VIENNA - Ohio Valley University will add lacrosse as a men's varsity sport beginning next fall, announced OVU Athletic Director Larry Lyons.
"We are very pleased to add lacrosse as a competitive varsity sport to our growing athletic program roster," Lyons said. "Lacrosse has been a part of the OVU club sports program for four years now and has continued to grow. We believe we have the right coach in place and enough student interest to begin recruiting for the program."
Lyons indicated that the current coach for the OVU lacrosse program, Carl Anderson, will continue to serve the program.
Anderson, a senior at OVU (graduating December 2009), began the lacrosse program at OVU as a freshman just four years ago. He competed on a varsity level in high school in Newington, Conn., and has since worked to lead and play for the Fighting Scots club team.
"I've put a lot of time and effort into developing the sport on campus and am very confident in the potential for it to continue to grow and succeed as a varsity sport," Anderson said. "It is exciting to see and know that this is moving to a varsity level. Lacrosse is a contact sport and therefore we often see a lot of football players participate. We are beginning the recruiting process and are well supported by the student body. We see this growing quickly in popularity in the area."
Lacrosse is currently not recognized as a competitive club or varsity sport with the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC). Anderson and Lyons do not foresee this as a problem.
"The OVU lacrosse club team has competed under a national club program (www.laxpower.com) that organizes about 50 club teams across the United States. Just this past spring OVU went 6-1 in our regional conference of 11 teams located across West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana," Anderson relayed. "The team placed third in regional competition and went on to be ranked 12th in the nation."
"Wheeling-Jesuit and Seton Hill Universities are the only other varsity programs in the WVIAC conference. Two other schools, West Virginia Wesleyan and Sheppard, have club programs. We believe those schools are also close to launching their club sports into the varsity realm. When that happens, we will be very close to the sport being recognized by the WVIAC, placing OVU in a strong contenders spot for titles," Anderson said.
"Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing team sports in the United States," Lyons noted. "Youth participation in the sport has grown over 500 percent since 1999 to nearly 250,000. No sport has grown faster at the high school level or at the NCAA level in the past six years."
The sport of lacrosse is a combination of basketball, soccer and hockey. An exhilarating sport, lacrosse is fast-paced and full of action. Long sprints up and down the field with abrupt starts and stops, precision passes and dodges are routine in men's and women's lacrosse. Lacrosse is played with a stick, the crosse, which must be mastered by the player to throw, catch and scoop the ball.
