Michigan State fires Hicks, Cooper

According to a post on their team Twitter account last night (and several people getting in touch to fill me in), Michigan State’s MCLA team has fired head coach Dwayne Hicks and assistant Chris Cooper.

The tweets themselves:

We have parted ways with head coach Dwayne Hicks and assistant coach Chris Cooper. We wish them the best of luck in future endeavors.

They are both class acts & helped us reach new program heights. We will continued to grow our program off the foundation they helped build.

I can’t help but think this is an awful decision for Michigan State. As mentioned, the program reached new heights under Hicks, and I have a very hard time they’ll continue to grow – at least without a couple big steps back – under new leadership, barring an unexpected blockbuster hire. My sources indicate that it was not a mutual parting of ways (as implied by the first tweet), but rather both being axed by the players, and unexpectedly at that.

And here is one of the problems with the MCLA. There are the teams that really want to succeed, and work to become top programs: the Michigans, Colorado States, and BYUs of the world. There are also teams that really want to just have a good time continuing their lacrosse careers as a casual club deal in college. Both are fine, but when coaches are caught in the crossfire, things can get pretty awkward.

All indications are that a lot of the Michigan State players would prefer to be a team that posts things like this on their official Twitter account:

These ground ball battles are getting sloppier then a sorority girl on a Saturday night at ricks.

Oakland coach chirping our shorts. #hardo

…than one that’s willing to do what Coach Hicks asked of them to contend for national championships. At the end of the day, that’s their right – it’s a club league, after all – but results don’t come without hard work.

The coaching hire for the Spartans will play a huge role in determining the future of their program, and (to a lesser extent now that Davenport is moving up), of MCLA-1 in the state.