News|Schedule / Results|Roster|Officers &Coaches|

Club Notebook: The Breakup

Dec. 3, 2008

The cumbersome WCLL has spawned an offspring, the Southwestern Lacrosse Conference

Dec. 3, 2008

by Jac Coyne, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff (Story Courtesy of Lacrosse Magazine Online )

As they lingered by Sonoma State's lacrosse fields where the Adrenaline Elite Camp was held over the summer, several coaches and administrators from Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL) Division I teams talked amongst themselves while viewing potential recruits.

There was Matt Holman, head coach of San Diego State, Chris Malone of Arizona State, Mike Wood of national runner-up Chapman, Gary Podesta, the president of the WCLL and head coach at Santa Clara, and Mike Annala, the academic advisor for Sonoma State. As was custom those days, talk quickly turned to the state of the conference.

The WCLL had been the best league in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) and its predecessor, the Men's Division Intercollegiate Associates, for years. Recently, however, the cumbersome logistics of the league - 20 teams spread over four, uneven divisions and a geographical area covering roughly the same distance between New York City and Jacksonville, Fla. - had spurred talk of movement.

There was more urgency in the voices this time, spurred by recent developments.

It appeared a solution to the problems had been brokered earlier in the year with Arizona State's application for membership in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference, a four-team league looking to up its numbers to six for an automatic qualifier to the MCLA championships. In an effort to hit the mark, the RMLC mandated that Arizona be part of the package with the Sun Devils. Without a coach at the time, UA declined, sinking the entire venture.

Link to Full Story