Students enjoy the sports that the university provides, but students also like to be in the game and play. The Southeastern men’s lacrosse club gives students that opportunity.
The lacrosse team was started by two students, David DiPiazza, the President and main founder of the program and Chris Bourque, the Vice President and co-founder in March of this year.
“I was approached by Coach Casey McDonald to assist in getting a women’s lacrosse club started at Southeastern,” said DiPiazza. “After a few weeks of trying to get the women’s team up and running it became clear that there just wasn’t enough interest and it likely would fail. Around that time I decided, hell if I’m putting all this work into starting up a women’s team why don’t I just start a men’s team and play.”
The program is funded by the players. Everything from gear to paying for referees and for bus rides to road games. The lacrosse team is not listed with the rest of the athletic teams on the sports teams roster.
“The team is not listed on the Southeastern athletics website because we are technically a club sport,” said DiPiazza. “We are the only club sport on campus and we go through the Rec. Department, not Athletics. We are completely self-funded and receive no help financially from the university. We would love to be on the Lionsports website someday and be treated as another team on campus, or at least receive some of the benefits.”
The team welcomes anyone regardless of their previous experience. Players came to the team with mostly high school experience in lacrosse or in other sports.
“Last spring I was in the union walking to go to class and they were at a table and asked if I would check them out,” said senior goalie Jason Licciardi. “I worked with them in the spring and ever since then I fell in love with it. Having played baseball and football in high school I’m always looking for something new. I urge anybody who has never played to try it once.”
The Head Coach of the team Trey Oaks joined the team a few months ago to help bring some legitimacy to the team and prepare them for their first season.
“I coached at Mandeville before this where I coached David DiPiazza and about two more guys on the team,” said Oaks. “It will be on them to get their stick skills together. We’ll be able to be competitive from an athletic standpoint where we will either succeed or fail. This first year it’s all about getting those new guys to learn the game.”
The league the lacrosse team will be playing in is the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association. They will be in the Lone Star Alliance conference facing school rivals like Stephen F. Austin and LA. Tech.
“Those programs have been around for a while,” said Oaks. “UL Lafayette are the reigning champs at the Division II level we are in. A lot of their guys were all new at some point and time. At the club level if your new guys are better than everyone else’s new guys you have a good shot.”
The Lacrosse team will be promoting their team even more the closer they get to the start of the season to develop a fanbase. Being a new sport to the university the team will be looking to get students curious about the team.
“Just practicing on campus gets people to ask ‘What is that? I don’t know what that is, let me go find out,’” said Oaks. “Using social media and having games on campus will be a big thing too. We also table in the union.”
The lacrosse team will start their season in February next semester. The games will be played on the Southeastern Soccer Complex.
“I can’t wait for it,” said Licciardi. “Every kid’s dream in high school is to play a college sport. After graduating high school, the intramurals were fun, but getting an opportunity to play other schools and just see how well you stack up. We get to travel, go to new places and meet new people. I’m super excited and I can’t wait.”
To see more information about the men’s lacrosse club visit their website southeasternlacrosse.com.