Over the past few years, it has been one of the fastest growing
sports on the West Coast, but it still lags far behind other parts
of the country. On campus, its popularity continues to surge
despite obstacles that leave it disadvantaged.
The growth of lacrosse at UCLA is a microcosm of the
sport’s development in this part of the country as a whole.
This year, the men have fielded about 40 players, their largest
roster size ever, according to goalie Spencer Fivelson. Meanwhile,
the women’s squad added a “B” team two years ago
to accommodate the increasing number of athletes interested in the
sport.
But despite the impressive growth in participation and
competitiveness, West Coast lacrosse still pales in comparison to
the sport’s stature on the East Coast, where lacrosse is
seemingly as common as a game of catch. Although the sport has been
around for hundreds of years, the nexus of its success has not
deviated far from its roots.
“When you start something in a place and have the talent,
it grows a lot faster,” said Nikki Ling, a co-captain on
UCLA’s women’s team. “We’re starting to get
the talent. It’s in the growing stages, but it’s easier
to become competitive when you have competitive people all around
you.”
According to a survey done by U.S. Lacrosse, there are more
lacrosse players in the state of New York than in all the states
west of Utah combined.
“We start playing as soon as we’re born,” said
UCLA’s men coach Lane Jaffe, who grew up back east and played
collegiately for Rutgers.
This helps explain the disparity in the number of NCAA Division
I programs across the country. There are 54 men’s Division I
programs, yet not one is on the West Coast. On the women’s
side, there are 77 Division I programs, but only Stanford, Cal and
St. Mary’s are in the western states.
Three years ago, UCLA’s growth was nearly rewarded as it
almost became the fourth program on the West Coast to adopt
lacrosse as a varsity sport. But the athletic department, which
needed to add a women’s sport at the time to comply with
Title IX, opted for rowing instead. Speculation arose that rowing
was selected because it could offer more varsity positions while
costing the athletic department less money.
“It was deflating because we talked about it and worked on
it for so long,” coach Johanna Williams said. “When a
moment like that opens up and then closes, you realize it’s
going to be years of work before it opens up again.”
NCAA Division I status would have allotted the program
significant funding for scholarships and travel. Instead, both the
men’s and women’s teams must make do with the limited
funds available from the Recreation Department, amounting to
approximately $2,000 each year.
“It’d be nice if what we do is recognized
more,” Williams said. “The girls are just as much
athletes as NCAA athletes are.”
Players pay $300 in dues per year and must fundraise the rest to
meet their $25,000 budget. On the men’s side, player dues are
$800 each year.
“Funding is our biggest obstacle,” said Elsa Breyer,
the other co-captain of the women’s team. “To get
bigger, we need to get out there more, play more teams, get more
exposure, and we need funding to do that.”
Fivelson noted that UCLA’s men’s team struggles
against other schools because of this issue. UC Santa Barbara,
which captured the United States Lacrosse Intercollegiate
Associates last season, has an approximately $80,000 budget that
allows them to hire three coaches and gain more exposure through
road trips.
Fivelson feels an even greater challenge is competing against
club programs whose schools have influence in the school’s
admissions department.
“Berkeley has a lot of pull, so they’ve been able to
get recruits by tagging people they want to get into school, and it
works,” Fivelson said. “It would be a lot easier to
grow (at UCLA) if we had any aid in the admissions
department.”
According to Cal club sports official Mark Hikin, the
Bears’ men’s lacrosse program cannot directly get its
recruits into the school, but can recommend applications for a
second review if they meet the school’s academic standards.
In general, it is the schools with less stringent academic
requirements that benefit if their recruits are not top-notch
scholars.
“Several all-stars that go to other schools wanted to come
to UCLA,” Fivelson said. “Had they come to UCLA, we
would have fielded a better team and it would have bred success
even more.”
Still, both UCLA teams have enjoyed successful seasons in the
past few years. Three years ago, the men’s program was ranked
16th in the nation in the USLIA, while the women finished second
two years ago. This impressive finish seemed to validate the
women’s decision to add a second program at the start of that
year.
“Having two teams promotes growth because more girls
experience playing time and will then stick with the
program,” Ling said.
For the current batch of seniors, such as Fivelson, Breyer and
Ling, the sport was in its infantile stages while they were in high
school. Breyer experienced at the very least a half-hour drive to
play against the nearest school with a lacrosse team.
But it has continuously evolved into the mainstream in the high
school sports culture.
“A couple years ago, my high school was one of only a few
that had lacrosse,” Fivelson said. “Now almost every
high school in L.A. has a team.”
Attracting young players in a crowded sports market is another
one of many obstacles the sport faces if it hopes to reach the
level of popularity on the east coast. While Little League baseball
is the dominant spring sport for youth on the West Coast, Jaffe
noted that youth frequently choose lacrosse over baseball on the
East Coast.
Nevertheless, lacrosse seems to have found its niche. On
Sundays, UCLA’s team helps out with high school and youth
clinics that draw over 100 players. Leagues are also sprouting up
at the junior high level, enabling players to develop experience at
an earlier age and thus enhancing the competition when they move on
to established high school programs.
But these youth leagues are still too early in their development
to have impacted the caliber of play at the college level. About
half of the players on the women’s team did not have any
experience playing lacrosse before coming to UCLA. Ling is one of
these athletes. Having played varsity basketball throughout high
school, she joined the lacrosse team hoping to find that same
competitiveness and sense of belonging through team sports at the
collegiate level.
“We get girls who played other sports in high
school,” Breyer said. “They’re not on one of the
varsity sports, but they come here and want to play and be
competitive.”
As time goes on and more players become acquainted with the
sport at an earlier age, there won’t be the challenge of
luring interested athletes without previous experience.
Instead, the challenge will be to achieve the goals other
programs have already secured. But for now, UCLA’s lacrosse
programs still looks north within the state at the resources they
covet and east across the country at the prestige they desire.