Tracy Coyne laughs now when she thinks back to the time when she wanted to play softball but her mother disallowed it because she wore braces.

That's the way people thought about girls and sports when Coyne was growing up in the Westwood/Crafton area.

She played basketball throughout her years at Canevin High School -- "That's about all we had," she said -- but switched sports at Ohio University in the early 1980s when some friends down the hall persuaded her to go out for lacrosse.

That's how people thought about recruiting and women's sports then.

Coyne, 46, hasn't just seen the development of women's sports over the years; she has been a part of it.

Ten years ago, Coyne became the first coach of Notre Dame women's lacrosse team when it moved from club status to an NCAA Division I program.

This week, Coyne leads the Fighting Irish to the NCAA Final Four for the first time. No. 7 Notre Dame (15-3, 9-0 at home) plays No. 8 Dartmouth (10-4) Friday night in Boston in the semifinals. The championship game will be played Sunday.

Coyne, as anyone might expect, is delighted to reach this point in her career. It's just that she never thought this would be her career.

"I knew I wanted to do something in sports, but not coaching," she said.

After earning a bachelor's degree in organizational communications from Ohio in 1983 and helping the 1982 Bobcats win the Midwest Regional championship and finish eighth at the AIAW national championship, she got a master's in sports administration from St. Thomas University in 1985.

She returned to Pittsburgh for an extended internship at Pitt, where she did an assortment of things such as keeping the clock at women's basketball games. On the side to earn money, she was an assistant lacrosse and field hockey coach at Sewickley Academy.

Then a short stint at a lacrosse assistant at William Smith College. "I needed a job," she said.

But the lacrosse ball was rolling.

Coyne spent two years as lacrosse and field hockey coach at Division III Denison, going 23-5 with two conference titles and a trip to the 1988 NCAA quarterfinals.

After seven seasons as lacrosse coach at Division III Roanoke that included a 91-21 record, five conference titles, three trips to the NCAA quarterfinals and two to the semifinals, Coyne got her big break when Notre Dame decided to add women's lacrosse as a varsity sport.

"I'm Irish Catholic, so it was the best job possible on the face of the Earth," she said.

And one that was difficult.

"I had no idea what I was getting myself into," Coyne said of starting a program from scratch. "We had no conference affiliation, and then you add the [tough] academics."

But she found that Notre Dame -- with perhaps the most extensive and organized athletic department among major universities -- was immensely supportive.

Over her first five seasons, Coyne's teams were 36-31. In 2002, things started coming together.

The Fighting Irish were 13-5 and made the NCAA tournament for the first time, reaching the quarterfinals.

In 2004, Notre Dame was 12-5 and reached the first round of the NCAAs. Coyne was named Big East coach of the year.

After a frustrating dip to 3-12 last season, she put together the top-ranked 2006 freshman class, according to Inside Lacrosse magazine, and rallied the returning players to record the biggest one-season turnaround in NCAA women's lacrosse history.

"The groundwork was laid last spring with this team," Coyne said. "I didn't come here to be mediocre."

Coyne expanded her realm to the international scene when she was an assistant for the U.S. squad in 1992. She also has served as a selector for U.S. teams three times.

Last year, Coyne coached Canada to a fourth-place finish in the World Cup in Annapolis, Md.

No matter how far lacrosse takes her, Coyne still has Pittsburgh in her blood.

She's pleased to see that high school lacrosse has grown in Western Pennsylvania. It was pretty much unknown when she lived here.

Coyne also is a typical Pittsburgh native enamored of the Steelers. She grew up in the same neck of the woods as coach Bill Cowher, but she didn't know him.

On Super Bowl weekend in February, she happened to be in Detroit for a lacrosse clinic and got to soak up the Steelers' atmosphere.

"I still say I'm from Pittsburgh," Coyne said.