1. Summer Carthaginian 201516 17carthage.edu
ATHLETICSATHLETICS
The Carthage men’s
lacrosse roster doesn’t
read as you might expect for
an institution with historically
strong ties to southeastern
Wisconsin and Chicagoland.
Twenty-five of the 35 players
on the 2015 roster came from
west of the Mississippi River.
Ten came from California, and
another seven from Colorado.
The team also pulls from
traditional lacrosse hotbeds like
Massachusetts and New York. In all,
the Red Men represented 12 states and
one other country (Japan) this past spring.
“We were successful with some kids from
the west early, and I think that really bridged
some pipelines,” said head coach David Neff, who
has led the program since its inaugural season in
2009. “I definitely targeted those areas.”
Coach Neff said lacrosse players from
the western half of the United States
tend to play the up-tempo style he
favors. Although the East Coast’s
chokehold on the sport has loosened
a bit, Carthage remains one of the
westernmost lacrosse programs in
NCAA Division III.
Red all over
1
10
2
2
7 1
1
1
6 1
1
Geography plus quality made the College an easy
choice for Billy Lane ’17.
“If you want good academics and a good
lacrosse program without going all the way out
east, and outstanding coaching, Carthage is the
spot for you,” said Billy, a public relations major
from Centennial, Colorado.
Like Billy, co-captain James Fleming III ’15
of Newport Beach, California, said the campus
touched him. He played four years for the Red
Men and graduated in May with a degree in
management. Next season, James will work as a
graduate assistant.
“I fell in love with the campus. It was so pretty,”
he said. “The facilities are awesome.”
The Red Men play and practice on Art Keller
Field. They can move practice indoors to the N. E.
Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center, if needed.
From 2009 to 2014, lacrosse was easily the
country’s fastest-growing sport at both the high
school and collegiate levels. One of the hottest
pockets of growth has been in the West.
Coach Neff hit on something that worked in
recruiting from that region and decided to stick
what worked as he built the program from scratch.
“In part, we found we could get a better player
with the bigger pools of talent in some of these
areas,” he said. “As long as they were continuing to
come, I was going to continue to push.”
The 2015 team had six members from Illinois
and none from Wisconsin, but the sport’s surge
in Carthage’s backyard could benefit the program.
According to US Lacrosse, the sport’s domestic
governing body, Wisconsin had the highest
percentage of growth in youth and high school
lacrosse participation between 2002 and 2014.
“Even for me, I’m a little surprised at how diverse
we’ve become,” Coach Neff said. “I’m trying to get
back to getting some of the local talent.”
Merging personalities from such diverse locales
poses no issues for the players.
“There’s nothing like that that I’ve seen – no big
personality differences coming from the East Coast
or West Coast,” James said. “It’s not hard to get
along with anybody else just because they’re from a
different area.”
They came together this past season, leading
Carthage to its first College Conference of Illinois
and Wisconsin lacrosse title and the program’s first
berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.
Although that NCAA experience lasted just one
game, the young squad that made program history
lost just four seniors to graduation.
“We have a lot of room for growth, and we
can take that further,” Billy said. “I think we’re
happy with making the tournament – I think we’re
unhappy with how it ended.”
Men’s laxers pull talent
from coast to coast
geographically desirable
A breakdown, by state, of the players on
Carthage’s 2015 men’s lacrosse roster
Other states represented since 2010
NOTE: The Red Men also have had players from Canada and Japan.