LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

SJU beat St. Thomas to win the B bracket
Minneapolis Lakers (former team debeer) beat Duluth to with the A bracket

-madison's A team looked impressive (but supposedly they are mostly grad students, who wouldnt be eligible)
- The U of M were missing some of their attackman (jbizzle??)
- Duluth looked strong as ushual
- Bethel now has coaches which could lead them into a great team
- uw-stout still has a few years till it will join the UMLL
- UST's middies are very strong and very good
- Eau Claires numbers are way up and they are looking good

It was not that cold out and quite pleasent for most of the tourney.

me and Haugen were gone this weekend. As we have class and other stuff so we do not make practices much and it would have been unfair to walk in and play. Once we move indoors though we will both be back to playing and tearin' it up.

Madison A team left the tournament before they would play the UofM in the championship round 3rd place game. I am unsure if they had originally told the organizers that they wouldn't be there for that game, or if they decided to leave because they wouldn't be playing for 1rst place or just didn't want to play the Gophers (who looked quite good - Having Al and Matt at defense is a nice place to start!). Some random thoughts.

UW's A team was almost all grads/grad students, with a couple exceptions.

This should be very improved year for the B division - St. Thomas and St. Johns have set the bar, and many of the other B teams are working hard to meet it - especially Carleton, Bethel and UWEC.

The Minneapolis Men's club has improved with the addition of some recent UMLL grads (Eugene Zevelev, Dan O'Donnell and Cory Rada to name a few.)

The Lakers - without Sean Pierce and Frank Clark, but with MLL all-star Kevin Levelle - were quite good. Our one goal loss to them taught us many important lessons about lacrosse. We tip our cap to them and wish them well.

Rob

The Hot Dish was a lot of fun. Thanks to Mark and co. for all the hard work putting such a nice tournament together. UMD looked sharp for fall ball, putting a bit of a scare in to the Lakers. The pro was a fun guy to watch, and a nightmare to contain. You should not be able to see cutters out of the back of your helmet.

The formatting would screw the post up, but check out Wisconsin's roster! http://lax.rso.wisc.edu/roster.shtml I'm not sure if the column marked # refers to jersey's, years experience, or years on the planet.

I'm all about providing opportunities for (ahem!) us older folks to play lacrosse, but after seeing the gentlemen from Wisconsin in person, I'd have to question the accuracy of calling it a "college" team. A men's club team is probably a more accurate term.

Over the years, I've noticed a tendency for Wisconsin to hit the road prior to end of their scheduled games. I was pleased Minneapolis was there to pick up Wisconsin's slack, as getting an "extra" game in while the weather held up was nice. I certainly wouldn't consider leaving early a slap in the face, but it doesn't make me very happy either.

On a more important subject, is there any word on how Pete's doing?

Adam Gamradt
Minnesota Lacrosse

Adam:

Thanks for asking about Pete.

He's fine now.

We appreciate your concern, as well as that of the others that have contacted me today about him.

Rob

what happened to Pete?

UWEC is working hard to improve this year. We have higher expectations for our team. We are looking much better than last year.

Thanks for the comments.

Noah

I just wanted to say that U of Wisconsin's team only had one grad student playing and he was our 2nd string long pole. Not sure why you seem to think otherwise. On another note we left because a lot of people had midterms the next morning and needed to get to the library before midnight. The teams in the tourny looked solid and we appreciate being invited.

How about that Duluth Alumni team?

Wisclax wrote:I just wanted to say that U of Wisconsin's team only had one grad student playing and he was our 2nd string long pole. Not sure why you seem to think otherwise. On another note we left because a lot of people had midterms the next morning and needed to get to the library before midnight. The teams in the tourny looked solid and we appreciate being invited.

Then why has their always been a lack of interest in joining the UMLL then?? We have always heard that you did not want to join because of the "strict" eligibity requirements. I do not see how it could be fun to play a bunch unorganized teams thats eventual goal is to join the USLIA. From what i have heard Wisc-Madison just mops the floor with every team in the GLLC and when those teams have proper leadership and funding (which madison has) they just leave to join a league with playoffs, competition, and a national championship(st. marys, Carelton, etc). I am just confused by it all.

Well there has been talk about joining the UMLL in recent years but ....
We get little to no funding form the school so our team is 95% self supported. We figured it would cost a lot per person to join. We don't have access to many details like the use of school vans, athletic trainer, indoor facilities. All clubs at UW-Mad are self run, self supported. Plus when you first join the league you are travelling to away games most of the time and on some sort of probation( not sure the details). Basically it would be a real pain to join for the first couple of years and then it would be easier on us. It is just going to take the right group to want to go over that hump. Until then we are usually found at your local bar or strip club the nights before games.

Wisclax wrote:Well there has been talk about joining the UMLL in recent years but ....
We get little to no funding form the school so our team is 95% self supported.

I think you'd be surprised at the range of university funding among team in the UMLL. As an example, my last season coaching at Minnesota, we operated on a budget approaching $60000 and received $2200 from the university (3.6%). The guys worked hard to fundraise and still paid a lot of $$ out of pocket.

All UMLL teams are student run although some coaches have more input or connection to their universities.

It is a big leap to make and might be best if your team transitioned into the new financial culture over time. Maybe raise dues incrementally the next couple of years until you get to the point you can meet the financial obligations. As an aside, one way to generate more institutional support dollars is to demonstrate a need.

If, after attempting this, your team decides the UMLL/MDIA isn't right, you'll, at a minimum, have a warchest you can use to support the team.

One advantage to our money handling is that once you pay league fees, we never ask you again for money. Your USLacrosse certified refs are paid, your facilities are paid, your championship tournament entry is paid. I'm not familiar enough with GLLC policies to know if this is different.

There is no true probation. Some new teams feel like it though because of the increased travel demands. I think Madison is in a unique situationwithin the GLLC (you have decent facilities and are centrally located in the conference) in that you play a lot of your games at home than you might in the UMLL.

I think the UMLL and MDIA are outstanding organizations that offer a unique playing experience to their students. The GLLC provides a different experience that it's members obviously find valuable. Somewhere down the road these philosophies may find more common ground. Until then it's great that institutions have either opportunity from which to choose.

Wisclax wrote:We get little to no funding form the school so our team is 95% self supported.

That is no different then the vast majority of the ~200 MDIA teams across the country.

The amount per team to play in the GLLC is significantly cheaper. Some of the bigger differentials between the leagues is more along the lines of uniforms. Some of the GLLC teams do not really have a uniform. Also the matching colors issue is there. I will be honest with regards to the teams in the GLLC compared to the UMLL. Wisconsin is good, but overall the level of lacrosse is below many of the teams in the UMLL. I think the issue with many of these teams is the ability to find experienced players. I have seen times when basic rules had to be explained to GLLC teams. When the GLLC sees more experienced players from the HS ranks it will improve. Remember where many of these teams were 4 years ago. SJU was a joke, but now they are legit.

I would also question whether it is ever wise to leave a tournament early. Playing in any tournament is a commitment. If you leave early then you should be ashamed of yourself. I am not arguing the Wisconsin reasons, but they should have made it clear early on to the organizers.

TexOle wrote:The amount per team to play in the GLLC is significantly cheaper.

Sometimes you get what you pay for.

TexOle wrote:Some of the bigger differentials between the leagues is more along the lines of uniforms. Some of the GLLC teams do not really have a uniform. Also the matching colors issue is there.

Virtually every MDIA conference that has grown over the last 5 - 8 years has dealt successfully with the uniform compliance issues. Gloves can be spraypainted and if you can't get 25 kids in the same color shorts or jerseys, most likely you have bigger issues to consider. It is really a non-issue in my book.