After being instated in 1985, the men’s lacrosse team had to shut their program down due to financial issues in 2010. Now the team is back and stronger than ever and they are ready to do what it takes to compete in conference.
“We were forced to forfeit a season because the 2010 team saw fit not to pay their dues, leaving us in debt to the league until ASUPS assisted us in later 2010,” senior Brendan Witt said.
Now, with two new coaches and a whole set of new player who are ready to make the commitment, the Loggers have already made a great showing in tournaments.
The Northwest offers a wide range of great opportunities to play great competition.
“Western Oregon and Portland consistently vie for bids to the national tournament,” Witt said. However, since the men’s lacrosse team is not a varsity sport, they also have slight disadvantages in comparison to larger programs.
“The most noticeable difference between varsity and club teams that we see is the support from the athletic department. While this year the athletic department has been more supportive than ever, we still do not have access to training facilities or trainers to tape and prepare our athletes, [we] have lower priority over field usage and are funded completely by ASUPS and our own players’ dues. While this puts us at a slight disadvantage, it also allows us a freedom and flexibility that we enjoy,” Witt explained.
This past weekend the Loggers played in a tournament in Portland. After going 3-3 in the tournament, the Loggers can officially say that they have made an improvement from last year.
“Overall on the weekend we were 3-3 and could not walk out of the stadium without teams stopping us to complement the turn around and our players’ performance over the weekend,” Witt said.
In the previous season, the Loggers went 0-8, so this is an obvious improvement.
“This tournament was good. It gave us a really good idea of where we stand in our league. Since it’s the first time we played together as a unit, we definitely were rough around the edges, but we did well and learned a lot about each other from an athletic standpoint,” senior Geoff Nielsen said.
For those who are interested, there is still time to try out for the team. All levels of talent are welcomed; even those who have not played are encouraged to come check it out. Those who are interested should e-mail Brendan Witt (bwitt@ups.edu), Bryan Fong (bfong@ups.edu) or Geoff Nielsen (gnielsen@ups.edu) for information.