Editor, Daily Nexus,

For the past four years I have read the Daily Nexus online. The UCSB men’s lacrosse team has finished fourth and third in the country in two of those years. In each of those years there have been either one or two articles on the lacrosse team per year! I hope this year will be different.

Because lacrosse is a club sport at UCSB, most people don’t realize that this team plays at a very high level. Outside of the northeast (where Div 1 is played), lacrosse is played nationwide at the club level. However, lacrosse has a central organizing body (U.S. Lacrosse) which sponsors and supports a national championship and national ranking polls. There are only 50 Div1 teams in the country but over 150 club teams. So you can see that it is quite an accomplishment to finish a season ranked in the top four.

In addition to UCSB, the schools who are successful at this level include Cal, Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Texas, Texas A&M, Colorado, BYU, Colorado State, Michigan, Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Virginia Tech, etc.

In 2003, UCSB will have one of the toughest schedules in the nation. This year they play home games against Michigan, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Texas, USC and Stanford. They play Cal, BYU, Cal Poly, Utah and Sonoma State away. When one of your varsity teams is on a miserable road trip through the Big West, why not give some press to lacrosse?

UCSB has four potential All-Americans this year with several promising freshman recruits. The games are free. The sport is a great spectator sport. You are right on the field at the Pit.

The Michigan, Cal and other student newspapers give extensive coverage to lacrosse even though it is a club sport. I hope to see more this year in the Daily Nexus. If your reporters don’t have enough expertise in lacrosse, I am sure that the players or the coach will be happy to assist them.