Even though there is still more than a foot of snow on the ground, the Marquette Men’s Lacrosse team is getting ready to start their conference season. Although the weather has been a deterrent to practicing outside, as freshman Carl Anderson said, “You just have to deal with it.”The team opens their year this weekend against nationally ranked Illinois. The team is looking to build off of their fall season during which they ended strong and really came together in their last tournament.

Marquette returns basically the same team from their fall season but this semester the team is much healthier. Marquette also returns reigning coach of the year Panchito Ojeda and second team all conference member Andrew Weber.

Marquette is one of seven teams in the UMLL conference which is part of a Division I league of around 100 teams around the nation. The Lacrosse team has 14 new members which makes them very young. Among them is Anderson.

Anderson joined the team because he has been playing lacrosse since he was 10 years old. He also wanted to be a part of a team that was dedicated to winning.

It is this enthusiasm and dedication on the part of the 14 freshmen that has led seniors Andy Hunt and Adam Caccamise to believe that this is the most talented freshman class that they have seen in their four years on the team.

Hunt, one of five seniors on the team, said that he was “more excited for this year than any other in my four year career. We work hard, but also have a lot of fun.”

Hunt and Caccamise have been on the team since their freshman year. While having five seniors on the team does not sound like much, it is rare for the team to have more than a couple seniors because most players do not stay with the team all four years.

The leadership of the five seniors along with a talented freshman class should give Marquette one of its best seasons in recent memory.

The Marquette Men’s Lacrosse season will be highlighted by back to back games April 4 and 5 against University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and then University of Minnesota at Valley Fields. The April 4th match will be played at 7 p.m. under the lights and the April 5th game is scheduled for 3 p.m. The team always looks forward to their home games because they are so few and far between and because of the great crowd support that comes along with the event.

An estimated 500 fans packed into Valley Fields to watch a home game last year. This season Marquette only has those two home games on their schedule, so they are expecting an even larger crowd this year.

One other highlight of the season will be a spring break trip to the Carolinas and Georgia where the team will face off against Georgia Tech, The University of South Carolina and Wake Forrest. Marquette will also travel to St. Paul in April to play conference foe and 4th-ranked Minnesota-Duluth. While Marquette is not nationally ranked, they did receive votes in the poll this year, something that they have not received in seven years. The team was picked to finished 3rd in conference.

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Valley Fields are alive once again with the hard work and positive attitude of the Marquette men’s lacrosse team. The men are back with a vengeance for the spring season with a few fresh faces and the same great attitude. Men’s lacrosse has grown a lot since fall, and is back and better than ever this spring. Through a tough practice schedule and constantly being on the road for away games, the team has kept a clean image and is motivated to improve and be the best team Marquette has ever had.

The guys practice at Valley fields three to four times a week. If that isn’t a commitment in itself, then consider the fact that team members practice from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. all of those nights. They are also constantly traveling in order to play other teams. This spring, the men have already traveled to numerous schools including Vanderbilt in Tennessee, Kansas State, Iowa State, MSU Mankato and the University of Wisconsin at Steven’s Point. For most club teams, this amount of travel is a lot to handle, but the lacrosse team doesn’t mind the grind of the road. For the most part, the men look at the traveling as an opportunity to see places they otherwise may not have gotten the chance to see and as a great team bonding experience. The spring season has brought many new faces to the team, and the traveling has helped bring the guys together and get to know each other better.

It may seem that the spring team has no differences from the fall team, but the spring season has brought many changes. Along with the many new players and the vigorous traveling schedule, the team has also matured to a great extent. In the fall season, there was an excessive amount of new freshmen, which made the team seem young and inexperienced. The freshmen now have played a season and know what it takes to play at the college level. Due to the team’s intense practice schedule and the amount of hard work they have put into their sport, the lacrosse team has made the conference tournament, which means the hard work will become more challenging. But it also gives the club an exclusive opportunity to show off their efforts and make a name for themselves among other college teams.

Keeping up with a promise the team made to themselves, the administration and the Marquette community, the lacrosse team has remained sober and could not be happier about it. Freshman goal keeper Pat Dahl explained that the team has worked hard to stay alcohol-free and the men do not miss it at all.

“We are very strict on the drinking policy,” Dahl said. “The team has learned its lesson from the previous year and we are a better team for it.” The team also has made a great commitment to participate in community service. They already took part in Al’s Run/Walk in the fall, and brought their best to help with Hunger Clean-Up, last Saturday, April 21.

The men’s lacrosse team has made leaps and bounds toward a better team this year, bouncing back from an embarrassing scandal the year before. Throughout the fall season the men built the team back up from the ground and have done nothing but bring positive recognition back to the club. This spring is looking promising for men’s lacrosse as they are continuing to be better than ever.

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The men’s lacrosse team is ready to get down to business, and this time they’re serious. After a misfortunate incident involving Public Safety and after the suspension of their season last year, the guys are back and stronger than ever, making a conscious effort to promote the team in a positive light, and help others through service work in the process.Last year, the lacrosse team developed a bad reputation as a party-affiliated club after a hazing scandal in the program swept the campus. The remainder of their season was terminated after a few meetings that were held last fall. Word got out about the less than flattering situation, and other news sources, such as The Journal Sentinel and WTMJ4, decided to pick up the story, too. With all the poor publicity for the club, one would think the men would be discouraged, but instead they turned the negative into a positive and are now stronger than ever.

“We became organized,” said Andy Hunt, vice president of the club, who has been an important figure in getting the club back on its feet and changing the way it operated. After the scandal in fall 2005, the club got together and decided to elect new officers and start working toward a better goal for the 2006-2007 season.

“It was hard initially to step into those roles,” explained senior captain and president Ben White, “but the work ethic and character [of the team] is phenomenal.” Both White and Hunt believe it was the hard work of the team that helped put the shattered pieces back together and brought the team up to where it is now. “Everyone was willing to do anything for the team,” White said.

It shows. Just this fall, the club has already played in tournaments and even hosted home games. Although the current record is 2-5, the team’s new attitude proves that a team is about more than statistics.

An example of the hard work and genuine desire to improve is the community service the team does together. There was no community service requirement included in the club’s probation, but the men get together and do it anyway, giving to the less fortunate because they are passionate about helping others and bonding as a team simultaneously. This weekend, the team will be playing in a tournament in which all tournament fees will be donated to the American Cancer Society. This is just one way the club has given back however.

The newly elected officers also held an anti-hazing workshop at the beginning of this season. They organized the event and were able to get nationally recognized speakers to attend. It lasted five hours, and it was open to any club that wanted to attend. When asked why they wllowed other clubs to join the workshop, Hunt said, “We wanted to make sure this kind of thing wouldn’t happen to anyone else.”

Another new aspect of the team is that whenever they have group outings, no member is allowed to consume alcohol. “We are a completely dry team,” explained Hunt. “Even the guys of legal age don’t drink while we’re out as a team.”

They thought it might be difficult to promote the team this season and to recruit new freshmen initially. However, the worry soon subsided. Most new players were somewhat aware of what happened the previous year due to the anti-hazing workshop, and team officers, who were happy to meet with new freshmen and their parents during campus preview. The situation from last season did not stifle their desire to join the club.

“It didn’t factor into my decision,” said freshman midfielder Michael Condon. The overall attitude of the team is positive and they are looking ahead with high aspirations. “The team is building good chemistry,” he further explained, and there are no signs of slowing down.

Currently, the men are looking forward to the rest of the fall season and the upcoming spring season. The team will begin again in late February or early March, and they have high expectations.

“We are excited to be Marquette Lacrosse again,” commented White, who explained that last spring they played on a team called the Trombones, which was not affiliated with the school. “It’s nice to put on a jersey that means something.”

They also expressed gratitude toward the loyal fans of the team. Earlier this fall, the club hosted a parents’ weekend, which included two home games. They gave away 100 free t-shirts that sported a Marquette Lacrosse logo. “We are appreciative of the fans,” said Hunt. “It’s been a long, hard road, and we’re proud of the team.”

The Marquette men’s lacrosse team has been inspiring so far this season, and can be expected to continue improving. Coming back from a devastating controversy, they managed to turn around the entire club with the support of fans and the hard work of each player in a single year. It’s only fair to say that they have earned back the trust of the parents, faculty and the fans. We can all look forward to an amazing spring season.

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Less than a year after being stripped of club sport status, the Marquette lacrosse team has impressively turned the wheel of fortune back in their favor. Thanks to back-to-back exciting home wins in September, the club managed to waste no time regaining the respect of the university community.After beating St. Norbert College and Loyola University-Chicago at Valley Fields, the excitement among players and fans alike finally began to return. According to the lacrosse club’s president, Ben White, “the fan turnout [that] weekend shows that Marquette isn’t focusing on any past negative actions this club has experienced.”

Promising freshmen, including Mike Condon, responsible for the game-winning score in overtime against Loyola, have also helped the image of the once-beleaguered club. White agreed, saying that “the returning guys are incredibly excited for our large freshman class; they have a lot of potential.”

The club’s determination off the field has been equally admirable to their success upon it. Practices, usually three days of on-field, fully-padded scrimmages and drill sets, keep the team in competitive form while their once-weekly classroom sessions hone various technical skills. Perhaps even more impressive was the team’s decision to organize a hazing-prevention meeting. On Sept. 20th, the team hosted such a conference to inform and steer Marquette’s other club sports teams – from baseball to ultimate frisbee – clear of the consequences of hazing.

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