The St. Thomas men’s club lacrosse team has wrapped up their fall practice season, but they are more than ready to pursue a sixth Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association national title in the spring.
Although lacrosse is considered a club sport at St. Thomas, the men’s team competes nationally within the MCLA Division II. Coach Brian Gross, a St. Thomas alumnus and former lacrosse player, said club status hasn’t limited what the team has been able to do.
“We can offer that similar level of competition, similar level of play and organization,” Gross said. “All the things a student might want out of a lacrosse program in college.”
The team is consistently ranked as a top program in the MCLA and has produced 13 MCLA first-team All-Americans in the past two years.
The vast majority of players on the team today had a chance to play or were playing for an NCAA lacrosse program but chose St. Thomas because it was a better fit for them all around.
Gross believes that his club program offers just as much as an NCAA program does while simultaneously asking for much less of a time commitment.
“The biggest thing that we embrace is the fact that we can offer prospective students the opportunity to play lacrosse at really an equally high level,” Gross said.
Gross has been involved with men’s lacrosse at St. Thomas for 18 years as a player, assistant coach and, for the past five seasons, as coach.
This fall season has been a learning process and building period for the program.
The program graduated key players on offense, so working on filling those roles is a main focus in practice.
On defense, the team is fortunate enough to return almost all of their players.
“Last year, we had the best defense in the country,” Gross said. “We feel pretty good about where we are going to be at on the defensive side of the ball.”
The program has the opportunity to scrimmage and play NCAA teams throughout their season.
“It’s fun for us to go up against some of these schools that sometime have other resources that we might not have access to or larger student bodies that they can draw from,” Gross said. “Just the whole private school versus public school debate from a recruiting perspective.”
The Tommies are different from their opponents on many levels, but junior Riley Baumgartner said what he thinks sets the team apart is how close the guys on the team are.
“Family is an important aspect of Tommie lacrosse, and we will always have each other’s backs,” Baumgartner said.
The spring season begins in February and concludes mid-May.
According to Baumgartner, the keys to a winning season are sticking to the basics and playing the game they all know how to play.
“We play as a team and win as a team,” Baumgartner said.
The team’s schedule year-in and year-out is a challenge but prepares them for when it matters most.
“We are fortunate to have the best Division II teams in the country all in our own conference,” Gross said. “That really gets us prepared for making a run at national championships year after year.”
Carly Noble can be reached at nobl1781@stthomas.edu