Lacrosse: Alternative sport?

[Ulla1]

Attended the lacrosse games of my two grandsons (6 and 7 years old) yesterday in Towson, MD. Being a baseball affecionado, I was a bit leary. Have to admit it was great fun for both the kids and parents. While baseball is also being played, lacrosse is every bit as popular here. We look forward to Spider lacrosse next year! In fact, someone mentioned to me that they had heard that UR was going to have D1 lacrosse next year; the word spreads rapidly.

 

[AnnapSpider]

I've told a lot of people and unfortunately for some of you I haven't had 1 person say to me that they were sorry to hear about our soccer program. And yes, most of them have been soccer moms and dads.

 

[CarolinaSpider]

Annap, I am sorry as I coached soccer and my son is a college coach now. Frankly, it hurts me to see any college sport eliminated, as there is some young man or woman who have had their sports love jerked out from under them, without most times, any warning.

 

[urfan1]

I'm sure lacrosse people are happy, but regularly hear soccer and track people that are not happy with the decision. I don't recall anyone saying they were upset lacrosse was added, just that it was a travesty that it had to come at the expense of soccer and track. I believe our lacrosse program will be tainted for years, if not forever.

 

[SpiderPhoto]

AnnapSpider - you must be living under a myopic rock. Your world must be full of Lacrosse balls.

 

[AnnapSpider]

You missed interpreted some of what I meant.
I would have loved to see soccer and lacrosse co-exist. And not mentioned, I totally don't understand the decision with the track and field elimination.
But to say that the lacrosse team will be tainted for years makes me wonder-what does that mean? The young men that play for us are not true Spiders?
What was tainted when they dropped wrestling, water polo and some other sports that I can't remember?

It is sad that soccer is gone and track and field is gone, but I know that most of you will be right there rooting on the Spiders when they are playing Virginia next spring.

 

[urfan1]

Do you know of another instance in which we dropped a sport or sports in order to "make room" for others to be added? If so, please let me know because I don't.

 

[SFspidur]

Synchronized swimming was dropped to add women's golf.

 

[urfan1]

Not sure it's fair to compare those two situations, synchro swimming was no longer recognized by the NCAA as a varsity sport (Collegian article 2001) and thus the University dropped it to a club level and brought on women's golf to enhance our chances as scoring points in the Sear's Director's Cup.

 

[WebSpinner]

think the idea here is that no men's sport was dropped to add another men's sport, womens' sports, yes, TITLE IX deals but never dropping men's for another men's, i don't think. big difference.

 

[I-M-UR]

Tainted? You must be kidding, could be the overstatement of the decade. UR made a management decision, I'm surprised they didn't drop track years ago, it was basically a cross country team. Soccer for Lacrosse is an even swap and I bet will eventually out draw soccer games. Both of my kids play soccer but lacrosse is a good spring sport as well. The coaches and players had nothing to do with the decision and I wish them all the success in the world.

 

[urfan1]

I would assume the coaches and players on the club team made their opinions known, still they likely had no more to do with the decision than the track and soccer supporters, like you said it was a management decision made by the administration. I wish the lacrosse coaches and players success in representing the University. As for kidding, not hardly, each person is entitled to their own opinion.

 

[SFspidur]

Synchro has never been an official NCAA sport. It was considered an "emerging sport" by the NCAA at the time, but they dropped it from that list a few years ago due to lack of growth. It's not an exact parallel, but it's at least close. Synchro was dropped because the school wanted to be competitive on a national level in Sears Cup/NCAA play. Sounds a little like dropping "non-competitive" soccer for lacrosse where the admin argues we can be competitive.

And wasn't that a nice goal of being in the Top 100 of Sears Cup schools? Through the winter sports this season, there are 248 schools that have scored Directors Cup points, and we're not one of them.

Last year we placed 194th, scoring points for field hockey, women's swimming, and women's tennis. The year before, we finished 138th, scoring in men's XC, men's hoops, and women's tennis.

 

[spider fan]

Lacrosse is a great sport to watch. All three of my children played high school lacrosse and had a daughter who was briefly on the lacrosse team at Richmond. Now have a daughter coordinating girls' high school lacrosse for Southwest Association of Fairfax County. The fly in the ointment is that men's lacrosse at Richmond was coupled with the death of men's soccer and track and field. Now basically though it is a hard pill to swallow for some the only alternative available is to pull for a successful men's lacrosse team. Definitely have a good coach on board who coached Loyola to the national championship in 2012, That is a major ingredient to building a good program.

 

[62Spider]

Remembering the old expression - "time heals everything" - probably not everything, but I am sure it will work in this situation, and in a very short time - if anything is tainted, and will be remembered for a long time, it will how this administration handled this change.

 

[keefusb]

It doesn't matter....Annap has shown himself to be a soccer hater and has gloated about it multiple times on this board, so no amount of him saying he has been misinterpreted will change the fact that he has already shown his true colors in the matter.

I was a Spider soccer player, but I grew up in suburban Baltimore, played lacrosse at a high level in HS (played for Howard, we used to play St. Paul's, Gilman, Friends, Boys Latin, and would beat them), and even played for the UR LAX club a few times. I have no axe to grind with lacrosse. It is the way the "administration" of our alma mater handled the situation that sucks so much. No one can change that.

Now that we have put the eggs in the LAX basket, I wish our program nothing but success in the future.

 

[62Spider]

Tainted for years, if not forever. Not likely, although I like the level of conviction. The truth is soccer will be only a memory in three years. For me I always wished we had both. Kids who play these sports generally fit very well in the UR academic environment. For love of the game and a free ticket , or simply entrance into a great school (not just UR) is the most they play/work for. They are among the truest of college athletes. We should have them both, but I accept the hard financial truth of this decision. I have a feeling lacrosse can bring more recognition to UR than soccer can.

 

[AnnapSpider]

Keef
Maybe you can go watch Towsos's soccer team.

 

[keefusb]

So why does Annap hate soccer so much? Perhaps a soccer player stole his GF? I don't get it...

 

[AnnapSpider]

I think you can read all of my posts since last year and you will never find anything that says I hate soccer. I just prefer lacrosse and think it is the better sport for the type of students that we attract to Univ. of Richmond.
I'm sorry that I don't agree with you, but when I was one of the charter members of the Spider Lacrosse Club, there was no interest in starting a soccer club. In fact, there was a pretty good rugby club, but I don't even know if that's still around.

 

[urfan1]

don't get personal, it gets out of hand quickly

 

[McSpider67]

Nothing wrong with Lax.

Lots wrong with betryaing curent student athletes who came to UR with knowledge they had an opportunity for sports listed in the catalogues as well as academic majors listed in the catalogue.

Soccer and track did their academics and their sports in a fine balance and had among the best GPA's at UR or any campus. Betrayal smells especially when explanations do not hold water. These young people and their classmates will never forget what happened nor should they. Nor will their parents. Add the resignation of one of the most loyal alumns anywhere from the Board and you have a large, lasting negative.

 

[spiderdukes]

Mcspider67, well said

 

[Spiders05]

Rugby is going very strong. Made the mid Atlantic championships several years in a row. They have moved up to diction 2 and compete against UVA, VCU, VT, JMU, etc. After being on the verge of dying out in 2000, the club is stronger than ever.

 

[AnnapSpider]

Mcspider, how should a school make a change in sports? There have been academic departments closed to offer a new direction.
You can't just gradually close certain areas, unless you have a suggestion?
The school promised to honor any scholarships and help anyone that wanted to transfer. What else could they have done?
When they closed down wrestling and water polo I don't remember all of clammer.

And in regard to the alumnus that resigned from the board. You don't think the fact that his t-shirt company that makes $1,000's off of youth soccer
didn't have any influence? Frankly, he comes off looking like his only reason for supporting the school, that gave him a basketball scholarship by the way, was only used for influence for his businesses.
We still have basketball, Bobby!

 

[urfan1]

Anna--personally I don't think the University should get rid of any sport until the students no longer come out for the teams. As to your camparison with an academic department, that usually occurs when they have trouble filling the classes. Were they having trouble fielding either of those teams? But to answer your question, you could easily continue to sponsor the sport for the four years, let all incoming freshmen know the team is being terminated. Surely the quality fo the team would likely drop, but there is never a quarantee of success. You could simply continue to fill out the rosters with walk -on players. That's all they will do with the Club teams that will replace the dropped sponsored teams. Let's face it neither sport was getting much in the way of financial support from the University, so money was not a big factor. Most importantly, they sould have allowed the stake holders an opportunity to be heard before the decision was made, be represented at the table, and best to have a voice in the decsion.

I recall a number of people that were associated with wrestling and water polo that were quite upset. I guess it depened on what crowd you traveled in. Some remain upset today.

That's a pretty shallow view of Bobby, one who has been one of our most loyal alums, and an ardent supporter of athletics. Your statement shows you don't know the man or the family very well at all.

 

[AnnapSpider]

I apologize for my remarks regarding the alumnus in question. I'm not sure if I'm right or wrong, but I should have kept my thoughts to myself.

In regard to your suggestions on how they could faze a program out, we didn't do it for water polo or wrestling and that was a different administration and different board. Why didn't they do it then? From an ideal situation that you suggest to the obvious practicality of dropping a sport, there's always going to be hurt feelings. That just a fact.

Do you know of any cases where a D-1 program has been dropped by any school in the country by fazing it out? I don't-but I do feel sorry for the soccer players, and still don't understand the track and field decision.

 

[Spidersssssss]

Betrayal smells especially when explanations do not hold water. These young people and their classmates will never forget what happened nor should they. Nor will their parents. Add the resignation of one of the most loyal alumns anywhere from the Board and you have a large, lasting negative.

I asked this a few months ago, did anyone else resign from Board? What is definition of "large lasting negative". Outside of this board, who else is talking about it? The school still had a record number of applicants, and i'm sure the class of 2017 is competitive as ever.


Also, URFan1, I have to disagree w/ your comment about "students going out for team". No one "goes out for a team", w/ the exception of a walk on or two. You can't give a four year window, by the time the window is over, there will be no one left. You can't recruit players, if the know only 3 or 2 or 1 year is left....Unfortunately, there is no good way of cutting a team.

 

[McSpider67]

Suggest reading of The Collegian to get answers to your questions. Plenty other than our board care...they are called curent students. They care for their friends that used to have a team to participate on.

 

[AnnapSpider]

McSpider, I think you are fairly new to this board. I don't know that for a fact, and certainly you're welcomed.
But dealing with this issue of lacrosse vs. soccer/track & field, I don't believe anyone has shown callous to the students, parents
and coaches that have had the rug pulled out from under them. Ideally, we would all love to see all 3 sports co-exist. But from
fiscal practicality it's not going to happen. I'm sorry.

 

[urfan1]

Anna, for those such as yourself that support lacrosse I'm glad we have the men's team. Never have I been opposed to adding men's lacrosse. But, my understanding is the final push for the decision made (eliminate two [actually three] men's sports to add men's lacrosse) was the number of stundent athletes, the 13%, please show me where the decision was a fiscal one instead of a number of student athletes decision. BTW, if it was a fiscal decision, as you say, why didn't the administration offer the stakeholders a chance to raise the needed funds?

 

[McSpider67]

Annap,

No one on the board is callous re: Soccer/Lax.

When you see a Visitors Center on campus in the not too distant future, connect the dots. That is callous.

 

[Spidersssssss]

re: they are called curent students. They care for their friends that used to have a team to participate on.

You mean the ones that love the sport and their friends on play on the team so much, they stayed away in droves from the games?

I guess the answer is 0, to other board members who resigned b/c of this.

I'm not saying this was handled perfectly, but a "large lasting negative", I don't see it.