Feel good story - lacrosse team
http://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2014/11/25/michigan-wolverines-lacrosse…
Just trying to brighten a day or two.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 12:18 PM ^
Those Michigan LAX helmets are badass. That's all. Carry on.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:31 PM ^
MGoBlue had a statement with some photos of Brendan Randoplh with the team as well - LINK
After attending a team lifting and conditioning session, Randolph, along with his mother JoAnne and father Chris, was the main attraction at a press conference held at U-M's Crisler Center Media Room. Alongside senior attackman Mike Francia, the team's community service liaison, the lifelong Wolverine fan then signed his letter of intent to become a Wolverine.
Awesome move indeed by the team and by Coach Paul.
November 26th, 2014 at 1:41 PM ^
Does every team at Michigan have a community service liaison? If so, that's pretty awesome. And a position I hope they all take seriously.
November 26th, 2014 at 1:53 PM ^
Can't answer that, but I do know the team won the department's community service award two years ago. Since then they switched to recognizing individuals, and Jeff Chu was one of the winners last year. So they take that role seriously.
November 26th, 2014 at 2:37 PM ^
Thanks for the info. Pretty cool.
November 26th, 2014 at 12:53 PM ^
...feel.. good? one can... feel... "good"?
November 26th, 2014 at 12:54 PM ^
Good to see SI pick this up, although I wish it was the full story, which you can actually read on mgoblue.com.
The funny thing is that since we are well into 2018 recruiting, I half thought this was serious when they said a 2023 kid.
November 26th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
I love this university - Hatch, Randolph et al - unlike the SEC that takes a kid's scholarship.
The leaders and the best. Go Blue!
November 26th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^
There are more than a few posters that are not fans of the non-revenue sports and lax has recently been added, being moved from club level. Do you have any background as to why the AD added these teams? Also, it seems the teams have quite a few players-how many are full scholarships? I know they are planning to build a lax facility, but I would of thought it would be cooler to keep playing at The Big House-your view on this? Hope to catch some games.
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November 26th, 2014 at 3:08 PM ^
Yes, Lax was added because the lacrosse alumni and parents paid for it to be added. Most of the money came from just a few donors, but enough money was raised to endow the program. The athletic department "matched" the donations by adding women's lacrosse. Donors also funded a significant portion of the new facility, although I have much less insight into that. Some of the money probably came from the Stephen Ross donation.
Playing in the big house is pretty cool, and the guys will still probably get a chance to do so once per year after/before the football spring game, but the lax facilities are expected to be the best in the country. This helps with recruiting, as the team is starting to haul in some top-10 classes. The kids believe the university is committed to this new sport and they are putting their money where their mouth is. For such a new program, recruiting classes that highly ranked is an incredible accomplishment.
Lacrosse teams carry usually 45-50 kids, and the average kid gets about a 1/4 scholarship. As the incremental cost of having another kid in a classroom is quite low, and the kid is on average paying 75% of the tuition, the scholarships are not quite as expensive to the university as you'd think.
November 26th, 2014 at 3:21 PM ^
This shows that adding these teams really has very little to do with football revenue costs. Many posters claim we would be better at football if non-revenue sports were diminished or that prices could be reduced if we dropped some non-revenue sports. So, kind of like Penn State going Div. 1 in hockey because of a big donor paying for the arena and endowing the scholarships. Their football program was not impacted.
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November 26th, 2014 at 5:12 PM ^
The posters who say that putting money into non revenue sports severly hurts the football program don't know what they're talking about. PSU, Ohio, and Stanford all have a massive number of teams and are fine.
November 30th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^
November 26th, 2014 at 2:31 PM ^
they are recruiting one of my nephews to play lax at michigan. would so love to have him down in ann arbor. great kid, great student, with offers from all over. we'll see.
November 26th, 2014 at 2:41 PM ^
Coach Paul is a total class act.
I tried out for the Lax team as a freshman - having never played the sport before; obviously, I got cut since they were starting the glory years at the club level. Despite that, Coach Paul and the team were always there to encourage and coach me to get better.
My senior year, Coach Paul sent me an email - congratulating me on graduation, thanking me for giving Lax a shot, and being a continuous supporter of the team afterwards. Sterling guy across the board.