Lacrosse breaking ground and creating new traditions at Flagler

By Joseph Toby | gargoyle@flagler.edu

As the spring semester swings into gear, so does the formation of the lacrosse team for Flagler. Adviser and coach for the team, Wayne Riggs — a history professor here at Flagler — has many hopes for the getting the team to be more recognizable in the near future.

“We are planning to have a Lacrosse Day on campus where they will begin to sell T-shirts and advertise for their home games,” Riggs said.

Riggs’s goal is to make it well known to potential players that there is in fact a lacrosse team, as well as form a more consistent team. The formation of a women’s team is something they are interested in advertising on Lacrosse Day to see the potential of starting a team for women players, too. Some girls have already started practicing on Wednesday afternoons, but they are still looking for more players before they are able to play against other schools.

As of now, the boy’s lacrosse team is practicing twice a week on Wednesday and Sundays, but they do hold a few extra practices if they have an upcoming game in the week. You can find the boys practicing at Joseph Pomar Park and Vickers Field off of Masters Drive about 10 minutes north-west of campus. For the spring they have six games on the schedule. The team has played against other schools with similar club level teams including Stetson, University of North Florida and Valdosta. The teams they plan on playing this semester are located around three hours away and are similar caliber to club teams, rather than more solid lacrosse programs that schools have been able to develop.

An average of 15 players came out to practice for the team, Riggs said. In approximately three years from now they hope to compete in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association, which is equivalent to the NCAA. Their reasoning behind playing for the MCLA is that they do not have Div. 2 lacrosse in the Peach Belt Conference and there is Div. 2 lacrosse in the MCLA.

Many students believe adding lacrosse as a sport here at Flagler would be beneficial for other students that are from the northeast where lacrosse is more popular. Since Flagler recruits many students from the northeast, lacrosse is becoming more popular here in Florida, thus expanding on the diversity of our student body and accommodating for more student athletes.