Impact Of A Scholarship: Delia Cox

For Delia Cox, an athletic scholarship to the University of Maryland meant freedom to explore her personal and professional interests. It also meant freedom to foster a life where she could work to live rather than live to work. 

The scholarship enabled her to explore the country and pursue a career unbounded by location. But before she moved across the country, had mountainous adventures and worked as a nurse in the Bay Area, Cox was a successful Maryland women’s lacrosse player. 

The former midfielder maintained Maryland’s legacy of dominance in women’s lacrosse, beginning her career fresh off the Terps’ seven-year title streak from 1995-2001. The team made the NCAA tournament all four years of Cox’s college career. In Cox’s 2003 freshman season, the Terps won the ACC Tournament and played in the Final Four. 

Cox also won several IWLCA individual awards, including Midfielder of the Year (2006), Rookie of the Year (2003) and Second Team All-American honors in 2004 and 2006. She was named to the All-ACC team three times (2004, 2005, 2006) and is one of only nine Terps to achieve an All-ACC hat trick. 

Cox served as team captain during her senior year. She still ranks sixth in program history in ground balls (201) and 26th in total points (218). 

“It’s a blessing to be on a team that was competing every single year for a championship,” Cox said. “I’m getting goosebumps thinking about how incredible we were as a team.”

Cox grew up in a small town on the Massachusetts coast as the first-born child of successful athlete parents. Her father, Ralph, played professional ice hockey and was the last player cut from the famed 1980 United States Men’s Olympic Hockey team. The University of New Hampshire ice hockey alum has even been depicted on television and in movie adaptations of the “Miracle on Ice.” Her mother also ran track and field and set records at her high school. 

“I have extremely strong athletic genes in my family,” Cox said. “But I wanted to blaze my own path here. I picked up a lacrosse stick and had so much fun with it.”

When Cox transferred to a private school for her sophomore year of high school, it became “part of the deal,” Cox said, to be involved in extracurricular activities, whether in arts, athletics or anything else.

She ran track in the fall but was unsure of her spring activity until she tried her hand at lacrosse. Cox grew to enjoy the sport and improved rapidly, leading her to seek opportunities to continue her playing career. 

She fell in love with the Maryland women’s lacrosse program after she attended its on-campus summer camp. She was drawn to her former coaches, National Lacrosse Hall of Famers Cindy Timchal and Gary Gait, and their “wildly strong” program. 

Cox believes the coaches saw something in her at a camp because Coach Gait came to watch one of her high school soccer games the following fall. This allowed her to imagine a prospective future with Maryland lacrosse. 

“It definitely seemed like reaching for the stars, shooting for the moon, just this little girl from Newbury, Massachusetts,” Cox said. “I was so ridiculously excited for Maryland to come recruit me. It just wasn’t something that I was expecting.”

Cox's recruiting visit to Maryland stood out amongst the other school she visited. She noted how appreciative she was of Maryland’s robust recruiting process for its women’s sports. 

“At the time, Maryland was it,” Cox said. “A strong university academically and athletically. It was such a special experience for me as a human being, but also as a female athlete, to be acknowledged like that. The team was just so welcoming, and we had so much fun.”

Aside from Maryland’s on-field accomplishments, Cox most fondly remembers the off-the-field time that brought her lifelong friendships and an unwavering sense of Maryland pride. 

“It’s such a unique space to be on a team,” Cox said. “I don’t know if you can really replicate that. Going to battle with each other, the adversity that you overcome. Early morning workouts, running, lifting and attending classes. Staying on track academically and the time management of it all. Those in-between times of becoming a team and a family were so memorable.”

Cox cited her athletics scholarship as one of her life's most positive inflection points. To this day, she appreciates the donors who supported her student-athlete experience. 

“It makes me feel emotional,” Cox said. “What a gift to be afforded the opportunity to go to a university like Maryland and to be so supported in my journey there. It’s just a blessing and makes me feel very humble and grateful. The ripple effects of that scholarship and what it’s given to me to this day. It’s given me access to such a beautiful life.”

After college, Cox moved west to Colorado, opting for a more outdoor, mountain lifestyle before returning to the East Coast for nursing school. Cox highlighted the significance of graduating without student loans, which permitted her to make that cross-country move and to save more easily for more school. 

“It was the freedom of the scholarship to go and explore who I wanted to be, where I wanted to be, then I could go dig in and commit,” Cox said. 

Cox currently works as a nurse at Stanford Children’s Health. She remains close to her New England-based parents, step-mother and brothers, as well as her network of friends, including many of her former Maryland lacrosse teammates.

“I have a loving support system and I deeply value the friendships that have reliably been there for me as we ride the waves of life together,” Cox said. “My Maryland Athletics scholarship gave me the freedom to get in touch with my heart and go be who I wanted to be in the world. I’m having fun exploring what life has to offer.”