Bucky Ball: Reclusive Badgers Join MCLA
by Jac Coyne |
Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne
Archive
The sentiment has been fomenting for several years, a groundswell
from the players on the Wisconsin-Madison men's lacrosse program to
play better competition.
While the Great Lakes Lacrosse League had been a comfortable home
for the Badgers for a large chunk of the 32 years since the team's
inception in 1979, acquiring tougher competition would mean leaving
the GLLL and trying one of the other club leagues - the National
Collegiate Lacrosse League or the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse
Association.
Marcus Holzer, the president of the Badgers and a senior at UW, had
first heard "grumblings" for movement when he was a freshman in the
fall of 2006. As the Badgers rolled through their league
competition and playoffs, and even bouncing some upper echelon NCLL
and MCLA teams along the way, the time finally came to make a
change.
"We've gone 25-1 over the last couple of seasons and winning games
is fun, but a lot of us reached a point where we wanted to play
those tight games, even if we lose," said Holzer. "We want to get
into one and two-goal differentials instead of beating teams 13-1.
The grumblings were to start looking for better competition."
After gauging the mood of the team and hashing together the
information, Holzer and the Badger board petitioned to be admitted
into the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference (GRLC) of the MCLA. The
move not only raised questions about the Badgers viability, but
could forever change the unique Wisconsin atmosphere that allowed
it to play good lacrosse in near anonymity for three decades.
From the MCLA perspective, the Badgers are best described as
enigmatic.
They feature three teams - the total roster typically consists of
80 players broken down into Red (A), White (B) and Black (C) squads
- that not only maul the opposition in the insular GLLL, but also
have handled the likes of MCLA reps St. Thomas, Michigan State,
Minnesota and Iowa State in the recent past with relative ease.
Just this fall, Wisconsin went down to Annapolis and knocked
off Navy, one of the premier teams in the NCLL.
While there is very little question about UW's place in the league
- several MCLA coaches feel the Badgers will come in and compete
right away for a national tournament slot depending on their
schedule - there are concerns about how Wisconsin will mesh with
association's eligibility rules.
The multiple-team format, which will be kept this spring with one
team playing in the MCLA and another competing in the GLLL, causes
more than one coach to raise the potential for impropriety. Could a
player be hidden on the GLLL roster and then bumped up to the MCLA
roster without "starting the clock" eligibility-wise? This question
and others, such as the use of graduate students and even players
who aren't attending the school, have been broached.
Hal Rosenberg, the man who has guided the Wisconsin program for the
past 26 years, shakes his head at these rumors.
"We haven't had non-students playing for us in over a decade and
the MCLA team won't have graduate students," he said. "Wisconsin
goes by the same traditional eligibility standards as everyone.
Frankly, it's kind of insulting."
Insulting and baseless.
The prospect of dominant, renegade program joining the association
may titillate the fan base and spook the rule-makers, but the
Badgers aren't bringing a semi-pro team to the MCLA. They're just a
bunch of kids who outgrew their former domain and are looking for a
crack at the proverbial "next level."
In fact, Wisconsin doesn't have the infrastructure or resources of
most top-tier MCLA programs.
The Badgers aren't anywhere near the coveted ‘virtual
varsity' status. Due to archaic university policies, U-dub club
teams are not allowed to pay their coaches, so it's been Rosenberg
- and his philosophy of creating inexpensive opportunities for all
students interested in the sport - who has volunteered his time
over the years to keep the program humming. The team receives zero
support, having to rent field space from its own school for
practice and game times.
Perhaps more importantly, the players on the Wisconsin team who are
joining the MCLA - the members of the three teams were given the
option of associating with the new league or staying with the GLLL
- are facing a serious fiscal wake-up call. The GLLL kept the
Badgers very close to home with an occasional foray to another part
of the country, which kept the dues for Wisconsin players at
roughly $150.
It's a ridiculously small amount - roughly 3% of what a Michigan
player must produce annually. In all likelihood, those Badgers who
choose the MCLA route will have to pony up six times that amount,
and that could be a conservative estimate.
"The guys have been working on the budget," said Holzer. "My
treasurer has really done a good job of fundraising while getting
opportunities for guys and finding out where the costs are that we
need to cover. We need to present this as a great opportunity that
is not as expensive as a lot of people thought."
Even with the daunting financial implications, Holzer said the
response to having an MCLA team was ‘overwhelming,' and on
track to compete in the GRLC this spring. For some, this may seem
like a natural evolution for the program. This transition will,
however, alter the quaint nature of the Wisconsin program that has
built a very large and loyal alumni group.
It will also lessen the role of Rosenberg with the team he nurtured
all these years. While it hasn't generated any ill-will, at least
outwardly, the team's decision to join the MCLA is a mild
repudiation of Rosenberg's inclusionary philosophy.
"When you have to pay that much money to play lacrosse, it becomes
elitist," said Rosenberg, who has decided to assume the Director of
Lacrosse Operations role with the program as opposed to coach.
Because of this, not only are the Badgers looking for coaches for
both their MCLA and GLLL teams, but they are assuming many of the
duties formerly performed by Rosenberg.
"The executive board has been trying to take control and ease the
burden on Hal," said Holzer, who said the alumni are excited about
the MCLA move. "Scheduling, equipment, and getting everything
organized for new and returning players has really been
transitioned over to the executive board and the students here. The
tough part is just finding a volunteer to just give us the time to
coach. We're keeping our ears to the ground, but we feel like we
are handling a lot of the responsibilities."
Taking a larger stake in their own future is important to Holzer
and the players who want to measure up in the MCLA. They want to
show their new league that this was not a whimsical idea.
This was a calculated decision that will benefit Wisconsin and
hopefully the MCLA.
"We had an all-team meeting and we examined multiple scenarios that
could play out this spring and we broke down the pros and cons of
every scenario trying to be unbiased. We gauged the interest from
there," said Holzer. "Our initial goal was to find out if there was
enough interest to get a full team to play in the MCLA knowing that
it could be high cost and it could be a high time commitment both
during the games and practicing during the week. To play at such a
high level, we need to gear-up a little more and get ready for it.
We want to be prepared for it."
There will undoubtedly be some bumps in the road for Wisconsin
during the transition to a league requiring more structure than
what the Badgers were previously accustomed to. Assumably,
conference and association representatives will reach out to this
new program and help it navigate through this period. Regardless,
Holzer feels the on-field product will live up to the standards it
has created over the past 30 years.
"We bring a bunch of different playing styles together and we've
created something special," he said. "We have something to show the
rest of the MCLA."
The Conference Question
One of the lingering questions after the announcement of
Wisconsin's move to the MCLA was why they picked the GRLC. From a
geographic standpoint, it didn't make much sense for the Badgers to
travel to Kansas and Missouri when they have three in-state teams
(UW-Stevens Point, UW-Milwaukee, and Marquette) and four other
teams in Minnesota in the form of the Upper Midwest Lacrosse
League.
Wisconsin put competition level ahead of geography, according to
Rosenberg.
"I have a lot of respect for the coaches in the UMLL, but they are
basically a one-team league," he said, referring to the domination
of Minnesota-Duluth, which has won the league title in 12 of the
past 15 seasons. The fact that Wisconsin beat Minnesota 16-0 the
last time they squared off and sent their C team to defeat Iowa
State added to the belief that the UMLL wasn't deep enough.
Since the GRLC has relegated its lesser lights to a I-AA, the
pervading belief is it will provide a more consistent schedule.
Holzer admitted that traveling south held more allure than heading
northwest.
"A lot of us don't want to be sacrificing all of our weekends to
travel to Minnesota," he said. "In the GRLC, we are able to make
day trips to Chicago, play the game in the afternoon, and be back
by night and then still have a life back here in Wisconsin on
campus, which a lot of us don't want to sacrifice for
lacrosse."
Slides & Rides
- Wisconsin is looking for a head coach, but it certainly
isn't the only MCLA program searching for a skipper. The most
notable team operating with out a head man is Colorado. A national
semifinalist last year and a finalist in 2006 under John Galvin,
who stepped down at the end of the year to pursue other interests,
the Buffaloes are still seeking a replacement.
- I spoke with Dwayne Hicks, Michigan State's head coach, at the
Lakefront Classic last week and he is optimistic about the upcoming
season. "We're definitely a little ahead of where we were last
year. It was my first year and the first thing I wanted to do was
to get us playing my style of lacrosse, which is run-and-gun," said
Hicks. "They didn't know what to expect; this year they do, so the
expectations are a little higher."
The 2010 schedule bears that out. The likes of Simon Fraser,
Oregon, Colorado, Colorado State, Florida State, Boston College,
Georgia and CCLA rival Michigan are all on the docket.
