After going undefeated in the regular season, the Men's Lacrosse team lost their first round game of the MCLA Tournament. There are no moral victories in club sports either, but the team's success this year shows they are doing the right things.
As I wrote at the beginning of Spring, I am basically neutral on Men's Lax returning as a varsity sport. But as I said at the time, the team's primary goal should not be varsity status. In my opinion, becoming a club level power would be more effective path to scholarship status than any politicking or fundraising. Going undefeated shows that BC can be dominant in club lacrosse. Losing the tourney opener is a setback but only a small one. Next year I expect the guys to get back in the Tournament and go deep.
Brad Bates is on record as having watched the club team. He also says all sports and their varsity status will be reviewed and addressed. I don't expect he will fund the team this year. Maybe it will happen next year, maybe it won't. But this season finally showed that the Men's Lacrosse team is taking its destiny to the field.
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11 comments:
It's all about Title IX. "The Last of the Mohicans" played a game similar to LaCrosse only they used the skull of an enemy. We now have a kinder, gentler version and men can't even play in a sanctioned version. If football cut half of their scholarships, then the money would be there to buy a few "ancient skulls" of common sense.
Here is a good review article on why LAX should be back..from the Heights... Article
BC should make room for LAX by dropping some or all of the following TOTALLY UNINTERESTING varisity MEN's sports
Baseball
Swimming/Diving
Golf
Fencing
Tennis
These all should be club sports. I am sure BC is not competitive in any of these sports at the ACC level (but please correct me if I am wrong)
Hate to be Debbie Downer, but I think it'll be difficult for the club team to get the type of players that the club teams out west get. The top club division is similar talent-wise to D-3 lacrosse. And while the sport is expanding westward at the high school level (see: Mercer Island (WA) traveling to MA and competing with/beating top Massachusetts teams) colleges are having a more difficult time financing it. It leaves a greater pool of players out west to for the club teams to pick from, while BC has to compete with historically great D-3 programs in New England. Granted BC is going to be able to offer a different school culture than Tufts, Middlebury or Wesleyan, but the lacrosse community values tradition and culture... and cool new equipment.
Prisbyal... are you... high? No offense, but that is about as false of a post as I've ever seen on here, and I know nothing about the game of lacross.
It is one of the most popular youth sports in the northeast currently. Many local municipalities are even dropping or downsizing their rec level baseball and soccer teams to endorse the sport more. Same goes for High Schools in the area - I cannot think of any that have not embraced the sport.
Collegiate level, I'm not sure what you are referencing when you reference "out west," but the powerhouses in college lacrosse are John's Hopkins, Syracuse, Maryland, Cornell, Yale, Penn, Penn State... the heck are you talking about??? Boston College fits in beautifully with these schools demographically, geographically, educationally... Sure, JHU may have a more historical appeal for the game, but there is no reason BC won't compete for kids right away if they're offering scholarships.
I wasn't talking about getting scholarship athletes. Atl's point was that if you build a solid club team, like Michigan did, you can ride that momentum to varsity status.
My point is that there are far more top tier division division three teams to compete with in New England than, say Michigan, California or Colorado. Which is why you see most of the top club teams from those areas... there are no other options to play college lacrosse. Which is why BC can go undefeated playing Buffalo and UConn... yet they are seeded eighth and get blown out by Sonoma State.
The kids you'd want on your club team are playing at Tufts.
Eagle 1331 you really need to read posts before you get on a soapbox about what someone said.
Eagle 1331 you really need to read posts before you get on a soapbox about what someone said.
mod 34b- this is the thing. if you bring back lacrosse and fund it the way you fund a lot of these mens sports you will get the same results. they will lose a lot and struggle playing in the ACC. thats life. if you fund tennis or baseball or golf or whatever to the highest level (the way other ACC schools do) then absolutely you can compete with anyone and top student-athletes will go to bc, the same they would if lacrosse were fully funded and if the athletic dept was committed to being competitive. so its really not a question of a certain sport attracting a certain type of kid, its more a question of how committed financially and philosophically the school is to the certain sport. if you bring back lax as varsity sport but then have no $ for it then the good players will continue to pass. if you show them the money then you will get the best tiddly winks players in the country it doesnt matter.
A great season like this should get the attention of the AD, and hopefully alumni as well, but I don't believe the hopes of a return varsity status lies with the success of the club team. This may have been the first year that people have followed the club team, but it's hardly the case that THIS is the year the team "finally showed that the Men's Lacrosse team is taking its destiny to the field."
The first year a club team was fielded, in 2003, the team lost one game and made it to the national tournament. In 2007 and 2011, they were able to make it to the quarterfinals. Hopefully this prolonged success will help garner alumni interest, but the team has made this tournament 7 of the 11 years the club has existed. The only difference now is our AD.
They key here is for Bates to listen to the vocal and well backed alumni who want to fund a varsity team. As the Heights article alluded to, DeFilippo told these alumni it would take $8 million to fund the team, assuming they wouldn’t raise the money. Once they did, he changed his tune and told them they would also need to fully fund the women's team. I'm sure that Title IX is an issue, but there's no way it's an issue a smart AD wouldn't be able to figure out. Title IX was around before 2002, and it exists at all the other DI lacrosse schools.
Thankfully Bates is clearly more willing to listen to alumni and their ideas than Gene was. The fact that he knows a club team exists definitely can't hurt the prospects of getting him to think about a varsity team. But I seriously doubt the on-field success of that team will increase his willingness to resurrect the varsity program.
Luch - sure, the appropriate $$ must be invested for a varsity sport to succeed. Underfunding = no success.
Assuming there is proper funding, Lax is the better choice for BC than the other sports I listed.
1. Lax has definite geographic advantages for BC (proximity to best Lax players) that it does not enjoy for golf, swimming, baseball, tennis
2. Lax is more exciting and more likely to build community than the other sports I mentioned Would 2,000 student watch a golf match? cheer for a good putt? Tailgate?
3. Plus what does golf, tennis or swimming do for BC? Nothing
4. GDF is why Lax was cut. G D F ! A man famous for bad judgment. Undoing yet one more bad GDF choice is another good reason to support the return of lax.
I took a moment to check on the health ofthe "other" BC Men's sports. Turns out fenicng is not an ACC sport.
But Baseball, Tennis, Golf and Swimming/Diving are ACC sports at which BC is non-competitive.
BC's Men are LAST in each of those sport in the ACC.
In Tennis, get this: Men's singles in ACC >> BC 2 wins, 58 losses
Men's doubles: BC 4 wins, 25 losses.
BC is non-competitive in ACC Baseball, ACC Golf, ACC Swimming/Diving and a compelete disaster in Tennis -- 2-58!!! (0.033 winning percentage)
CALLING BRAD BATES!
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