Kellie Young was comfortable.

Leading one of the top NCAA women’s lacrosse programs at James Madison, Young consistently had the Dukes in the NCAA tournament, reached the quarterfinals twice in four years and was close to the fertile Washington, D.C./Baltimore recruiting pipeline.

Then, she left.

Except Young made an atypical move in 2006. She didn’t depart for another national power, or even an established program. Instead, she started her own program, from scratch, at Louisville.

Young will tell you that starting a Division I program from the beginning, which is essentially what the new Michigan women’s lacrosse team will do in 2012-13, is taxing work.

Everything is a challenge. There is something exciting about it, coaches who have done it say, but it also has its unanticipated issues. The first coach is involved with every aspect of the program, from uniform design to stadium construction to the recruitment of the first class of players.

“Oh my goodness, what isn’t (a challenge),” Young said. “I swear, we should have written a book.”

Young took the Louisville job after the 2006 season and had the entire 2007 season to help prepare for the Cardinals first year in 2008. The transitional year, she said, went better than expected. Players were attracted to a big-name program with support, which Louisville provided.

It was during her first season coaching the Cardinals on the field when she started seeing the difficulties of running a start-up program.

Without a senior leadership core, she found herself dealing with problems she would usually expect captains to handle.

“Trying to understand the mind of an 18, 19-year-old was something that I, at 37, 38 then, couldn’t do,” Young said. “Our staff would just look at each other like ‘Are you kidding me?’ But again, now that we’re four years in you look back and say ‘Okay, that was hell on earth,’ but it really prepared these players for great maturity.”

It is just one of the many things that whomever Michigan hires as its new women’s lacrosse coach will encounter.

“It’s like starting a new business,” said Maryland-Baltimore County coach Kelly Berger, who inherited an established program, but when she started in 2009 at 25-years old, was the youngest head coach in the country. “Any time that happens it is definitely a tough thing.”

The support and the name There are similar threads among schools with successful start-up programs. And Northwestern, which began play in 2002 that won national titles from 2005-09, is the greatest success story.

One is being able to sell a strong academic school. Northwestern, Stanford and Florida are among new programs with sterling academic reputations.

The other is being able to sell other aspects of the athletic department. That, Berger said, is key because big schools know how to win in almost everything.

“What’s unique and great about Michigan’s situation was similar to Florida. It has a strong academic and athletic reputation and tradition,” said Amanda O’Leary, the Florida head coach who left Yale to take over a new Gators team in 2007. “It’s not like it’s a no-name school. It’s so well known academically and athletically. You’re not going to have to go out and tell people who you are.

“You’re from the University of Michigan and there’s a lot of tradition, a lot of success that comes before you.”

O’Leary had to sell a program with no lacrosse background. Like Michigan, Florida had a successful club team but no varsity roots and no local recruiting base to work with. As O’Leary recruited her first class, she often discussed the school’s other successful women’s sports.

That's a strategy Michigan can use. The Wolverines' softball and field hockey teams have both won national championships from untraditional bases. In 2005, the softball team became the first northern school to win the national title. In 2001, Michigan became the second Midwestern school to win a title.

It shows program potential — something increasingly important as more schools add women’s lacrosse and the recruiting landscape becomes more competitive.

“Their athletic programs have already distinguished themselves so you’re already going to ride off of the name recognition that it is a top team in the Big Ten,” said Notre Dame coach Tracy Coyne, who started the Irish program in 1997. “People know about Michigan, know where it is and are familiar with it. It has high name recognition.”

The success blueprint is there Michigan’s inaugural season will be in the spring of 2013. What to expect from it is a mystery.

Northwestern was 5-10 in 2002, its first year. Notre Dame was 5-4 in 1997.

Florida was 10-8 in 2010 and, with mostly sophomores this year, went 16-4 and reached the NCAA quarterfinals.

Louisville was 12-4 in 2008, but played a lighter schedule than Young normally would. Having just finished its fourth year, Louisville has had double-digit wins in every year it has played.

The potential is there for Michigan to be competitive quickly. Having a full year to recruit will help. So will athletic director Dave Brandon's commitment to a lacrosse-only facility for both the men’s and women’s programs that the new coach can sell to recruits.

“I feel like they can be successful right away,” Coyne said. “I don’t see why not. I don’t see why they can’t be successful right away if they get the right person in there.”

One of Michigan’s biggest concerns could be something the school has no control over — the weather.

Coyne and Young said the school’s indoor facilities— Michigan will likely use Oosterbaan Fieldhouse at least early on — will be critical for preparation.

“That’s going to be the challenge, getting the kids to look beyond the weather to see the greatness Michigan can be,” Young said. “The name is going to speak for itself and draw players to look, there is no question.

“The facility they are going to have, the coach they are going to bring in it’s going to be bright and shiny when the kids come. They just have to get them to come when it is nice and warm and sunny out.”

The other key is finding the right coach. That coach needs to be able to instill his or her style on the program early and have a strong first recruiting class because the bonding between that class is going to set a foundation for the first four years.

The precedent is there for big-name coaches to at least look at Michigan. Young and O’Leary ensured that. So did the success of Kelly Amonte Hiller at Northwestern, Lisa Miller when she started Syracuse’s program and then rebuilt Harvard, and Coyne at Notre Dame.

With the right funding and right coach, being competitive early can be done. Brandon knows what he is looking for — and it is something coaches who have done it agree is a good course to take: A builder.

“It’s a special coach who can literally start from scratch and build something that doesn’t exist,” Brandon said. “So we’re going to be looking for somebody who has proven they have the perseverance and creativity and talent to start with a clean sheet of paper and build a program from scratch.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by email at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.