Flip Naumberg’s goal when he became coach of the CSU club lacrosse program 14 years ago was “to take something that was sort of nothing and make it something, make it a real program.”

He clearly did, guiding the Rams four College Lacrosse Association national championships, three runner-up finishes, six Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference titles and a 208-52 record.

Now, Naumberg said today, it’s time for him to step aside and turn the program over to Alex Smith, a former Colorado State University player and assistant coach for the past six years.

Naumberg, 57, said he’ll still be around to help out but hopes to focus his attention on his businesses, Rock-It Pocket and the Colorado Lacrosse Company and spend more time with wife Ada and his two children, Jordan, 9, and George, 6.

“He made you want to play for him,” Smith said. “He made you want to give everything you had. Even though we’re a club sport, however he did it, he made you want to turn it into something more, and I think that’s his greatest strength as a coach, by far.”

Naumberg, who first played lacrosse as a student at Colorado College and has been involved in coach-ing for 30 years, also runs one of the largest lacrosse tournaments in the world, the Vail Lacrosse Shootout, which he started in 1973.

A youth camp the club is running this week has 150 participants, and Marsha Smeltzer, CSU’s associ-ate director for sport programs, said the lacrosse program draws students from across the country, even though they have to pay to play.
“In the time period he’s been here, he’s taken it from a student organization to a bona fide annual top-10 lacrosse program, which is huge,” Smeltzer said.

Smith, 28, came to CSU in 1999 from Parker and was a standout goalie for the Rams before becoming an assistant coach. He has played professional lacrosse for the past four years with the Denver Outlaws and helps Naumberg run both of his lacrosse businesses and the Vail tournament.

“Flip’s a really good one-on-one coach, and Alex does a really good job of leading the team as a whole and running practice and overseeing everything,” said Paul Larson, a senior attackman from Littleton. “We had Alex run the team for a good chunk of the season, and we did well when he was running it.”