The new men's lacrosse program at Bridgewater College now has a head coach.

The school introduced Mic Grant as its first men's lacrosse coach at a news conference Thursday morning on campus.

Grant, a Charlottesville native, comes to Bridgewater after spending the past five seasons as the first head coach at Marywood University in Pennsylvania.

Grant called the Bridgewater job "too appealing an offer to pass by."

"When the opportunity came to become the head coach here, I thought it was a great opportunity to grow professionally," he explained. "Create a new power in the ODAC, and we'll be working hard to do so."

Grant was named Presidents Athletic Conference coach of the year following Marywood's inaugural season, after he guided the Pacers to a 9-5 record. He went 41-24 in his five years at Marywood, and his teams made a pair of conference championship game appearances.

Prior to his time at Marywood, Grant spent nine seasons as an assistant coach at the Virginia Military Institute.

Bridgewater athletics director Curt Kendall said Thursday that Grant's immediate success at Marywood made him an ideal candidate for the Eagles' opening.

"I don't think we probably thought there was somebody out there that started up a program and had success," Kendall said. "Typically you start up a program, you don't have success right away. It takes a good while to have that. So the fact that he had success with it was certainly a plus for us."

"Certainly having gone through the process, and relatively recently, I think it's immeasurable what we learned, and what I was able to take away from that first year," said Grant. "Expectations. Things I know we can change, can improve upon."

Bridgewater's board of trustees approved the addition of men's lacrosse and women's golf as varsity sports in April. The teams will take the field for the first time during the 2012-2013 academic year.

That means Grant will spend the next year on the road, recruiting his first roster of players.

"Yeah, it's out there beating the bushes, and getting to every tournament you can," he said. "And certainly letting people know that Bridgewater College has a men's lacrosse program, and making people aware of options. And certainly, word of mouth is already spreading."

And Grant says his goals for that first team are simple: work hard, and be competitive.

"Certainly not give the young men the out of being a first-year program," he said. "We're going to work hard. We're going to do things right, on and off the field, and we're going to see what happens. And it's my experience that good things usually happen in that case."

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