[
THE SCOOP] lifestyles continued from page 25
Navy has won four straight Patriot
women’s titles, a streak that the fledging Army program will no doubt enjoy breaking if it has the chance. “We want to be as good as you can be, as quickly as we can be,” Army athletic director Eugene “Boo” Corrigan said. “Our plan is to have a coach soon and allow them to go through an entire academic year here at West Point, because we’re really a unique entity in Division I athletics and we want whatever coach we get to know how things are.” The decision to add the sport — the first women’s varsity sport that Army had added since women's soccer in 1984 — came quickly in reaction to both Corrigan’s arrival as AD in 2011, and a recent policy change that removed restrictions on women soldiers in Army combat. The academy is hoping to bolster the enrollment of female cadets. Corrigan comes from as rich a lacrosse background as one could imagine. His father, Gene, is a Hall of Famer. His brother, Kevin, is the Notre Dame men's coach. And his wife, Kristen (Aceto), is a former Virginia and Team USA player. Corrigan also had worked in administrative roles at Notre Dame, Duke and Navy. The whole process at Army took less than 18 months from genesis to announcement. Support was quickly gained with Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, Superintendent at West Point, and Brig. Gen. Richard D. Clarke, Commandant. Several other Division I coaches expressed their support. Duke’s Kerstin Kimel and North Carolina’s Jenny Levy, who had some ties to Corrigan’s wife, participated in the online announcement of the new program, which became the 493rd school overall to sponsor a NCAA women’s program, and 111th in Division I to field a team by spring 2016. As of press time, Central Michigan, Dayton, Virginia Commonwealth and Radford (Va.) had also announced plans to add for that season. “We’re excited to be a part now of what women’s lacrosse is at the Division I level,” Corrigan said. “We’re thrilled as an institution about all that the game brings to young women and the lessons that can be learned as a player. We think it’s really something that’s going to feed well into who we are at Army and what we produce, which is great second lieutenants going into the United States Army.” LM
26 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2014>>
Kyle Harrison, who co-founded the LXM Pro Tour in 2009, was picked up by the MLL's Ohio Machine after an agreement that allowed players to participate in both entities.
MLL, LXM REACH DEAL
The Major League Lacrosse-LXM Pro Tour détente happened rather quickly, once the elephant in the room, or over the phone, was addressed.
There had been debate since late 2009 — when LXM Pro was founded in affiliation with Adrenaline, a San Diego-based apparel line and retail chain. What was better: the new LXM barnstorming tour or the already-existing MLL, which had its first full season in 2001? Or was it even close? The debate continued with each new season; each time LXM announced a slate of events in developing lacrosse areas, or each time a notable player like 2011 Tewaaraton Award winner Peter Baum or former Virginia midfielder Shamel Bratton took his talents to the Southern California-based group, even after being picked in the first round of the MLL collegiate draft.
The talk could be hard to ignore, but there’s no need to deflect it anymore. Adrenaline and MLL agreed to a partnership in February that allows LXM players to play in MLL, and vice versa. “On both sides, I think the concern was mostly the stuff that was floating in the air before we actually got on the phone and talked,” said Adrenaline CEO Alex Cade,
who placed an initial call to MLL commissioner Dave Gross. Gross worked for the Boston Cannons when the former Notre Dame All- American goalie Cade briefly played for the MLL franchise. “As I suspected, we’re way more on the same page about a lot of things than the world might suspect. It was refreshing. It was awesome," Cade said. "It feels good to be able to talk about each other.”
Cade agreed as part of the deal that LXM would not hold events during MLL season nor in markets in which the pro league had existing franchises. He also said the players have been looking to play in both entities and as he evaluated possible LXM stops for the upcoming year, he foresaw forcing some to make a “terrible decision.” In the wake of the announcement — which came during the same week in which MLL announced an equipment sponsorship agreement with STX and a 24-game television schedule on CBS Sports Network, including the semifinals and league championship — MLL re-opened its player pool to LXM players and any others interested in signing up. About two weeks later, the Ohio Machine picked Kyle Harrison first in a special
waiver wire process. Shamel Bratton went to New York, Sam Bradman to Rochester and Shamel’s twin, Rhamel, to the defending MLL champion Bayhawks. Baum, on the Machine’s 23-man protected roster in the offseason, signed an MLL contract in the meantime. “The goal was always to have people play in both,” said Harrison, who helped co-found LXM, last played in MLL in 2009, and is in the running to make the final Team USA roster for July’s Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) World Championship. “Clearly, it took a little while to get there. That is no one’s fault, and nobody is putting blame anywhere. I’m super excited to have the opportunity to play in MLL and LXM in the offseason, and continue to play the game at a high level.” The impetus for the moves was MLL’s decision in Aug. 2012 to open up its equipment categories to sponsors other than Warrior, Brine and Cascade. “We wanted to work with everyone,” Gross said. “It was a big goal of ours. This is a fragmented sport. For the sport to really grow and grow to its potential we have to get away from being fragmented and be unified. These are some good first steps.”
— Corey McLaughlin A Publication of US Lacrosse
©DIRK DEWACHTER
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