Akasha Kasper enters her second season with University of Charleston women's lacrosse in 2021 after taking over the program at the start of the 2020 season.
In her first year at the helm, Kasper led the Golden Eagles to a 3-2 record as the season was ended abruptly due to the COVID-19 outbreak which led to the cancellation of all Winter and Spring NCAA competition. In her first season, Kasper led the Golden Eagles to their best scoring average in program history (12.20) while holding top-50 ranks in free position percentage (38th), turnovers per game (39th), and shot percentage (39th). Kasper picked up her first collegiate win in her first game as the Golden Eagles defeated Chowan University by a score of 12-6 on February 15th.
Kasper comes to UC from Limestone College, where she spent three seasons as an assistant coach for the Saints women's lacrosse program. During her tenure as an assistant at Limestone, the Saints claimed a pair of regular season and tournament championships in the Conference Carolinas along with an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2018. She coached five IWLCA All-Americans, eight IWLCA All-Region athletes and 16 All-Conference Carolina athletes while guiding the Saints to the #2 ranked scoring defense in NCAA DII during the 2018 season.
Before joining the staff at Limestone, Kasper came from William Peace University in Raleigh, N.C. where she served as the head coach for the women’s lacrosse program from October 2016 to January 2017. During her stint with the Pacers, she was responsible for all aspects of building the newly implemented NCAA Division III program. She also served as the head strength and conditioning coach for all women’s sports.
Prior to William Peace, the Greensboro, N.C. native spent two seasons as an assistant women’s lacrosse coach for Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C. During her time with the Indians, Kasper focused on the development of goalies, defenders and draw control specialists. She implemented a recruiting strategy that provided Catawba with its largest recruiting class to date in 2016.
Kasper also gained valuable coaching experience as an assistant coach for Greensboro N.C. Elite and Greensboro Select Lacrosse club teams. In addition to coaching club teams, she also assisted with Queens University of Charlotte women’s lacrosse camp from 2012-15 and the University of Maryland women’s lacrosse camp in 2014.
A four-year member of the Queens women’s lacrosse team, Kasper was a staple in the defensive line starting all 71 games she played in. During her rookie campaign, she was named to the Conference Carolinas All-Conference First Team, USACollegeLacrosse.com All-American Rookie Team, Synapse Sports All-Rookie Team, IWLCA DII South All-Region Team, and IWLCA DII All-American Second Team.
Serving as team captain her senior year, the three-time all-conference selection helped lead the Royals to a South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship, the first title in program history.
Kasper graduated Magna Cum Laude from Queens in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in New Media Design with a concentration in Media Communications.
Kasper is a graduate of the 2018 NCAA Women Coaches Academy class #44 that was held in Denver, Colo. The NCAA Women Coaches Academy, hosted in partnership between the Alliance of Women Coaches and the NCAA, is a four-day educational training available to NCAA coaches of all experience levels, and is designed for women coaches who are ready to increase their individual effectiveness by learning advanced skills and strategies that directly affect their personal and team success.
