Behind the scenes look in the office of the vice president of Pitt Lacrosse. Plus, our standard world class writing and scathing humor.

Our office.

My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. President Abraham Lincoln

Fortunately for us, we love working on lacrosse related items so its slightly more enjoyable than Abe suggests. Solid quote nonetheless.

If you are a member of one of the top 10 or so MCLA programs you probably have no idea how the other 110 teams operate.

Long story short, for those other 110 teams, the coach isn’t the leader of the program, just the leader of the team on game days and practices.

People like myself and the three other seniors on our executive board (read: young men) run the program on a day to day basis.

We were responsible for picking out of conference games, selecting uniforms, selecting gloves and helmets. Rather, we had the opportunity to make the decisions for our program.

I encourage players on these teams to attack the off field field logistics with the same intensity as they do with lifting or wall ball. Consider this interview with Michigan’s assistant coach Ken Broschart. In a Collegelax.us interview, he says, “Our non tournament teams are still far behind. Yes, they may have a strong player or two here and there, but many teams are very “club.” If the MCLA wants to continue to grow more teams need to hire good coaches and keep those coaches around for more than a year or two. It is not a coincidence that the top teams have had long term coaches.”

In summary, its up to the leadership of college players to decide they want to do something more for their program.

At Pitt, our senior class (of 5 players, 4 of which are on the executive board) have decided that our legacy won’t be determined by our record but rather the state of the program. It’s a very difficult and selfless act but hopefully we will be rewarded down the road.

These last few weeks have been very busy for us in terms of off the field the activities in addition to focusing on executing on the field.

Our  uniforms arrived the day of the game. In fact they arrived two hours prior to the start of the game.

I was on the phone and emailing with our retailer all afternoon and evening sweating  bullets and questioning whether the great price we got on our  uniforms was worth the stress.

Fortunately we were able to dodge the bullet. The lesson we will pass on to next year’s executive board will be to get our orders in faster than we did this year.

Next up this week, we had to pay some bills. Money makes club lax go round.

I was in charge of visiting our student union to process forms so the school could send the money they allotted for us while our president cut checks from the lacrosse account.

As money is going out, money is coming back.

We collected our second round of spring dues this week. Collecting dues is always a dicey situation because of the pay to play nature of the sport. It’s tough asking for money from players that are at the end of the bench.

Up to this year dues have been collected over the course of the spring and depend first on the budget and second on fundraising so players only have an idea as to what the total cost of the season may be. The decision made for next season is to set the player dues at the start of the fall and stick to that figure regardless of fundraising success.

As for fundraising after this weekend we will be ramping up our efforts once again for the final push of the season.

We will be running a second round of the MySportsDreams campaign. This is a very easy way to generate funds and is highly endorsed by 412.

In addition, we are working to finalize our early spring clinic program for high school and middle school players looking to get an edge before tryouts. This is important for us not just as a way to make a small profit but to improve exposure in the area. If the local high schools don’t know about Pitt Lax no one will know about the program.

Patience is a virtue. Here are some images around the office.

The lacrosse corner. Boxes and boxes and boxes.

(Full uniform analysis pending our first win.)

Clothing orders getting ready to be shipped to the world.

New New from Striker Danger

Rip the duck, for the lady

Buy here.

Michigan-Bellarmine Commentary

Fan reaction from those in attendance.

MLAWyer writes:

I made it out to the scrimmage tonight and came away very impressed. Michigan was very talented and played hard, and when they made mistakes they were saved by outstanding goaltending. They lead the whole game and gave Bellarmine fits with their ten-man ride. I think Bellarmine didn’t bring nearly the same level of intensity because for Michigan this was a chance for the Wolverines lacrosse team to make a statement, but regardless Michigan clearly showed they belonged on the same field as a division 1 team.

Tim writes:

They completely kicked Bellarmine’s ass. The Knights had a bit more depth (what do you expect with, like scholarships and what not?), but the final margin could have been closer to 20-5 than 14-6.

I’ve known that this team could compete with some varsity squads, but to make a D-1 team look like they don’t even belong in Oosterbaan is something else.

MLAWyer replies:

I agree, Michigan was very impressive. I didn’t mean to slight them at all with my comments about their intensity and use of the ten-man ride. From a pure talent standpoint, it certainly appeared Michigan was the better team. It’s unbelievable that a club team can take down a d1 team with scholarships.

There is a big gap between the lower d.1 teams like Bellarmine, Detroit, etc. and the big boys like UNC, UVA, Syracuse, etc. I think that Michigan would be able to be competitive right away but would take some time to compete for tournament berths, but I think the time is definitely right to make the jump to division 1.

Old Blue writes:

From MGoBlog

412 Analysis:

You know you’re in trouble when you’re a  NCAA D1 program and you have one color reversibles while the team you are playing against has their own shoes made for them.

Great Fundraiser Idea

Multiple options.

Appealing to the people with funds.

If max tickets are sold for both levels, they’ll generate $51,000 income.

Not bad.

We want the the Food Gift Card Package.

Crosby hat trick on Monday?

And you say the game was broadcast on Versus?

That can only mean one thing.

MAF helped with the clean up.

Missing three teammates due to illness.

We will try another with the uniforms.

So jealous.

It’s Bieber’s world. We are just living in it.

Notes

Biggest Friday game: UCSB @ Cal

Biggest Saturday game: Southern Methodist @ Texas Tech

412 Lax One Year Anniversary Clothing line is so, so close to launch