Future of the UMLL

[msum26]

I have a buddy that attends Gustavus. He told me that he has heard rumblings of a team starting again. I'm not sure on the process or how far along it has come but to agree with chris he said a lot of guys were tentative because of cost.

They just need to hit up Kofi Annan for some of that "Oil for Food" free money. He should have enough to share as he directed millions to his son.

Yeah i think i will have my buddy just drop Kofi an email or a phone call and tell him to share the wealth! On the other maybe I should do that for us as well. Wait we arent a MIAC school.

On a serious note i would agree with Adam on the Madison case. I'm sure that they dont have a huge problem with monatary issues just prefer playing in a league that has less of a committment. I know for a school like us we couldnt play in a league like the GLLL, etc. We have a hard enough time trying to get money from the school, by playing in the UMLL, as well as i have trouble trying to hunt down my players for back dues. It always seems to come back to either money issues for teams or just the general want to stay a level they are comfortable with and has less of a committment although still very much competitive.

[Sonny]

Madison won't field an MCLA team anytime soon. I have friends who play and have played for them and what it boils down to is that the guys don't want that level of commitment. The GLLL's open eligibility is a huge plus for teams that can't (or don't want to) field a consistent team for each game. Those guys just love to play, and if they have a chance they'll take it... and can you blame them for it? Every couple of years they'll have a vote to see if they should make a bid for the MCLA, and year in and out the outcome is the same: stay GLLL.

Read this whole long thread from a year and a half ago:
http://forums.collegelax.us/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

Should give you a mind set of some of the folks running the UW program in Madison.

[Pinball]

i could care less about UW- Madison. I am looking more at the other UW schools. Word on the street is UW-Whitewater beat UW-Madison in the GLLL for the first non-madison win ever.

/end talk on madison, they are not thought of as having any future in the UMLL

[henrij4]

To put forth pinball's first comment about making the umll a better league I agree. but with the bylaws of our conference the change will be harder than thought. With the UW madison issue let it go they have made it clear that they are fine where they are at and don't wish to change it very soon. The fact that as admin and coaches in the umll will to better the quality of play from our league. The more experience that comes will make every program better.

[LaxTV_Admin]

Madison won't field an MCLA team anytime soon. I have friends who play and have played for them and what it boils down to is that the guys don't want that level of commitment. The GLLL's open eligibility is a huge plus for teams that can't (or don't want to) field a consistent team for each game. Those guys just love to play, and if they have a chance they'll take it... and can you blame them for it? Every couple of years they'll have a vote to see if they should make a bid for the MCLA, and year in and out the outcome is the same: stay GLLL.

Read this whole long thread from a year and a half ago:
http://forums.collegelax.us/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

Should give you a mind set of some of the folks running the UW program in Madison.

Sonny, that is 30 minutes of my life I will never get back. Thanks

[Sonny]

Madison won't field an MCLA team anytime soon. I have friends who play and have played for them and what it boils down to is that the guys don't want that level of commitment. The GLLL's open eligibility is a huge plus for teams that can't (or don't want to) field a consistent team for each game. Those guys just love to play, and if they have a chance they'll take it... and can you blame them for it? Every couple of years they'll have a vote to see if they should make a bid for the MCLA, and year in and out the outcome is the same: stay GLLL.

Read this whole long thread from a year and a half ago:
http://forums.collegelax.us/viewtopic.p ... highlight=

Should give you a mind set of some of the folks running the UW program in Madison.

Sonny, that is 30 minutes of my life I will never get back. Thanks

At CollegeLAX, we aim to please. You aim too, please!

[DwinsChamps]

Word on the street is UW-Whitewater beat UW-Madison in the GLLL for the first non-madison win ever.

That was UW-Platteville who beat Madison, which was without some significant players and had already beaten UW-P handily earlier in the year.

My treasurer buddy with the UW-Whitewater club expects them to make a push to the UMLL within 1 to 2 years. UW-Milwaukee shouldn't be far behind.

[whitcd]

It would be great for the league to expand more into Wisconsin. Only teams we have Point, Eau Claire, and MU. I think UMLL as a whole, the greatest expansion to happen is with the Wisconsin schools that that already have a lax team currently in the GLLL. Although I know nothing about these teams...We invited a lot of them to our Fall tournament in Mankato in 2005 and the only team that responded was UW-Lacrosse.

But come time for them to play a game..they didnt show up. They emailed me 9am game day saying that they couldn't get enough players to show up. I was already on the field getting it ready, no idea about them not showing up even though I gave them my phone number. Major props to UST to step in and take the extra game and us for taking on the extra two games to make sure everyone had three games.

I think we would like to expand our tournament to these teams just to get a taste of UMLL, but for them not to show up is discouraging.

EDIT: My mistake about Marquette U.

[LaxRef]

Only teams we have Point and Eau Claire.

Last time I checked (12 seconds ago), Marquette was in the UMLL.

[Hunt]

Only teams we have Point and Eau Claire.

Last time I checked (12 seconds ago), Marquette was in the UMLL.

Thank's LaxRef, I would have thought people in our league understood geography better.

Marquette University is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Marquette, the city, is in Michigan. Whitcd, where did you think we were? Canada?

[Hunt]

Anyway to discuss a few Wisconsin schools, it's amazing to see how Wisconsin is starting to grow now from the youth level. I know the number of high school lacrosse teams in Wisconsin, and especially the Milwaukee and Madison areas, has grown a great deal in the past four years. We at Marquette are getting more and more guys from in-state coming to play for us with prior experience. A few of our players are coaching youth in the Milwaukee area as well, and many of us have been part of training sessions for younger kids that are just learning the game. In fact, one of our guys is coaching a U-16 Milwaukee select team now, which recently went 3-1 in a tournament in Kalamazoo, MI.

Growing up in Minnesota it's been awesome to see the growth there, from the youth to the high school to the college level. And now it's interesting to see the same thing starting in Wisconsin. I believe that in the next 5 years there will definitely be more and more great talent coming into the league from that state (we've already had a few guys like that). And this goes back to the point that hopefully some of these Wisconsin state schools will be ready to take their teams to the next level in playing lacrosse by joining the UMLL, because - and no offense to the GLLL - this league is just set up for a whole different level of competitive play.

It would be great to see teams like UW-Whitewater, UW-Platteville, and UW-Milwaukee take the next step - they've all had success in the GLLL, and might fit well in the UMLL. And I know I'm leaving out more than a few schools in other people's minds that would fit, too.

My question would be, then, is the midwest growing faster than most other regions of the country, or are we average when talking about growth? Because it seems like the answer to that question will lead us to a conclusion about where our league is headed.