Put up or Shut up

[FU3]

I believe that when these lacrosse facilities are actually built the vast majority of dollars will have been donated.

[DungeonRealm]

Don't care for lacrosse one way or the other, so would not bother me one bit if it were dropped.
Not sure we will ever know the real $$$ amount the University puts into that sport so kinda hard for us to decide for sure if its worth keeping around or not.

[Affirm]

There are no intentions on dropping lacrosse. For one, you are not able to simply drop only men’s lacrosse due to title ix. Two, men’s lacrosse brings in approximately 35 students without any athletic scholarship money and is increasing furmans footprint in the northeast which is desirable to the university. Third, the admin is actually investing more in lacrosse with a number of capital projects including a locker room renovation.

Of 56 on roster, only 12 are from northeast. Add the 9 from Maryland and the number is 21.
...On the women’s roster of 26 student-athletes, only 3 are from the northeast, although if the 9 women from MD are added, the number is 12 out of 26.

[Jasper]

The idea that Furman should drop men's lax because the team has not done well is ridiculous. That is especially true since it comes from people who have no knowledge of the economics of the situation, know nothing about the game and have never even seen it played. Whatever happened to the usual reaction to a poorly performing team? Blame the coach. In this case and in my opinion, that is the solution rather than to drop the sport. We paid top dollar for a high profile coach who had formally been the coach at the U.S. Naval Academy. That has not worked out for a myriad of reasons. The program has not lived up to the expectations at all and that is on the coach not the sport. Let's go out and get a young, enthusiastic and aggressive coach who is currently an assistant at a major program and therefore has strong, current recruiting contacts. He likely comes at half the price and let him reboot the whole program - including fan education in the sport - rather than kick a fast growing sport to the curb. SoCon schools in lax, such as Richmond and High Point are thriving in the sport and there is no reason that Furman should not.

[gman]

Back to the sport that can bring in more dollars than any other, go Furman basketball!

[Bootie]

I wouldn't miss lacrosse if it was gone.

[FU3]

I wouldn't miss lacrosse if it was gone.

Well that should settle it then.

[Jasper]

There are no intentions on dropping lacrosse. For one, you are not able to simply drop only men’s lacrosse due to title ix. Two, men’s lacrosse brings in approximately 35 students without any athletic scholarship money and is increasing furmans footprint in the northeast which is desirable to the university. Third, the admin is actually investing more in lacrosse with a number of capital projects including a locker room renovation.

Of 56 on roster, only 12 are from northeast. Add the 9 from Maryland and the number is 21.
...On the women’s roster of 26 student-athletes, only 3 are from the northeast, although if the 9 women from MD are added, the number is 12 out of 26.

There are two major recruiting areas in lacrosse; places where lax is a bigger spring sport than baseball. They are Long Island in New York and Maryland. Kids begin playing organized lacrosse in the 4th grade or so. Many of the better high school teams are from the private/prep school leagues. Good students with parents who can and are used to paying hefty tuitions. That is a very appealing demographic for expensive colleges. Furman has been able to penetrate the Maryland market but not Long Island as yet.

I do not know the exact number of scholarships for lacrosse at FU but I do know it is small. If there are 56 players on the roster, the vast majority of them are not getting athletic aid but some are certainly getting academic aid. They have done very well in that area at Furman in both the men's and women's teams.

[Jasper]

I wouldn't miss lacrosse if it was gone.

May I ask if you know the game at all or have watched some games? The reason I am asking is that I think the "rollout" for the lax program here at Furman was terrible.

[FUBeAR]

I wouldn't miss lacrosse if it was gone.

May I ask if you know the game at all or have watched some games? The reason I am asking is that I think the "rollout" for the lax program here at Furman was terrible.

Kind of agree. I really like watching lacrosse - never played; don't understand it fully, but it's fun to watch.

My sense of the 'rollout' of Men's Lacrosse to the Furman Athletics Support 'Community' went something like this...

"We're doing lacrosse because it's the best sport that was ever invented and if you don't know that, you're a dumb hick southerner. You should be as smart as all of these kids and families who make way more money than you'll ever hope to make and like lacrosse better than any other sport because it's the best. Oh, and we're going to be the best lacrosse team in the whole world soon. Maybe not the 1st year, but surely by the 2nd we'll be beating all of those Teams from up north, y'know, where everyone is a lot smarter than you and has a whole lot more money than you. So, you better like us and support us because you're going to miss out if you don't, but I doubt you will because you are a dumb southern redneck hick who doesn't even understand lacrosse and is too stupid to play it or force your kids to play it and besides you don't have any money that we want anyway. We'll just get all of your support from the smart, rich people up north. Oh...and if you want to see a game, we'll be playing them in what used to be known as your Football Stadium. What a waste."

So...I didn't feel very welcome, but I like watching lacrosse.

[FU3]

Let me offer a slightly different take on lacrosse roll out.
“Wealthy alumni offers several million dollars to start lacrosse at Furman that includes a million or so to turf football field . Frustrated athletic fans who have witnessed previous administrations short change athletics get in uproar that new fangled yankee sport is getting some money. Much teeth gnashing ensues because as we all know if you throw money at a sport success has to be automatic ( our Baseball program with its multi million dollar field house has sure proven that ). Over priced Lacrosse HC fails to win and demand s that carpet bagger sport be removed( by folks who have never watched a game ) grows. ( please note that I grew up in Onslow County NC so I can recognize “them” yankee interlopers when they try to sully our original southern sports) “.
Let’s get a good young coach and start fresh. By the way our lady’s program has a good young Coach and has been pretty successful losing to Mercer in double O T in Socon finals.

[FUBeAR]

Let me offer a slightly different take on lacrosse roll out.
“Wealthy alumni offers several million dollars to start lacrosse at Furman that includes a million or so to turf football field . Frustrated athletic fans who have witnessed previous administrations short change athletics get in uproar that new fangled yankee sport is getting some money. Much teeth gnashing ensues because as we all know if you throw money at a sport success has to be automatic ( our Baseball program with its multi million dollar field house has sure proven that ). Over priced Lacrosse HC fails to win and demand s that carpet bagger sport be removed( by folks who have never watched a game ) grows. ( please note that I grew up in Onslow County NC so I can recognize “them” yankee interlopers when they try to sully our original southern sports) “.
Let’s get a good young coach and start fresh. By the way our lady’s program has a good young Coach and has been pretty successful losing to Mercer in double O T in Socon finals.

Onslow County? Oh...the big city (Jacksonville) and all of that fast-livin' sinnin' around those crazy gyrines at Camp LeJeune. You might as well have grown up in Brooklyn. My family is from your next-door-neighbor to the NW, the real redneck southern hick heaven of Duplin County, NC. Beulaville, mostly.

If I'm running PR for FU Men's LAX, I STOP TALKING about how I'm recruiting where I can find smart kids with money (and they ain't where you people live)...and START TALKING about how fast there great HS programs in the South - (Like the ones I know in ATL) like Lambert, Lassiter, Milton, Roswell, Blessed Trinity, and Harrison (I think) are growing and turning out really excellent players with great academics. Trust me, their parents have money too.

Build yourself a regional fanbase - the more local the better...and then run the heck out of summer camps....even if you don't make any money on them....just to get as many kids to come as you can....

....and sure if you have some kids from MD, DE, PA, NJ, and NY that WANT to come to Furman....bring 'em on. Sell the weather, the campus, the pretty girls (oops...can't sell that anymore, right? sorry)

And I start having the LAX Bro's show up and show out at the other sports events....like the Football Players do at Hoops now...and I think the LAX Bro's are doing that too...which is good....they need to do the same @ Football games....and don't say....Football Players should do it for them 1st - nope - up to the "New Kids" to 'make friends'....

Yeah - prolly need a new Coach.....I don't know, but I've heard from a few peeps that they current one may have rubbed a few folks the wrong way a few too many times. His words at events, along with some of the fans' commentary, and other FU peeps I know gave me the 'rollout impression' I described. Had nothing (in my case) to do with where FU was or was perceived to be spending money. I just know that I like watching Lacrosse and I know a lot of smart kids, from families with money, that are/were good LAX Bro's....but I sure didn't get the impression that I or they were welcome to be part of FU Men's LAX.

[FU3]

Coach RM was in hindsight a lousy choice to start a program . The previous Admin. had some” free” money and went for a big name splash thinking that the NE was a panacea for recruitment of full pay students and this would be the inroad.Lacrosse at Furman should be a great match and you are exactly correct about the wealth of talent in GA and the SE. In fact the Panthers of East Duplin had a fine 7-7 year including a 5-4 barn burner over Goldsboro. With a lacrosse program running there I believe we can confidently put to rest the idea that it is only a sport for sophisticated NE preppies.

[FU3]

Whoops wrong call on Duplin no lacrosse... looks like you you can continue your unfiltered hillbilly of the coastal plains props. Onslow has become much more like Long Island with mulleted Lax bros as far as the eye can see.

[apaladin]

Why are there 64 players on the men's roster and only 40 on the women's. Do you really need 64 players when only 10 can play at a time? I guess there is a lot of subs?