Michigan Lacrosse Coach John Paul
I don’t want to turn this into the official blog of “Will Michigan go varsity?” (eh, I’m not fooling anybody, but “want to” and “should” are different things), but when it’s covered in the mainstream media, who am I to ignore?
The latest offering comes from the Detroit News’s John Niyo, and he gets the closest thing to an actual timeline that we’ve heard from an official source:
And although Brandon and Paul insist it’s too early to celebrate, with necessary financial commitments yet to be secured, an announcement could come next month. Varsity lacrosse beginning in the spring of 2013?
“It’s exciting and I’m hopeful, but it’s not a done deal yet,” Brandon said. “We have to finish the task, and that is to get the resources we need to make it happen.”
I’ve said (as recently as, uh, three days ago) that I think an announcement could come before the end of the MCLA season, and this article seems to confirm that it’s at least a possibility.
The rest is mostly as-expected if you’ve been following this story, aside from a question of facilities:
In fact, when I asked him about the facilities plan going forward — lacrosse makes its home now in busy Oosterbaan Field House, although sometimes that means they get to practice at 11 p.m. — Brandon said “we would be talking about building some kind of a lacrosse field or stadium. That would be the next step, and that comes later. But not too much later.”
I had been operating under the assumption that lacrosse would likely see a home on the beautiful UM Soccer Stadium, but it sounds as though – at least in the long-term plans, that’s not the idea.