Northwestern

[Bluevelvet]

Hey- What ever happened to Northwestern? They were threatening to quit if they had to play in the A division. Is that what happened?

[bste_lax]

I believe they quit for a mixture of reasons. That was one of them. Also, they are like Madison as they didn't like all the costs, rules and time commitments to USL MDIA. I could be totally wrong and I know the NU Coach is registered and still checks this from time to time so I will let him chime in but my feeling I always got from playing in the area and hearing from word of mouth was for those reasons.

I believe they joined the league with Madison and other small Wisconsin schools that plays in a much more laid back league.

[John Paul]

It's too bad. Back in the old days when I was playing at Michigan the Big Ten Lacrosse League tournament was usually at Northwestern, with the finals often at their football stadium. Our biggest rival back then was Wisconsin. It's a shame neither of those schools have taken the next step. Wisconsin especially has a ton of potential.

[bste_lax]

John, did you ever play any of those games at NU at their field hockey fields? We played their my freshmen year and it was pretty cool playing right along Lake Michigan.

[John Paul]

They weren't there back then. We played our early round games on fields that were along the lake, but they were just fields laid out in a quad with paths around them. In fact, I have a photo up in my office of a couple of my teammates and I celebrating a Big Ten Championship on those fields in 92.

My first year coaching here we played Northwestern on the turf field you're talking about. That would have been in 97.

[cjwilhelmi]

We had this discussion on the old message board. Northwestern dropped out over different ideas about how club teams should be. They went in the direction that they felt benefited their team and their wants and desires. This different desire had some reasoning in the cost, travel and equipment issues that it takes to play in the MDIA. If my memory serves me right, the issue wasn't necessarily having to play Div A, but it was a factor that they weighed in.

Last time I checked with them they are playing in a league similar to the NCLL along with Wisconsin.

[bste_lax]

GLLC = Great Lakes Lacrosse Conference. Here is last year's lax power page showing who played in it last year:

http://www.laxpower.com/update04/other/rating09.php

[Andy Sharp]

Back on Feb. 4/5 when Calvin went to play up at Northern Michigan (GLLC team) Northwestern was expected to be one of the teams. It was passed on to me that within a day or two of the tourney NU backed out, suggesting "a lack of players" for the trip. Thankfully, the NMU organizers scrambled and found the upstart Michigan Tech team to step in.

I expect Calvin to make a 3rd trip in a row up to the Superior Dome next year to hopefully play more OOC games with UMLL-B teams or others. It was nice to have the opportunity to play "un-official" games as well, where we could get everyone playing full-field in February without a real win/loss on the line. We had a fun time in da UP, eh, we'll go back.

FYI: The NMU team did repectably, I believe going 3-1, on the weekend.

[beckner11]

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong (or maybe its just a GRLC rule) but I thought we weren't allowed to schedule games against non-MDIA teams?
Regardless, the more lacrosse being played, the better! Nice work Calvin.

[John Paul]

You may schedule against whoever you like. The MDIA has never had a rule against scheduling non-MDIA club teams.

[culax]

john paul, i was coaching at northwestern when you played us on the field hockey's team astro turf. i remember the game well. it was the first lacrosse game my wife (girlfriend at the time) ever attended. michigan won convincingly (maybe 20 to 5) and my wife thought i wasn't a very good coach.

[mizzou dad]

I noticed that Southeast Missouri (Cape Girardeau) folded their club.

Seems to me that a number of teams would have liked to stay in the lower (B) league, rather than being forced to join the A league just because of student population.

Don't have a contact with those teams.

Just the comments read on this site gave me the feeling of ... " man we are really going somewhere we really don't want to be" ...

[NULax Coach]

As far as the status of the Northwestern team (and I hope this is the last time we have to go through this), we decided to break off our association with the GRLC and USLMDIA for basically the reasons mentioned here by Matt and Corbin. We enjoyed our time in th GRLC and had a blast in last year's tournament but decided that the directions the USLMDIA is moving are not the directions we wish to move as a club at this time. Regarding ths NMU tournament, we were never committed to attending that tournament and I am not sure where the rumor of our participation came from. We are looking forward to our initial season in the GLLC and wish all of you best of luck in your USLMDIA seasons. Feel free to send me a private message or email if you wish to discuss this further.

[beckner11]

I noticed that Southeast Missouri (Cape Girardeau) folded their club.

Seems to me that a number of teams would have liked to stay in the lower (B) league, rather than being forced to join the A league just because of student population.

SEMO wouldn't have been forced to move up to D-A because their football team isn't Div. 1-A. I believe that if my sources are accurate, they folded due to lack of interest in playing this year. Its hard to compete with only about 13 guys willing to pay and play.