With the basketball season winding down, college lacrosse is just getting started all across the nation.
The Marquette men’s and women’s lacrosse teams will have to wait another year before they get a chance to compete against other schools. For both teams, 2012 is a transition year where the focus will be building character and leadership in its athletes.
Marquette announced its decision to add lacrosse as a Division I varsity sport in the winter of 2010. The team will make its debut in 2013.
Over the last decade, the sport has started to quickly expand around the United States, holding the largest growth rate among all NCAA sports.
All current athletes on the men’s and women’s teams are redshirting the 2012 season. They will play as an independent in 2013, before joining the Big East in 2014.
Joe Amplo was named the men’s lacrosse coach on Feb. 4, 2011, and with all of the extra time on his hands, he’s hoping to establish a culture for the team in everything that they do.
“Our goal is to be looked upon as campus leaders,” Amplo said. “The challenge I have set forth to this group is to one day raise the standard of what is expected of a Marquette student athlete.”
On the women’s side, a similar approach is being taken as they have joined the men’s team in participating in several events on and off campus. Coach Meredith Black schedules practice three times a week, including a day for leadership meetings for her squad of 15 underclassmen.
“We’re working on raising money for pancreatic cancer, and they’ll be doing the Hunger Clean-Up,” Black said. “They get involved any way that they can and as much as they can right now, since they have more time now than they will have in the future.”
When the men are not participating in community service, they have practice in the morning four times a week and lift weights every afternoon. While some underclassmen may be undergoing their first year of rigorous athletic training, redshirt sophomore Joey Busch feels grateful to have some upperclassmen transfers to look up to.
“A lot of these guys were not starters at their old schools and they will be starters next year,” Busch said. “They’re great players, so watching them play I’ve picked up some of their moves and the way they play. Hopefully, it will better my game.”
Strength and conditioning coach Todd Smith does what he can to build up the physical strength of the men in the gym. Amplo, who has worked with five strength coaches in his career, marvels at what Smith has been able to do with his team’s mental strength.
“(Smith) stands for accountability, hard work, discipline and doing the right thing. Everything we speak about with the team, he speaks about,” Amplo said. “We joke ‘Todd knows.’ He knows the way to work. He knows.”
Lacrosse may be a spring sport, but the men are not scheduled to play their first official game until late February in 2013. The frigid winter of Milwaukee will definitely be a factor, but Amplo has had his men out at Valley Fields in the morning to work out for the last few weeks.
The road to make a name for themselves in the Big East right away may be long, but the focus right now for the team is on building character among themselves.
