Mother-Daughter Day at NCAA Tournament
Thursday, May 7, 2015 | Lacrosse, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Amanda O'Leary got a call last fall from her daughter, who was just a few weeks into her freshman year of college.
Madison O'Leary was a lacrosse and academic superstar at Oak Hall School, about five miles from Dizney Stadium, home to her mother's UF lacrosse program. When Madison went looking for a college, she had Ivy League ambitions, but wanted to be challenged athletically, as well. She found both, as it turned out, about 3,000 miles away.
That telephone call went something like this:
“This place, Mom, it's really hard,” Madison said.
“Yeah,” mother replied. “That's why it's Stanford.”
Months later, Madison O'Leary has settled in quite nicely at the academic giant on the west coast. And while it's tough -- for children and their parents -- being so far away, arrangements can always be made for visits when possible.
In this case, by happenstance. 
When the NCAA Women's Lacrosse Tournament opens Friday, the 10th-ranked and Big East champion Gators (14-5) will face No. 16 Stanford (15-2) in first-round action at Chapel Hill, N.C., meaning mother will be coaching against daughter for the right to move into the second round and face host second-seeded North Carolina (15-3) on Sunday.
The NCAA bids went out last Sunday night. It so happened, the Cardinal were traveling home during the pairings show from capturing the Mountain Specific Sports Federation tournament at Denver. The Stanford coach announced to her players they'd been matched against the Gators.
“My jaw just dropped. I mean, what were the odds of that happening?” Madison said. “Everyone turned to me and was like, 'Let's see if we can take down your mom.' ”
Truth be told, it's possible the younger O'Leary, a midfielder, may not even check into the game, having appeared sparingly in just 11 games her rookie season. Her collegiate stats to date show no goals, three ground balls and two controlled draws.
But it's still a cool storyline. As Madison asked, what were the odds that the Florida coaching staff would be popping up in tape this week and scouting tactics, traits and tendencies of a team that featured a girl who for the last few years was a fixture at UF games, whether keeping stats or working the clock?
“Obviously, we're going to treat it like any other opponent, but getting to see Madison, for all of us, is going to be an extra bonus,” Gators assistant coach Erica LaGrow said. “She is such an impressive young women; so mature, so bright, so intelligent.”
How much so? Last summer, Madison did an internship in the marketing department at the University Athletic Association. When she went to meetings, she was mistaken for a graduate student (not a kid just weeks out of high school).
The number of meetings, though, eventually caught up to her and she was ready to head off -- way off -- to Stanford, where Amanda knew the coach (Amy Bokker) well and had no trouble entrusting her daughter to mentoring duties from afar.
The distance, even Mom admits, was different.
“It's funny. We tell our kids from up north and the mid-Atlantic, 'Oh, come on down,' like it's nothing, and now all of sudden I'm like, 'Wow,' and dealing with this,” Amanda said of the oldest of her two children. “It takes two hours to come down here [from the Northeast]. It takes a day to get out there. But when we went on our [official] visit to Stanford and I saw the smile on her face when we walked the campus, she said that was the place she wanted to be.”
The transition phase ended months ago. Madison O'Leary is not only a student at Stanford, but she's a Cardinal and this weekend her goal -- like her teammate said -- is to “take down” her mother.
“When I was there, I was in complete support of my mom, but I was not scouting her teams, by any means. I was in high school, so that's not where my focus was,” Madison said. “There are some [Gators] players whose strengths I know, but everything I know my coaches can certainly scout, so I don't think I can offer any expertise they haven't already seen on film.”
Instead, the O'Learys should embrace and enjoy a unique opportunity; a special family moment.
That will not be hard.
