Lacrosse may be crossed-off

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by Brady Fish

The men’s lacrosse club may cease to exist at unless the club can resolve a recent financial setback. Looking to bounce back from their 2-8 efforts earlier this spring as a member of the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference, the club is fighting against its potential demise surrounding a $3,000 deficit stemming from last year.

In club sports, funding is a difficult challenge faced each and every year. Individual athletes participating in the club pay a minimum of $600 for the fall season and $1,200 for the spring. Those costs can be more, depending on the number of players the team can recruit each year. With unresolved debt resting on the shoulders of the club participants, the cost to participate in the club weighs on the athletes even more, adding to the already strenuous costs of being a student.

For a team hoping to foil a repeat outcome of last season, the news of this deficit piling on top of club dues comes as a shock to its players as they now wait on the unknown status of their club. Returning from a one-year hiatus is the club’s former head coach, Kevin Perkins. Perkins resigned last October for personal family reasons after leading the Wolverines to five national championship games in the last seven years, but returned to the club after many players expressed their desire for his return.

The news of this unexpected cost for the team to compete adds to the frustration for a club trying to simply play the game.

“For the last seven years, I have been working in this position as a civil servant,” Perkins said. “This team has gone to five national championship games in the last seven years, played on national TV, brought this school national exposure and now the club may not even exist. I’m just fed up with the lack of recognition and support we receive.”

According to the Student Life department, which oversees and works with all of the clubs at UVU, clubs pay money toward national league dues. The club’s head coach and faculty adviser are responsible for overseeing this process. The funds are then held in escrow until they are requested for use toward things the club needs to operate. Occasionally there are times when unavailable funds are withdrawn and the account falls into the red.

The deadline for clubs to have their national league dues submitted is Oct. 15, 2012. Any club failing to submit their dues will be terminated

You can catch the lacrosse team at their open practices behind the McKay Education building from 3-6:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.