LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

As all of you are aware WSU is hoping to become part of the 2008 season. I was wondering if there is anything any of you teams would recommend to help prepare for a season in the PNCLL. We are all excited to play more teams next year and good luck to Ducks, Viks, and Griz.

START PREPARING YOUR BUDGET NOW!!! that has always been a huge help for us. Also try and find out everything that you need to go through with the school to maintain your club status for next year, what you need to fill out for travel, what you need to go through to access your team's funds. We also have found it beneficial to have an amount set for team dues now, and to have a firm due date for them in the early part of next fall so that guys have the next six months or so to save up the money to pay. That way you can have money to play in fall ball tourneys and you can get a good idea of what fundraising/school help you will need to reach the budget you should be making now. P.M. if you want, because i could go for days and i don't want to ramble of the public forum, but i would be happy to help you get prepared for next year.

Also, because it was Boise States first year in the PNCLL last year we were required to play all of our games on the road. So it is important that if this is the same for you that you budget for a lot of travel and hotel rooms.

Our school has a host hotel that offers hotel rooms for something like $53 a day or somthing close. So when traveling see if the school you are playing has a host hotel reducing the cost.

first and foremost, get a coach, preferably not a player. Even if the person doesn't know much about lacrosse, it is good to have someone that is there, has control and has to be respected by all the players.

WSU and Idaho are only 8 miles apart. This will be nice for teams traveling long distances!

get access to your stadium again... night games in that place were sweet.

otherwise, compete in fall ball so other teams will have a better idea for your organization before the fall meeting and can vouch for you there... if you have any guys that want to get on a team for the McCall tourney in August let me know. I also second what Shawn at Boise said, that may have been the deciding factor in getting BSU into the PNCLL.

and start lookin into your guy's eligibility. I don't know if the games and stuff you have been doing this year count, but that is stuff you need to figure out, so when you do get in, you don't get dq'ed for having ineligible players

I'm pretty sure that any intercollegiate games your players played in while representing your university, MCLA sanctioned or not, count against your players' eligibility. I recall reading this somewhere. Make sure you get this squared away.


Alan Colombo
CWU Lacrosse Alumni
'04-'07

well we already got a coach. A former player who has lost eligibility and is still around. So we are set on that, but from what we here that is the big first step so thanks brauck

Also, how do you look into eligibility? And to respond to Montana thanks for the invite, but Idaho already talked to us about putting together a border team. We have some guys that will be joining up with them it looks like.

nlyon02 wrote:Also, how do you look into eligibility?

Good question. This reminds me of a great movie line. In "Broadcast News" a reporter is being given a chance to anchor the weekend news broadcast, his big break. The Producer tells him to "prepare carefully" and the reporter responds "Prepare what? You happen to have Saturday's news handy?"

If WSU is re-admitted to the PNCLL, the Cougs will be governed by the same rules as the rest of us, namely that players will be full-time undergrads taking a minimum of twelve credits in the semester or trimester that begins after January 1, 2008, and maintain that course load through the lacrosse season. The only exception is for Seniors, who only need to take enough courses (or a single course) to graduate immediately following their final semester and the lacrosse season. There's nothing to check into on this now, only teams playing in Dallas are being roster-checked for 2007.

The other half of the eligibility equation is number of seasons played, which is limited to four. Playing lacrosse for any team or club affiliated with any college or junior college counts as a season played. It doesn't matter whether your team played in a sanctioned league or not. Western Washington learned this rule the hard way in their first season back in the PNCLL the year after being expelled. But now we all know the rule and if you can count to four there really isn't much "looking into" needed.

It will be good to have Wazzou back in the fold, and I personally hope it comes to pass. But speaking as an Executive Board member of the PNCLL I'll go on record here with my official position as expressing doubts about an ineligible player being an acceptable choice for the Head Coach of a team applying for admission to the PNCLL. When the team in question is actually re-applying for admission after leaving the conference under a cloud in the first place, it is expected that the spirit of our PNCLL Guidelines as well as their literal interpretation be met. WSU will need to have a real, non-playing adult Head Coach, one who lives in Pullman or a nearby town. The membership of the league expects to be allowed to have a "Q & A" with this Head Coach at the Annual General Meeting before voting on a team's re-admission.

If Jake Randolph and others of the WSU student leadership group want to PM me or PNCLL President Jason Stockton, we'd be happy to assist with the search for a permanent coach for Wazzou. Everyone applauds the efforts this new group of students has made to resurrect Cougar Lacrosse, and we have taken note that the university has restored your club to full status. I personally miss the lacrosse Apple Cup. But we on the EB have stated flatly that our official position is that any team applying for admission to the PNCLL have an adult, non-playing coach. In the case of WSU we want to be reassured that there is adequate short-term AND long-range planning being considered to maintain Cougar Lax as a viable member of the league. A local Pullman resident who coaches football, basketball or soccer could be recruited (and paid!), and this person could then be assisted by an ineligble lacrosse player, by a grad student, or by someone like WSU-alum Ryan Kelly, coach of Seattle's Garfield High School. And I'm sure Ryan Hanavan at nearby Idaho can and will help, if asked.

Isn't Montana coached by a grad student from Florida? Is it only because they are already in the league that it doesn't matter that their choice of coach might not be int he "spirit" of the MCLA rules? What about Lewis and Clark with their student-coach, or Whitman this year using a grad student?

This seems like a bit of a double standard to me.

It is kind of a double standard, but the reason is we did not prove ourselves three/four years ago with a student coach. Lack of leadership is the reason for the fall. So I agree with you, but understand the leagues reasoning.

Steno wrote:Isn't Montana coached by a grad student from Florida? Is it only because they are already in the league that it doesn't matter that their choice of coach might not be int he "spirit" of the MCLA rules? What about Lewis and Clark with their student-coach, or Whitman this year using a grad student?

This seems like a bit of a double standard to me.

You are correct, there is a difference between a PNCLL club in good standing and a new team applying for admission. I don't care to air all our dirty laundry in public about how WSU left the PNCLL, but let's take your team instead, since you brought Whitman up. Your program has been a club in good-standing in the PNCLL since it's inception. Yes, we applied a "double-standard" and did not hold Coach Schmitz's '06 heart attack against you guys in '07, as the Missionaries continued to meet all your financial and playing responsibilities. You want to criticize us -- including Dave himself -- for acting humanely and in the club's best interests? Remember that Coach Schmitz is a member of the EB and has never stepped down from that position, even if he couldn't coach the team in '07, he's still involved as a leader of Whitman Lacrosse. And the PNCLL.

You want to criticize us -- including Dave himself -- for acting humanely and in the club's best interests?

Well, I don't know where I was criticizing in my last inquiry, but it is an interesting way to spin my words. No need to change a clarifying question into fightin' words.

I wish WSU the best of luck.