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Coaches

Johanna Owens, aka "Coach Jo"

Coach Jo has dedicated herself to the Austin lacrosse scene a a player, coach, and official since moving to Austin from Washington, DC in 1994. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Applied Learning & Development at the University of Texas. In 2004, Coach Jo was certified as a personal trainer and held an internship at the UT Strength & Conditioning department to further understand the whole athlete. In 2007, Coach Jo merged her training business with her lacrosse business to form Texas Play Hard. Through Texas Play Hard, Austin lacrosse players now have the opportunity to practice, play, and travel with other dedicated players while receiving superior coaching. Coach Jo instills in her players a strong work ethic, teamwork, fundamentals, fair play, self-confidence and a sense of fun. 

Coach Jo brings a wealth of experience to her current position as CEO and head coach of Texas Play Hard. Coach Jo began playing lacrosse at Georgetown Day school in Washington, D.C. and played collegiately for the University of Texas Club team while serving as the club team's president. She also as been officiated the game since 1997, rose to the District level in 2000 and became a Nationally ranked official in 2012.

In 1996, Coach Jo saw the need for girls lacrosse growth at all levels. She founded the collegiate club league still known as the Texas Women's Lacrosse League (TWLL) and the first high school girls team in Austin at Bowie High School. After graduating from the university, she taught mathematics and computers for a few years before returning to the university for graduate work in Exercise Physiology. Her background in education and exercise has enable Coach Jo to build a successful business and program.

Founded

  • Texas Play Hard, Inc 2007
  • St. Michaels Academy Girls Lacrosse Team 2000
  • First Girls Lacrosse Camp in Austin 1998
  • Central Texas Women's Lacrosse Officials Organization 1998
  • Austin Women's Summer League 1997
  • Bowie High School Girls Lacrosse 1997

Coaching Jobs

  • Westlake HS Girls Lacrosse 2004-2008
  • Guest Coach with Bounce Entertainment 2006
  • University of Texas Women's Lacrosse 2003-2005
  • Team Texas WDNT 2006, 2008
  • Triathlon Coach 2001-2005
  • Assistant Soccer Coach, St. Michael's Academy 2000
  • Gymnastics Coach, Washington DC 1993-1995

Lacrosse Achievements

  • President of University of Texas Women's Lacrosse Team 1995-1997
  • Best Offensive Player, UT 1999
  • TWLL All-Star 1996-1998
  • All-Team Player NIRSA 1997
  • Best Rookie of the Year, UT 1995


Emily Roussel

Native to Georgetown, TX, Emily began her lacrosse career her sophomore year of high school. An alum of the Texas Outlaws, Emily went on to play college lacrosse at Tiffin University, a DII school in Tiffin, OH. During her time at Tiffin, Emily was a three-time GLIAC All-Academic Excellence honoree and recipient of the 2016 GLIAC Commissioner's Award. In addition to her academic achievements, Emily was a two time GLIAC Attacker of the Year award winner, a four-time All-Conference performer (3x first team), 2X IWLCA All-Region pick and name to the IWLCA All American team by her senior year. Post-graduation, Roussel began her coaching career at Concordia St. Paul University, as the Assistant Coach, while working towards her master's in Leadership in Management. Roussel helped the team to a 8-8 season during their inaugural season in 2016-2017. Since returning home to Austin, Roussel serves as the Head of Lacrosse and Varsity Head Coach at St. Stephen's Episcopal School, and is the Assistant Director at Texas Play Hard, where she is a head coach for the girls middle school team and assistant coach for the girls HS team. 




Paul Belodoff

As a lifelong educator and coach, Paul brings a desire to instruct young people and enthusiasm to coaching sports. In addition to lacrosse, he has coached football and basketball (both boys and girls) in Central New York. He views the playing field like the classroom, as a new avenue for teaching team building and life skills as well as the sport of lacrosse. His experience coaching  in Central New York, the birthplace and hot bed of the sport has been both exciting and rewarding. Additionally, Paul has been a certified lacrosse official, thus giving him another perspective of the sport. Paul hopes to duplicate his past success in building competitive and championship caliber teams in Central Texas for the Outlaws. 





Natalia Ponce

Natalia was born and raised in Austin, TX. She started playing lacrosse in 7th grade. She started playing for the Town and Country lacrosse team and then went on to join Texas Play Hard. Natalia went on to play high school lacrosse at McNeil High school. At McNeil, Natalia was captain junior and senior year and received All-State and All-District for defense. Natalia helped take her team to the D2 championship two years in a row, where they got 2nd both years and then helped them go to the State tournament. Natalia now attends the University of Texas, where she plans to play club lacrosse. In the fall of 2020, Natalia was an assistant coach to Texas Play Hard 5th/6th graders. In the spring of 2021, she helped coach 5th/6th at Trinity Episcopal School and Texas Play Hard 8th/9th graders.


Terry McCarthy

Coach Terry started as a LAX Dad and fan when his daughter began playing lacrosse in middle school. Right from the start he became involved in learning the game and soon had a passion for the fitness, finesse and beauty of women's lacrosse, especially when it is well played.
He was a pilot, a combat-veteran who flew fighters in the Air Force followed by a 32 year career at American Airlines flying Airbus and Boeing airliners all over the world. In fact, he has mentored four former lacrosse players who chose civil aviation or military flying as their career path.
Asked to assist as a volunteer with managing 25 middle schoolers, Coach Terry found out, almost immediately, to avoid a rocky player-coach relationship with his then 13-year-old daughter and focus on throwing and catching fundamentals with her team mates. He began with learning to throw and catch himself and started with DVDs, YouTube videos and books to study the game. He joined USLacrosse and started attending conferences, seminars, clinics and summer camps. Terry even went so far as to contact high level players and coaches to ask if they might be willing to provide private tutoring. Surprisingly, he got many positive responses and has had numerous opportunities getting inside help from many willing people and teams.
All this put him on a 14 year path to coaching at the High School level, JV and Varsity, then onto a Head Coach position at Texas State University for six years and is currently an Assistant Coach at the University of Texas and at Texas Play Hard.
Terry has been with Texas Play Hard, in some form since its inception: graphic artist, fundraising, web design, photographer, sounding-board, uniform washer, stick stringer, college recruit advisor and coaching. He currently participates as one of coaches of the Outlaws travel team.

  • Volunteer Assistant - St. Gabriel's MS, 2007 - 2008
  • JV Coach, Varsity Asst Coach - Bowie HS, 2008 - 2009
  • Assistant Coach - St. Andrews HS, 2010
  • Head Coach - Texas State University, 2011 - 2016 (Nationally Ranked #13 WCLA DII)
  • Head Coach - Austin HS, 2016 - 2017
  • Texas Play Hard, Outlaws Assistant Coach, 2017 - Present
  • Assistant Coach Ã??Ã?¢?? University of Texas, 2017 - Present (Nationally Ranked #11 WCLA DI)



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