NAU Lacrosse Team Starting

by **telliott123** on Wed Nov 30, 2005 10:55 am

Hello, my name is Troy Elliott and I am the president of the Northern Arizona Lacrosse Team. I am currently in the process of starting our men's club team. As for a little background, I'm only a freshman but am extremely passionate about the sport. I was recruited on scholarship to NYIT, however turned away the offer as i was invited to play football up here. A few other players and I are trying to get our team going. We have many interested players and as I know it is too late to be entered into a league now, I am looking forward to the following year and hopefully competing other schools at the college level. I have never managed a team before but know many who have and am looking for help in the necessary steps that need to be taken. I look forward to hearing back from someone.

Thank you,
Troy Elliott
President of NAU Lacrosse

**Sponsor**

by **Has No Left** on Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:50 pm

USLacrosse publishes a manual called "Starting a College Club Program". It's put together to start a womens team but most of the concepts apply. It's worth a read anyway. As this is a restart of the NAU program, perhaps someone can chime in with some history on the old program - it's always worthwhile to know if there are any landmines before you meet with Campus Recreation!

http://www.uslacrosse.org/programs/pdf/collegeclub_startmanual.pdf

by **John Westfall** on Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:10 pm

Hey Troy:

I'm moving from the Southeast back home to New Mexico right after the first of the year and I'm one of the Guys helping to put U of New Mexico's Team back together again. We plan to join the Rocky Mountain Conference next year. In September I attended this years Conference meeting in Durango.CO. The RMLC really is a great organization.

I recently had a major Surgery but I'm close to a full recovery. I have coached back east and in the RMLC and would be happy to help you out with any organizational issues you may have and hope to develop a strong relationship between the two programs. We at UNM are going through the same stuff that you are going through at NAU. New Mexico is also looking to pick up maybe a Home and Away game with NAU in 2006. You can contact me on my E-mail at johnwestfall5@juno.com. Also feel free to PM me here on the USLIA Board.

I coached New Mexico in the early mid 90's and we played NAU in the Dome in Flagstaff. It sure was a nice place to play a Lacrosse game.

All the best,

by **John Westfall** on Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:02 am

Troy:

I did a PM to you on the schedule. Get back to me when you can.

by **Bubba 18** on Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:20 pm

I had a cousin who went to NAU. Go Lumberjacks... I already can see a pretty sweet helmet sticker in the making of a lumberjack with his axe replaced by a longpole... SWEET! good luck with the team.

by **Has No Left** on Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:36 am

Like this one!

http://www.portlandjax.com/mascot.php

by **Ute Coach** on Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:50 am

Troy,

You are in a beautiful part of the country and I think your selection of school is a great one. As Coach Westfall has eluded, there are several new programs in our region "on the cusp" this year. I'm sure you will find some of them interested in meeting for a contest.

Here are afew leads.

UNLV (Las Vegas)
Robert Handsfield
President, UNLV Lacrosse
president@unlvlacrosse.com
http://www.unlvlacrosse.com

These guys run a fun tourney in the end of October each year but are struggling to get more than 20 players committed to travel. However, Las Vegas HS lax is starting to boom and I suspect they will overflowing with talent soon.

Westminster Colege (Salt Lake City)
Chris Morin
Player Advocate
cjm0627@westminstercollege.edu

A program that hasn't played a game yet but I expect them to announce a team for the 2007 season and begin recruiting from the HS pool in SLC immediately. They have a core group of 15 - 20 kids at the school now who are eager to play someone else this spring

Weber State University (Ogden UT)
Tyler Aikens
WarriorMid12@aol.com
Like NAU, this school once competed in the RMLC. They folded a few years back and Tyler is about to get them back in action. I expect them to enter the RMLC with Westminster for the 2007 season.

Of course you know Ft Lewis College in Durango, CO and Western State in Gunnison CO are full fledged members of the RMLC. Their contact information can be attained from the Rocky Mtn Confernce web site www.rmlax.com

Coordinating officials will be tricky as the crews we employ are already very busy in the main spring season (March/April). As an "outsider" you may not find a lot of support on the busy weekends of the spring. Never the less, the officals are enthusiastic about the growth of the game and usually do their best to find a way to help you out. The key is to be reliable in communication of scheduling needs and changes to the schedule and to make sure there are no hassles when it comes to paying the officials for their fees and travel expenses.

The Chief of Officials for the RMLC is Anton Shulzki (a_schulzki@msn.com). We also have a local ref coodinator in SLC who may be able to assign some HS refs if you travel to SLC for a weekend this spring. (Grant Nielsen, gniel20002003@yahoo.com).

Finally, the RMLC President, John Robinette, (Robinetteja@ci.durango.co.us), has worked with several new programs over the year and can give you a glimpse of the challenges you will face as you seek to organize your club. He can probably supply you with a sample budget for a season in our league so you can get a handle on the toughest part of this operation, the financial one.

Good luck! - MASE

by **SDSULAX** on Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:33 am

I hate to be the bearer of bad news while I applaud your endeavor, NAU still has some unfinished business with the WCLL( that landmine that was alluded to). If that cannot be resolved I don't believe it would be possible for you to belong in any conference in the MDIA in accordance with MDIA bylaws. Feel free to PM me for the details and points of contact.

by **John Westfall** on Fri Jan 20, 2006 10:29 pm

Craig:

Give it a rest. Do you really think these Guys have anything to do with the Team at NAU that messed up 10 years ago? NAU was thrown out of the WCLL in the 1996 season. They ended up coming back in the USL MDIA a few years later in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference. If there are still things that the WCLL wants to hold over a group of kids that had nothing to do with the mess in 96. I'm sure the administrators of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference can review the WCLL claims and something can be worked out.

In the interim let's encourage these kids to build a program at NAU and not hang them on some bad history that they knew nothing about.

The Lobo is on the Mountain!

All the best,

John