Jen Adams is widely considered the best female lacrosse player who has ever played the game.
Jen Adams is the Serena Williams of tennis, the Emma McKeon of swimming, and the Allyson Felix of the track.
She is widely considered the best female lacrosse player who has ever played.
A fellow Australian teammate, Stacey Morlang said this: “Jen was different from anyone I ever played with or watched.
“She had the unlimited capacity to read the play and her opponent like no one I had ever seen. She could unravel an opponent’s game plan and specific players in mere seconds and immediately figure out how they could be beaten.
“As a teammate she was relentless in her desire to win, she rarely doubted her ability … but more importantly she gave her teammates the ability to feel secure and safe in her hands …
“There was no one or is no one that was as innovative and forward thinking as Jen Adams was and still is.”
In 2012, she became the first Australian inducted into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
She remains the only female player ever drafted into the men’s professional league – the National Lacrosse League (indoor) – in 2001.
Jen Adams was headhunted for a lacrosse scholarship at the University of Maryland in 1998, at age 18, but had been playing A-grade lacrosse in Adelaide for Brighton from age 11.
She commandeered the Australian U19 team to a gold medal at the World Cup in 1995, then followed silver, gold, silver and bronze at the World Cups over the subsequent 16 years.
Tellingly, she was selected in the All-World Team in 2005 and 2009, and was the highest goal scorer at the 2001, 2005 and 2009 World Cups.
Importantly, All-World Teams were not selected until the 2005 World Cup.
After sitting out the 2013 world champs due to injury, her personal status was recognised by World Lacrosse with the Spirit of Lacrosse Award, given to an individual who embodies what lacrosse means to their country.
Though she lives and works in the US, most recently coaching at the University of Loyola NCAA, her loyalty to Australia is unquestioned, appointed as an assistant coach to the senior women’s national team for the World Cup in 2022.
She serves as an athlete’s representative on the IOC committee which examines the possible inclusion of lacrosse into future Olympic Games. Recently, lacrosse was confirmed as a participating sport for the 2028 Olympics in 2028.
“I’m an incredibly proud Aussie and preach it everywhere I go. I was very fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve got here in the States and certainly am not unaware of the fact I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing back home.”
As a player, Adams set every scoring record for University of Maryland – season and career – helping them win national titles in each of the four seasons she spent on scholarship there.
Family and national loyalty prompted her to take a break from the college game during the summers of 2012 and 2015 to assist her sister, Trish, at the Under-19 World Cup, winning silver in 2012.
From a kid playing for Brighton to the top of the world in this sport, Jen Adams remains one of Australia’s greatest athletes – yet perhaps still one of its least known. She has been inducted into the Lacrosse Australia Hall of Fame.
