Truman State University’s women’s club lacrosse team competes in the Central Plains Women’s Lacrosse League against schools such as the University of Missouri, the University of Arkansas and the University of Kansas.
The club is funded through the team’s own personal fundraising and by the Funds Allotment Council and is advised by nursing professor Pam Melvin, co-captain Katelynn Wilson said.
The team had a mac-n-cheese delivery fundraiser before Thanksgiving break and raised over $100, Wilson said. Wilson said the money will go toward lacrosse equipment, such as jerseys, uniforms and goalie gear.
The season will end before Easter, but even though it’s a spring sport, they held fall practices and team bonding activities, Wilson said.
Wilson said the club has been active since the ’90s and has continued to be a struggling club each year.
She said when she joined the club, she and senior co-captain Whitney Ebert were the only freshmen on the team.
“Our sophomore year when everyone graduated it was just us two, so we kind of had to build the club back from the ground up,” Wilson said.
Ebert said she thinks the club struggles because it’s not a very popular sport played in the Midwest and a lot of Truman students don’t know the sport is an option. She said she didn’t even know exactly what lacrosse was until she went to the Activities Fair her freshman year.
Ebert and Wilson did a lot of advertising their sophomore year, including word of mouth and tabling for the club.
Now the team has about 30 members. Despite the losses, the team’s main objective is to have fun and teach those who have never played lacrosse before, Wilson said.
Sophomore Tori Strege said she heard about the club at the Activities Fair and joined because she wanted an easy and laid back way to continue playing the game after high school.
Wilson and Ebert run the practices in the Blue Room at the Student Recreation Center and begin their practices with cradling, catching and throwing, followed by passing drills and ending with a scrimmage.
Ebert said the team is welcoming to new players and laid back when it comes to practices and games. She also said the team always tries to encourage people to join, even if it’s just to try something new because over half the team has no prior experience with lacrosse.
“We have a couple of plays and specific things, but sometimes it’s hard to do that because a lot of our girls are new, so we’re just trying to get the basics done first before,” Wilson said. “So if we do have plays it’s only a few and it’s only with the girls who know how to play lacrosse.”
Since Wilson is graduating, she said she will probably pass off her position as co-captain to someone who knows lacrosse and has a background in the sport before joining the club so they can promote it and help teach the newcomers how to play.
She might even give the new co-captains a set plan so the club doesn’t go under after her and Ebert leave, Wilson said.
Wilson said the goals this season are to get as many girls as possible on the team, have fun and maybe win a couple games.