Temple women’s lacrosse coach Bonnie Rosen inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame

Women weren’t pushed to participate in athletics during Bonnie Rosen’s childhood. In fact, if Rosen’s best friends didn’t encourage her to play the sport she loved, she might not have broken barriers.

“They’re a huge part of how I was able to,” Rosen said of becoming a star athlete. “When you’re in those middle school years, high school years of trying to figure out who you are and grow, that being an athlete was something I could be proud of.”

Rosen, who is in her 15th season as Temple’s women’s lacrosse coach, was inducted into the 2021 Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday night as part of a 14-person class.

Rosen, the Bala Cynwyd native and 1988 Harriton High School graduate, was honored for her accomplishments over the last decade at Temple, which include a 130-122 record, two NCAA tournament appearances and being named Big East coach of the year in 2016.

Last season, Rosen led the Owls to a 13-6 record and 7-3 mark in the American Athletic Conference. Temple advanced to the title game of the AAC tournament and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament, where the Owls beat UMass in the first round for their first tournament win since 1998. They eventually fell to Boston College in the second round.

Before joining the Owls, Rosen spent 10 years at UConn and guided the team to an Eastern College Athletic Conference championship in 2005.

When Rosen became head coach at Temple in 2007, she brought Jennifer Wong along as a graduate assistant. Ten years later Wong is still on Rosen’s staff and remains one of her biggest supporters.

Wong, who is now an associate coach, said she knew how determined and competitive Rosen was after learning under her at UConn, but Wong said the best word to describe Rosen is committed.

During the 2018 season, Rosen underwent neck surgery and could barely move or sit, but that didn’t stop her from getting on every bus and plane to travel with the team.

“She never missed a game, even as all of it was going on,” Wong said. “That’s just the kind of person she is. It’s always for the student-athletes. It’s for the team, and she will put herself in sacrifice or whatever needs to be sacrificed for whatever is best for the program.”

Of course, Rosen remembers what it’s like to sit in their seat. She graduated from Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1991 after four years as a two-sport athlete playing lacrosse and field hockey.

Rosen wanted to attend physical therapy school after graduation. But that plan was delayed when she made the United States National Lacrosse Team in 1992 and competed in several tours including trips to Great Britain and Australia.

While competing, Rosen was in contact with Amanda O’Leary, a lacrosse coach at Yale and a Temple alum. During their conversation, Rosen was offered an opportunity to become an assistant coach for Yale’s women’s lacrosse, which she took in 1995.

“I was planning to just do it for a year,” Rosen said. “Six months into it, I fell in love with it. It was everything that I could have imagined I would want in a career. The opportunity opened up doors and made me realize a whole new path for my life.”

Rosen’s career took off from there. Prior to Thursday’s ceremony, Rosen was honored by the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2002), Eastern Pennsylvania Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2009), Connecticut Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2010) and U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame (2010).

Rosen said the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame induction was a proud moment to represent her hometown of Bala Cynwyd, as well as the Temple community.

“Lacrosse has been the thing that has truly taken me the furthest in life,” Rosen said. “In terms of opportunities to travel the world, opportunities to win medals, opportunities to make the closest of friends, and it’s inspired me to have a career in coaching and to give back to the next generation.”