I strongly support keeping as many non-revenue sports as possible. When I was a student I always thought my most impressive classmates were the non-revenue athletes. Disciplined achievers who were a credit to the school.

Each year when I make my contribution to the Tribe Club, I am always tempted to specify my gift to "airline tickets that allow us to recruit a 6'11", 245 lb. wunderkind from overseas to play center" but I always back off to make the gift unrestricted.

Unfortunately for we die-hard fans of W&M sports, our athletics are an adjunct to the school, not the other way around.

I could never get my VCU friends to understand that.

(02-29-2016 11:30 AM)tribeinexile Wrote:  I could never get my VCU friends to understand that.

did you try communicating with pretty pictures, random noises, and hand gestures?

(02-29-2016 11:30 AM)tribeinexile Wrote:  ...my VCU friends...

Explains the exile handle.

Only thing I could do. I am relatively immune to Gamecock, Tiger, Cougar and Bulldog jibberish but I had lost my immunity to the strains extant in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

At CofC we have been talking about lacrosse for a while. It is a fast-growing sport, especially in South Carolina. They just sanctioned it about 5 years ago and already there are college recruits from there. There's usually 45-50 schools. Our student population, a lot of which are people from the northeast who play a lot of lacrosse, I feel would enjoy having the sport here.

The problem is that we had to drop swimming last year. A lot of people were angry about that. But lacrosse is such a fast growing sport in the South, and there's not really a school south of NC except for JU, Furman, and Mercer.

I feel The Citadel or CofC starting a lacrosse program would be great for the sport in this part of the country. But college baseball has such a hold in this area. Lacrosse would struggle to get a lot of media coverage in this region with all the good college baseball.

William & Mary should look at starting to raise some money to restart a team.

This is a really stupid question: how many varsity sports does W&M offer?

If you google that question it takes you to a wm.edu page that claims we offer 23. That page links to the Tribe Athletics page that shows 21.

I'm late to this party but I'd love to watch some WM lacrosse. I mean, it's the game of the Natives... It only makes sense given the historic land WM resides upon.

Amen...let the Tribe play the Creator's game.

(03-03-2016 05:59 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  I'm late to this party but I'd love to watch some WM lacrosse. I mean, it's the game of the Natives... It only makes sense given the historic land WM resides upon.

You can go see our women play

23 sports: indoor track and field for men's and women's is considered a different sport than outdoor

Just some attendance figures from lacrosse games played by some of our peer schools.

Nova has played just one home game against local rival Drexel and 276 were there

Drexel did draw 1361 vs U.Va their only home game

Towson has had three home games and are averaging 930 per contest . They drew 275 vs.Mercer but 1095 vs Mt.Saint Mary and 1419 vs Georgetown. The Baltimore is the hottest of beds for lacrosse it is expected TU would draw well.


Hofstra two home games 1318 average . They drew 1669 vs Princeton and 967 vs NJIT
Lacrosse on Long Island has been very popular for decades.

Stony Brook three home games average 905 . 216 vs Sacred Heart, 1322 vs St John's and 1177 vs #9 Brown

Delaware two home games 284 average but have only hosted VMI 323 and Mt Saint Mary 244

Bucknell two home games 371 average against Delaware 300 and Colgate 442

I like lacrosse and will watch on t.v. and this is just a small sampling but, once again this is our peer group and probably more the size of the crowds would attend a game hosted by The Tribe. The crowds will most definitely be larger if/when a U.Va. or a long time rival comes to town just like what occurs when UR,UD or JMU plays football here.

I would agree. I think we'd be below Hofstra and Stony Brook but above Delaware. Delaware has been consistently bad for a long time and they are painful to watch. We'd probably get more students than Stony Brook and Hofstra (which have a lot of commuter students) but fewer locals. Maybe a smattering of fans from Richmond and Virginia Beach together with some locals and alumni who take a liking to the sport.

Bucknell is a tough draw; Lewisburg PA is not a favorable place to draw lacrosse fans.

(03-04-2016 09:28 AM)wanm65 Wrote:  

(03-03-2016 05:59 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  I'm late to this party but I'd love to watch some WM lacrosse. I mean, it's the game of the Natives... It only makes sense given the historic land WM resides upon.

You can go see our women play

On a serious note... I'll give it a shot. However, if it's like most sports and presents a watered down, boring version of the sport... I'll prob pass.

(03-04-2016 03:34 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  

(03-04-2016 09:28 AM)wanm65 Wrote:  

(03-03-2016 05:59 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  I'm late to this party but I'd love to watch some WM lacrosse. I mean, it's the game of the Natives... It only makes sense given the historic land WM resides upon.

You can go see our women play

On a serious note... I'll give it a shot. However, if it's like most sports and presents a watered down, boring version of the sport... I'll prob pass.

On a serious note...you'll regret it. The women's game is NOTHING like the men's game. So when watching the women goes very bad, don't just count the men's game out.

(03-04-2016 03:44 PM)dan10 Wrote:  

(03-04-2016 03:34 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  

(03-04-2016 09:28 AM)wanm65 Wrote:  

(03-03-2016 05:59 PM)CoastGuardHawk06 Wrote:  I'm late to this party but I'd love to watch some WM lacrosse. I mean, it's the game of the Natives... It only makes sense given the historic land WM resides upon.

You can go see our women play

On a serious note... I'll give it a shot. However, if it's like most sports and presents a watered down, boring version of the sport... I'll prob pass.

On a serious note...you'll regret it. The women's game is NOTHING like the men's game. So when watching the women goes very bad, don't just count the men's game out.

This is typical of wanm65...he's a bit of a curmudgeon who misses the old days when men were men and games like lacrosse were confined to Indian Tribes and prep schools.

There is little chance in the foreseeable future of men's lacrosse returning to W&M. Too many Title 9 problems
and no money unless one gets somebody to donate 20m or so to support men's lacrosse and an equivalent
ladies team like softball. You can't drop men's swimming or gymnastics because it would Title 9 futile: there is little scholarship money in swimming & gymnastics and you would need 10-12 men's lacrosse scholarships.

Besides, politically, men's swimming & gymnastics are not going away.

Additionally, the next two Tribe major athletic funding searches are for a basketball facility and a real natatorium for swimming. Each around 20 m or so.

BigTribe thinking in the past...the odds of that natatorium being built are slim and none.

Richmond faced the same dilemma and made an imaginative decision. Right now their mens lacrosse team just took the lead 6-5 against Duke on ESPN3. Look better than the Princeton team I watched on Saturday.

https://forthebold.wm.edu/programs-units/athletics.html

It'll be a while, but the swimming facility and practice facility are part of the For The Bold campaign. It doesn't mean it's going to happen next year, but it shows where the priorities are.

No offense, but that just isn't going to happen. Even UVA doesn't have their own free-standing natatorium, and they are the dominant program in the ACC. Their facility is built in to a rec center.

Truth is that if the AD who replaces Terry D comes from a mens lacrosse school, we'll get mens lacrosse, because he or she will recognize that it provides more publicity and more competitive bang for buck than any of our current non-revenue sports. The parents also tend to be significant donors. Take a look at the UVa Student Athletic Foundation giving list and cross-reference against the lacrosse rosters the last few years. Plus it will draw a lot more fans. Even with a new natatorium our swimming meets may draw 10 students.

(03-07-2016 08:09 PM)Dr. Ebirt Wrote:  https://forthebold.wm.edu/programs-units/athletics.html

It'll be a while, but the swimming facility and practice facility are part of the For The Bold campaign. It doesn't mean it's going to happen next year, but it shows where the priorities are.

I think I'm going to regret posting this, but our gals beat Richmond in LAX.