thelaxman wrote:Liberty is a gold mine for Men's Lax and Women's Lax. But the people in places that could make that happen are clueless. Dr Falwell himself told me he could see that Lacrosse would do good at LU back in 2004 but nothing ever got done about it and bringing NCAA Lacrosse for both Men and Women to LU. For Women's Lax you are located close enough to to Baltimore/ Washington area which is a powerhouse region for the sport in both Men's and Women's Lax along with having so many Students that come from other places on the Eastern seaboard like Philadelphia, New York and Long Island and New England and all those kids from Canada. Don't forget those kids from Canada can play Lacrosse just as good as they play Hockey.
Now as of the last 2-3 years North Carolina has High School Lacrosse as a varsity sprot and so does the state of Georgia so there are some quality southern Players that could come to LU from the Bible belt and even Texas is developing some great High School Lax. So with so many of these students from these regions of the country attending LU there is no excuse why Liberty could not be a powerhose on the NCAA level in both Men's and Women's Lacrosse. The Powers that run LU and their Athletic Department need to make up their mind and put forth and the effort and build it. If they do that it will be a success and I have no doubt LU could win a National Championship in the future in both Men's and Women's Lacrosse. Just my two cents. Best of luck to Rithie and Flames Basketball this upcoming season from Lobo Land.
to be honest, I don't think LU will be able to win a championship at the D1 lax level. look at who all the top teams typcically are: ivy leagues, schools like bucknell, uva, duke, unc. what do they all have in common? top notch, upper echelon academics. no insult intended on LU'a academics, but they just aren't on the same level as those schools.
also you have to take into account that a lot of HS players not only consider D1 schools to play for, a lot of GOOD high school players consider top notch D3 and D2 programs. so not only would LU have to compete in recruiting against the likes of UVA, Duke, etc. but they would have to compete with top D3 programs like Salisbury, Gettysburg, Cortland, Nazareth, Middlebury, Roanoke, Lynchburg, etc. and the cream of the crop in D2 that includes Mercyhurst, Limestone, and LeMoyne. As a matter of fact, it was either last year's recruiting class or this year's incoming recruiting class, but Salisbury brought in more HS all-americans than any other team in the country, and they are a D3 school.
another major factor to consider is that D1 lacrosse is dwindling in size every year, every year D1 schools are dropping lacrosse because it costs so much money to finance and because of Title IX regulations.
i'm sure you know more about D1 lacrosse since you coach at a D1 school, but that's just my take on it...