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Paul Ramsey A Team Head Coach Email:  paulramsey@ucsbwlax.com

A Team Head Coach

Contact Information:

E-Mail to paul.ramsey@essr.ucsb.edu or call (805) 636-6772.

Paul Ramsey enters his second season as the head women's lacrosse coach of the Gauchos. He returned to UCSB for the 2007-08 academic year after sixteen seasons away from the UCSB program, which is where he got his start in lacrosse coaching. Overall that makes it his fifth year as a head coach at UCSB. Ramsey coached UCSB 1990 - 92 but left for a coaching opportunity at Westmont College 10 miles south of UCSB, and then another one all the way across the country at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, another one at Hofstra University on Long Island and then another one at Pepperdine University in Malibu. The job at Pepperdine got him back to California and put him in position to coach again at UCSB.

Under Ramsey, and with focused effort on the part of everyone involved, the 2008 UCSB team ran the table during the regular season and won the Western Women's Lacrosse League championship. Ramsey was rewarded by his team's efforts and selected WWLL Coach of the Year. The team was 18-0 going into the WDIA National Championship Tournament. Unfortunately, after being ranked #1 in the WDIA Coaches Poll from start to finish and cruising in the two opening round games, UCSB took their first loss in the semifinals of the national championship tournament at the hands of an old nemesis. Seven-time defending national champion Cal Poly SLO out-lasted UCSB 11-10 in overtime. The Gauchos had won the regular season matchup with the Cal Poly SLO 10-8 in regulation and the WWLL Championship game 12-11 in double overtime but the Mustangs took the game that advanced them to the national championship game for a record 8th time. The semifinal loss dropped UCSB to 20-1 overall and dumped them into the third place game with University of Colorado, Boulder just 2 1/2 hours later. UCSB had won 10-6 in the regular season but the inspired Buffalos took the opportunity to play up and walked all over a disheartened UCSB. Colorado held an 8-1 lead at halftime. The Gauchos started a come back in the second half but fell short with a 12-10 loss.

"Both those games will stick with me for a long time," says Ramsey. "They may stick with me until we advance further than that at the next opportunity, or maybe even longer."

During his most recent stint he took over a two year old Pepperdine program that was struggling with numbers and proficiency. When Ramsey first started coaching the Waves the program had one returning player from the previous season mixed in with a handful of freshmen who'd played in high school and another handful of novices. Eventually that first year the program grew to a small team of 17 players and they finished the season 5-13. In Ramsey's second year the Waves had their first winning season and qualified for the post-season. During his third year Pepperdine became the smallest school (3,000 undergrads) in the WWLL to field "A" & "B" teams and again qualified for the post-season while also finishing the season ranked 20th in the WDIA. It was the first time Pepperdine had been ranked for women's lacrosse.

Ramsey is no stranger to the game. He's been coaching women's lacrosse since 1990. He arrived at Pepperdine after spending two years as an assistant coach at Hofstra University and five years as the head coach at College of the Holy Cross. Both are NCAA Division One programs . While at Holy Cross he led the team to the most successful five year stint in the history of the program. Holy Cross is a member of the Patriot League, a non-scholarship conference similar to the Ivy League. Ramsey built Holy Cross into a competitor. The team's five year win total before he arrived was 11. During his five year tenure the program won 39 games. In 2001 Holy Cross recorded the most wins in school history with a 13-7 record and garnered an 11-7 upset of Villanova in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals. Other notable upsets included wins over Boston College, Bucknell (twice), Colgate (twice), Duquesne, Hofstra, Lehigh (twice) and UConn (twice). During his first stint at UCSB Ramsey won two Western Women's Lacrosse League titles and coached the Gauchos to a 46-7 overall record in three seasons. At Westmont Ramsey led the team to an 11-5 record for their first winning season and their first play-off appearance.

Ramsey's coaching tenure has been more than wins and losses. He started a girl's lacrosse camp in Santa Barbara in 1992 and the venture has grown into a full company, East West Sports Camps , with camps in developing lacrosse areas all over the United States. He held outreach clinics for local teams just getting their programs started in Central Massachusetts. At Holy Cross he ran clinics for beginners as well as indoor winter clinics and a spring clinic for all levels. A February coaches clinic was a staple and 15 to 20 local high school coaches regularly took advantage of it.