Not many people know about club sports here at UW-Whitewater, especially lacrosse.
According to Club President Stephen Ziegele, it’s a sport that you can join even if you don’t really know what you’re doing.
“Lacrosse is definitely, absolutely something you can try out for with no previous experience,” Ziegele said. “About half of us have quite a bit of experience, so we have enough guys to teach the recruits who are new to the sport.”
Ziegele, along with the club’s Vice President Jason Willms, will welcome anyone with open arms who is willing to learn the rules and work hard, to the lacrosse team.
The team has 25 players on the roster right now and many of them had little or no lacrosse experience before trying out for the Warhawk club team.
Although lacrosse is a club sport at UW-Whitewater, the team practices like a varsity squad. They are out on the intramural fields for two hours every Monday through Thursday and play tournaments or games almost every weekend during their fall and spring seasons.
This past weekend the ’Hawks traveled to Northern Illinois to play Judson University and came away with a convincing 11-1 victory. That victory pushed their record to an impressive 9-3, a big improvement over last year’s fall season.
“We had a lot of young guys to join the team last year and this year we really improved and our record shows that,” Ziegele said.
The fall season for the lacrosse club is for tournament play and learning the game. During the fall, the experienced lacrosse players and team leaders are working to teach the game to the new recruits.
“We try to talk to some of our high school friends who play and get them to come to Whitewater, but there are plenty of guys who learn the rules and fundamentals during the fall season,” Willms said.
After the tournament season ends, the ’Hawks move indoors to Kachel Fieldhouse, where they primarily practice fundamentals and do conditioning. That way, when the spring conference season comes around, the new players are ready to play some meaningful games.
The ’Hawks conference is formed by the Great Lakes Lacrosse Organization, or GLL. Like other sports, if the team does well during the spring, it would have a chance to advance to regionals and nationals.
Ziegele said this club is just trying to build a winning tradition and will take the season as it comes.
“We don’t really know what the GLL will bring for us this year,” Ziegele said. “But if we play well and win some games, who knows, maybe we could advance.”
