Rutgers vs Monmouth Lacrosse

[Caliknight]

We play Army Tuesday, before Stony Brook.

Agreed about BM. He did a lot for RU, but he left the lax team on vine. His coaching search after Coach Hayes retired was pathetic. It was getting back to where it needed to be, then this season started.

Yurcak won't have turf. The soccer program won't allow it. Ideally, the lax team needs its own stand alone facility, complete with a weight room and locker room.

Things better get sorted out quick. Army is very good. From what I am seeing, that might be a tall order. There is a lot that needs to be fixed across the spectrum.

 

[RU62]

I agree with you Cali....but why should soccer overrule lax when money for the facility was put up by the Yurcack family. Also there are times when soccer plays on turf. Tell soccer to suck it up and play. Besides with a nice turf field you could accommodate three teams in a nice facility..m&w lax and field hockey. Enough is enough!

This post was edited on 3/1 5:41 PM by RU62

 

[AdamsGarden]

Soccer just can't be played well on turf. Yes, it happens, but it is so rare that an elite program plays on anything other than grass. The ball bounces and spins on turf in ways that make it impossible to play. As a result, no coach would be able to convince a kid to play there.

Lax has other issues that are beyond the surface we play on. It's part of the equation, but there are many other budgetary concerns that are holding the program back.

 

[CuredbywinningRU]

The common denominator among the all too consistent mediocre or worse results of almost all of our non-revenue sports is budgetary. Facilities across the board very weak.

 

[Leonard23]

The common denominator is a lack of elite coaches. None of them were our top choices. We settled, as usual, because we're too cheap.
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[AdamsGarden]

I have a hard time buying that we are just swinging and missing on hiring coaches for this particular job. Three coaches hired by two diff AD's. Each of them had some track record of success before arriving on the Banks. Maybe we've just made bad hires, but I wonder if there are simply bigger obstacles in place for this program to climb out of its rut.

 

[Leonard23]

Don't have a hard time & this applies to multiple sports. We target elite coaches & then we're too cheap to pay them to close the deal. M Soccer & M LAX are prime examples.
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[AdamsGarden]

It's not so simple, in the Olympic sports, that we aren't paying the coaches enough. The salaries are not too far off from the marketplace, even adjusted for the area RU is in. It is the other things that are sub-par: budget for assistants and support staff; scholarship budget; real facilities issues. Add them all up and you have what we have. An elite coach in those sports isn't looking a pay-day. They want to know if they can be successful and win championships.

It's so curious to me that we cut 6 sports out of the equation and have since seen nearly every program take a step back, other than football, women's soccer, and wrestling (I'll concede I may be over-stating here, but the point is made).

 

[Caliknight]

We definitely have some funding issues that need to be addressed if we are really to compete at the highest level, in order of importance:

1) Program needs to be funded with the full allotment of scholarships at out of state tuition rates. We are losing scholarship recruit level talent because of this. I still don't know why this is even an issue. Seems like a simple accounting trick to fix.

2) More money for better assistants and to fill other support roles, including a Director of Ops, which we don't even have headcount for right now.

3) Facilities. Lacrosse needs its own set-up, complete with weight room, lockers, meeting rooms, and stadium.

None of this is an excuse to lose to Monmouth, because there is none.
Nonetheless, these are real issues that need to be addressed if this program is to compete with the big dogs. People talk about getting an elite coach. It is like hoops. A national championship proven coach is going to go somewhere with support. You aren't in the discussion without it.

Sadly, this should have all been done already. While our program is in stall mode, others have been building and building. It is not a wonder why you see programs like Marquette and Richmond get so good so quickly. The simple reason is they care and put funds towards it. Lacrosse isn't like it was. Schools take this seriously now. Some of the programs charter jets for travel. At a school like Uva, those kids are rock stars with as high of profiles on campus as the football players. We have had a 50-100 year head start on many programs and are now discussing things that should have been done along that timeline, yet we haven't and others have. I am sure you can use a similar analogy across the spectrum of our sport portfolio.

I don't know what the answer is other than donate. If you care about it, donate to fix it.

 

[RU62]

Some very good insight by Cali. A suggestion I might offer is for Julie to ask for some help and advice ftom legendary lacrosse coaches and Rutgers Alumni, Jack Emmer and Tom Hayes and have them share their experiences and ibservstion. Both are still activelyinvolved in lacrosse on both the national and international level and are well respected. These again are two of our own and not outsiders who again could help provide Julie with info on what it takes to move forward to where we should be. When we see as Cali points out schools that are fairly new to the game passing Rutgers by and schools like OSU, Denver etc making the playoff and doing well one has to ask just what is missing and why. For years many Rutgers lacrosse alumni contributed to the Stick Fund to keep things going and yet there seemed to be no real plan to get to that next level.

A solid committee or alumni lacrosse advisory group could go a long way to righting the ship. And as pointed out you need funding for a complete staff commitment.

 

[Leonard23]

AdamsGarden

We basically agree. We need to pay HC more $, have a good assistant coach & support staff budget & commit to facilities upgrades.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[mikefla]

Posing to Monmouth in its 2nd year is unacceptable. Then again they beat our basketball team recently.

We also lost to Jacksonville in their FIRST year.

Things again look bleak, My undergrad school is Cornell so I have that to look forward to at least.

 

[Caliknight]

Originally posted by RU62:
Some very good insight by Cali. A suggestion I might offer is for Julie to ask for some help and advice ftom legendary lacrosse coaches and Rutgers Alumni, Jack Emmer and Tom Hayes and have them share their experiences and ibservstion. Both are still activelyinvolved in lacrosse on both the national and international level and are well respected. These again are two of our own and not outsiders who again could help provide Julie with info on what it takes to move forward to where we should be. When we see as Cali points out schools that are fairly new to the game passing Rutgers by and schools like OSU, Denver etc making the playoff and doing well one has to ask just what is missing and why. For years many Rutgers lacrosse alumni contributed to the Stick Fund to keep things going and yet there seemed to be no real plan to get to that next level.

A solid committee or alumni lacrosse advisory group could go a long way to righting the ship. And as pointed out you need funding for a complete staff commitment.

I can't speak for Coach Emmer, but Coach Hayes is very involved in the program, and something Coach Brecht has done a really good job at- bringing the alums back together.

The first guy I would have on that committee is Coach Danowski from Duke. He is a Loyal Son who went from a mediocre to good program at Hofstra, to now national powerhouse Duke. He would be able to give exceptional insight into what schools have/do to reach that level. I would be surprised if that isn't already happening on some level, but at the end of the day, a lot of it is funding and getting creative.

A school like Syracuse has crazy talent stacked on their roster. They fully fund the program, and also have scholarships for kids from Indian Reservations, which I don't believe count against their limit. Rutgers needs to look at things like this, which I am sure is being done on some level.

 

[RU62]

You got it Cali. Jack Emmer is still involved in lscrosse. He has done some international clinics which I am sure I'd a direct result of his relationship and friendship with Tom Hayes. Tom is a great person who we often see at football game in the fall and of course lacrosse in the spring. His grandson is an outstanding lacrosse plsyer. I am not sure if he graduated this year or already is committed or enrolled as a freshman somewhrre. I know he was being recruited by Rutgers. And yes Danowski is another excellent resource. The Rutgers lacrosse alumni base is solid thanks to the work of Hayes over the years.
And Brecht coached under Emmer and I am sure constantly in touch. He had done a nice job in communicating and contacting alumni. Something however is missing that is hard to identify but perhaps some folks here may have some realistic information as to what it is. Do we have the full compliment of allowable scholarships, are we appropriately evaluating talent or are there coaching issues (I hope not). When it comes to scholarship pethsps we have the numbers but Rutgers athletics has provided the $$ to recruit out of state plsyers. Maybe what is needed is to only back charge Rutgers athletics the tuition fee at the in state level thus being more fkrcible. Of course hard costs such as room, board, fees and books would be the same. But a modified tuition charge would help as it doesn't cost any more to have an out of state student in a classroom. This is where the University could give the athletic department paper dollars and I believe be within NCAA guidelines.

This post was edited on 3/4 9:48 AM by RU62

 

[Caliknight]

I can answer point one. We have the full allotment of scholarships, but at in state rates. Raising them to out of state rates is job number 1. We aren't playing with a full deck. I know Coach Brecht has gotten creative with some various types of academic aid, but this needs to be rectified. I know if you asked what is the first thing on the to do list, this is it. I'd be shocked if every other B1G program isn't being funded fully with out of state rates (outside of Hopkins where this doesn't matter).

 

[RU62]

Exactly Cali and thus goes for all sports. This is a joke. It says let's compete and you hsve the scholarships you need but just for in state players. All could be handled nicely with a paper credit. Then maybe things would be equal.