The Georgia State men’s lacrosse club will resume league play this season for the first time in four years.
The men’s lacrosse club, which is a student organization under the umbrellas of the Office of Student Activities and the Department of Recreational Services, has recently been readmitted into the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) to play in the Southeastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC).
The road back for the club has been rocky at best.
The MCLA is a national organization for men’s lacrosse teams that compete a step below the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It hosts over 200 universities in two divisions organized into 10 different regional conferences, according to the MCLA website.
The last season that the men’s lacrosse club played in the MCLA was in 2010 with the season taking place during the spring semester. Current fifth-year senior and club president, Barry Bean, was a freshman during that season and talked about some of the reasons why the club left the league, which included issues at the league and club levels.
“We dropped out the following year in 2011 because someone in the SELC was embezzling money. It’s still a topic they’re discussing, just trying to account for all the lost money, who they owe, that stuff. We dropped out because of that. It really affected us and we weren’t going to be able to play if we owed money,” Bean said.
The issue was not only at the league level though. The club experienced big issues with both recruiting and retaining members, something Bean says greatly affected the club’s ability to perform competitively.
“The ultimate reason we dropped out was because we weren’t really organized as a club. We had dwindling numbers, we were having a strong issue with recruiting and we thought it would be a better move on our part, instead of staying in the league struggling and looking bad,” Bean said.
Bean explains that the club dropping out at the time would also give it a chance to put itself in a position to return.
“We decided to be responsible and tell the league we wanted to drop out and rebuild. We wanted to use that time to rebuild our program and see where we were at in a few years then try and rejoin,” Bean said.
Working their way back
The club kicked off a massive recruitment drive, going from 12 – 15 active members at their lowest point, to a full roster of 30 – 40 players this year, according to Bean. The Department of Recreational Services was instrumental in helping the club rebuild.
“Ty Verdin [Coordinator for Georgia State Sports Clubs] and the Student Rec Center are always trying to help us out with that, and they have recruitment fairs that they do at the beginning of each semester, and they give the clubs a table where we can market ourselves to students. We did that in the fall and we’ve done it for many years now,” Bean said.
Georgia State currently operates 23 different sports clubs, which all are overseen by Verdin and the Department of Recreational Services. Verdin is quick to emphasize these organizations as completely student-run that operate under the supervision of the Department of Recreational Services with each organization being responsible for their own management, organization and financial matters.
“I’m the professional staff member that has been charged with the duties of overseeing the sports club program, the 23 charter student organizations that are considered sports clubs,” Verdin said. “They are student-run organizations, they do marketing for themselves, have control of budgeting and scheduling games, look to travel to and from games, so all these different aspects of the organization, they are going to take the lead on.”
Return to the league and expectations
The men’s lacrosse club traveled to the annual MCLA national conference meeting this past September to seek reinstatement in the league, a process that involved a presentation to representatives from every team in the league and a vote for reinstatement.
“We made a presentation which we had in front of the entire conference, which was really nerve-wracking,” Bean said. “There were a lot of people. There’s a whole board of executives, grown men who have other jobs. Basically, we got voted back. We’re officially back in.”
The men’s lacrosse club will compete in Division II of the MCLA, in the SELC conference, with its league play beginning this spring semester. Bean is quietly confident of the team’s prospects their first year back in the league, but also wants to temper expectations.
“We have a lot of guys with a ton of experience on offense, we have good team chemistry, and we work well together. We have some big guys, some really physical guys on defense. We have a great goalie. I really think we want to get a winning season, I think that’s my expectation. I hope we blast out of the water and win all these games ideally, but we’ll probably end up with a winning record,” Bean said.
Verdin sees the men’s lacrosse club as an example of what the Department of Recreational Services looks for in a sports club in terms of responsibility and leadership. He was happy to sponsor the club’s league dues in full.
“Lacrosse, they were in this league several years ago, and we’re not able to stay in the league. They had some forfeits. They went a couple years just playing an independent game schedule. They were able to get back in good faith with this league for this year. With them taking the extra steps, and being more responsible, and getting more committed members, we were able to do our part and financially back them to be a part of this league,” said Verdin.
The men’s lacrosse club at Georgia State is excited to rejoin the league and start to proudly represent as Panthers on the field once again.
The schedule and info for the team can be found here
http://mcla.us/team/georgia_state/2015/schedule.html
This website also shows the division standings for the SELC conference which includes Emory, Georgia State, Point, Kennesaw State, Reinhardt, and Wofford. Could be a pullout.
