It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Michigan’s promotion to varsity, what with the MHSAA playoffs heating up over the past week or so. Let’s get back into it:
Michigan Lacrosse Head Coach John Paul
The Michigan Daily (UM’s student newspaper) sat down with Michigan coach John Paul to talk about the growth of the game, the future of Michigan lacrosse, and much, much more!
“What has happened here is serendipity,” Paul said. “We’ve had so many things come together at once. The growth in the game nationally and regionally was a key component and without that, there wouldn’t have been much interest in doing this.”
And what is he expecting for the near future?
“We go from a program that’s 76-2 over the last four years to a program that realistically is going to struggle for a few years as we build our talent base up to an elite level,” Paul said. “That’s going to take some time.”
412 Lax reacts to the article:
How long is it going to take Michigan to compete? They say they won’t have an elite recruiting class until 2013 because of early verbal commitments, but verbals can be broken and transfers can build up their roster faster than expected… And finally, a question I’ve been asking since the official jump, can this model be followed by other MCLA teams? Is booster money the path to the NCAA?
He also ruminates no what the loss of Michigan means for the MCLA.
Bonus Links
Want to play some lacrosse in the Siverdome? You, too, can have this honor for a mere 800 bucks. The Growth Blog takes a (brief) look at how first-year programs performed in 2011. As we already know, the only new D-1 program, Mercer, went winless in intra-division play. Lacrosse continues to grow, and the Wall Street Journal notes that growth is even happening on the East Coast, traditionally considered a well-developed hotbed. The official UDM website takes a look at the Titans’ improvement from 2010 to 2011.
Wow ! The club lacrosse team at UM back in the day was pretty good lacrosse(with a bunch of kids that never played high school lacrosse) , but nothing like the MCLA today? The MCLA top teams maybe play at a DIII level. Any legit DI recruit looking at this is going to scratching his head wondering if this guys understands what he is getting himself into. He has to lose the mind set that the MCLA is college lacrosse. Its club, no comparison to what he will be coaching in the coming years at the DI level.
Yes we get it, you don’t think John Paul is qualified to coach a Division-1 team. Repeating it ad nauseam doesn’t make it any more right.