Central Michigan adds women’s lacrosse

First, the press release:

MOUNT PLEASANT – Central Michigan University celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Title IX legislation today in grand style as the CMU Board of Trustees unanimously approved the addition of women’s golf and women’s lacrosse.

The women’s golf team is scheduled to begin competition during the 2014-15 academic year, while the lacrosse program will start play in 2015-16. The addition of the programs will continue Central Michigan’s long-standing compliance with Title IX and will provide equitable athletics participation and education opportunities for both men and women.

“This is truly an exciting day for Central Michigan University and our athletics program as we continue to provide additional opportunities for young women to pursue their athletic and academic dreams,” CMU Director of Athletics Dave Heeke said. “These sports are great additions to our overall program and will attract outstanding student-athletes who will contribute to our Championship Culture.”

With the addition of these two programs, the university will offer a total of 18 sport programs – 11 for women and seven for men.

“Since Title IX was passed 40 years ago, and years prior to the passage of this amendment, we have taken pride in the leadership of our administration as they provided opportunities for women student-athletes”, said Executive Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator Marcy Weston. “These new opportunities are just another step toward maintaining our culture of compliance.”

Fastest-growing sport finds its way to CMU

The athletics department will have a women’s lacrosse head coach by the spring of 2014.  The coach will develop a recruiting base and competition schedule in 2014-15, to be ready for competition in the 2015-16 season.

Adding the fastest growing women’s sport both at the high school and collegiate level will make Central Michigan the only MAC institution to field a women’s lacrosse team at this time.

According to the US Lacrosse Participation Survey, the number of women’s lacrosse teams at the NCAA level increased 30.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, and the number of high school girls’ teams increased 48.4 percent. The USL survey also revealed Michigan’s 8,075 youth players as the ninth-highest total in the country.

Committee’s work not yet complete

Following nine months of research, the Gender Equity Committee, as part of its charge to maintain Title IX compliance into the future, recommended the addition of two female sports programs at the September 20 Board of Trustees meeting.

“We looked at what is popular in our state and our region,” committee chairperson Dr. Judy Chandler of the physical education and sport department said. “We considered how we would have the greatest opportunity to recruit here in Michigan first and we also wanted sports that would fit both our university and Mount Pleasant communities.”

The committee, charged by CMU President Dr. George E. Ross in January 2011, also reported at the September meeting it found equal treatment of male and female student-athletes during its rigorous review of scholarships and other programmatic benefits such as facilities, practice times, tutoring, travel, apparel, equipment and marketing.

“I am very pleased that the committee’s work validated the overall excellence of our athletic program and our strong commitment to all student-athletes and their experience,” said Heeke.

The board’s resolution also states that the committee will continue to investigate the possibility of adding as many as two more undetermined sports at a later date.

…and a few thoughts:

Huge for the Sport. Duh. The Chippewas will be the state’s third Division-1 women’s lacrosse team, joining Detroit and Michigan. It’s a sign of the growth in the game – especially given that popularity of the sport in this state was specifically cited by the trustees as a reason for adding it.

Huge for the Already-extant Teams. There’s a bit of a positive-feedback loop in my mind when it comes to adding more programs in the state. Of course, the Titans and Wolverines will have one more easy trip to take come spring 2016, but I also think programs are more likely to travel from far away if they can get multiple games out of a road trip. That boosts all three teams. I think it’s a bigger boost for Detroit, who will likely end up in the same conference (a women’s B1GLax Conference seems inevitable at this point, with six programs participating).

Bad for Men’s Lacrosse at Central. CMU was nowhere on the radar for adding men’s lacrosse at the Division-1 level, but even with a huge boom in programs (which, while possible, doesn’t appear to be on the horizon either), Central will be lagging behind in likelihood to add the sport. The press release specifically cites working toward Title IX compliance as a motivating factor for adding two women’s sports, with the implication that two more women’s sports will be added going forward. That means adding any men’s sport – including lacrosse – is unlikely.

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One Response to Central Michigan adds women’s lacrosse

  1. Clark Bell says:

    I think it is funny that Central Michigan did this for Title IX compliance reasons. I support Title IX. I think it is great that the CMU administration is doing what it should to maintain compliance. But I don’t hear them talking about the benefits to the school for adding Lacrosse.

    If you asked someone in New Jersey about CMU they would likely tell you they hear that Carnegie Mellon has a great engineering school. Central Michigan? Never heard of it. But now all of a sudden you have another place where Meghan or any of her friends can continue to play at a Division 1 level. It has bought them exposure on the East coast.

    It won’t be for many years but this should have a beneficial effect on Women’s lacrosse in Michigan. We are in desperate need of women’s lacrosse coaches in the state. This will help bring us more women knowledgeable about the game to the state and hopefully after graduation they will stick around to make an impact. Too bad it won’t be for more than a few years. We are starting to see some ladies come back from playing elsewhere but the need is huge and growing.

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