(Enlarge) Hammond High School graduate Kelly Berger, left, has been named head coach of the UMBC women’s lacrosse team. Her assistant, Tony Giro, right, was a volunteer coach at UMBC last spring. (Staff photo by Matt Roth)

Kelly Berger has the job she always wanted but wasn't quite sure she'd ever get, and certainly not at the tender age of 24.

In mid-May, after two years as an assistant, Hammond High graduate Berger was named head coach of the women's lacrosse team at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

It's the top job of a fully-funded Division I team, and she is hardly much older than her players.

"In our interviews with the student-athletes, every one of them talked about Kelly and how wonderful she was. ... I had an intuition that she was the one for the position," said Charles Brown, UMBC's athletic director, who also was 24 when he became a head coach.

"Even though she's young, she's mature enough," he said.

The new job fulfills a dream for Berger, who was a star lacrosse player at Hammond and later at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.

"Coaching is something that I always wanted to do," she said. "Being a captain (in college) helped and showed that I enjoyed what it entailed. ... The UMBC administration has given me an opportunity that I didn't think that I'd have at my age."

At UMBC, Berger replaces Courtney Connor, whose contract was not renewed.

Berger knows that as much as she'd like to, in her new position she can't do everything herself. She is going to have to delegate.

"That was the first thing that I was wide-eyed about," she said. "I can't say that I don't like to have everything under control and under my wing."

That's where assistant coaches Tony Giro and Amy Appelt come in. Giro, a former assistant at Mt. Hebron High School, was a volunteer coach at UMBC last spring.

"I have two great assistants who are super helpful, ready and eager to get started," Berger said.

The trio is going to need that energy and enthusiasm. Recruiting will be difficult because the top talent in the state tends to drift toward schools like Loyola College, the University of Maryland or some other stop in the Atlantic Coast Conference. It's almost anywhere but UMBC.

"It's definitely our goal to branch out to the other places where lacrosse is being played," Berger said.

Berger enjoys recruiting. "It's something that I really like to do. I like to sit there and watch kids and try to find that needle in the haystack that I felt that I was as a player."

Lightly recruited as a high school player, Berger had a stellar college career at James Madison, where she graduated in 2007.

A four-year starter, she is second on the JMU career list for goals (184) and points (262) and third in assists (78). Among her many honors, she was twice an All-American and has earned a spot on the United States' Developmental Team.

Berger wants to bring more than X's and O's to UMBC. She thinks of her players as people first.

"I want to care for them, not as lacrosse-playing robots, but as human beings that I have to teach to be better people and to grow as young women."

Berger points out the life lessons she learned playing college lacrosse -- things as simple as the importance of being on time and how to present oneself.

She wants to change the Retrievers' fortunes for the better. In the past three years, UMBC has only had one winning season (9-8 in 2009).

"It's not the old UMBC. It's a new era and a new standard that we have set," she said. The goals are high.

"We need to compete in our conference and compete at the top. I want to be in a program that goes to the NCAA tournament every year and right now we are not at that point."

Given Berger's drive, don't rule out those positive changes happening sooner rather than later.

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