reserve in Oshweken, Ontario before heading to the World Cup in July ".   

Hopefully that experience will follow a Big South Conference title and appearance in the NCAA lacrosse tournament this spring.  Now that would make 2013 a very special year for Sung.