St. Gregory’s gearing up for inaugural lacrosse season

By Jordan Beech

Oklahoma has long been home to successful men’s club lacrosse programs, but has never been the home of a varsity program. That changed in November 2013, when the St. Gregory’s University Athletic Department announced it would be adding men’s lacrosse to its sports offerings for the 2015 season.

Lacrosse is a sport played with ten athletes on each side on a field the size of a soccer field. It offers a unique blend of athleticism, combining aspects of basketball, soccer and hockey. While the sport has been a mainstay in the New England area for decades, it began to spread west beginning in the early 2000’s thanks to coverage of the NCAA Division I tournament on national television.

St. Gregory’s lacrosse coach Bryan Seaman. Photo courtesy SGU Sports Info.

Bryan Seaman, a native of Peabody, Mass., was introduced as St. Gregory’s coach earlier this year, and is tasked with leading the Cavaliers onto the field this spring. Seaman played collegiately at NCAA Division III Mount Ida College, where he served as captain. He brings more than 16 years of lacrosse experience as a player and coach.

St. Gregory’s will be the first varsity-level program in the state, which has seen massive growth at the high school level. Oklahoma high school teams from the Oklahoma City metro area, Tulsa, Shawnee and Durant compete in the Heartland Lacrosse Conference. For the past nine years, players from Oklahoma have been forced to look outside the state to continue their playing careers upon graduation if they wished to earn a scholarship. Now they have the opportunity to play in-state, which is reflected in the roster Seaman has constructed for the inaugural season that features five Oklahoma natives and three more who graduated from Oklahoma high schools.

Coming to campus during the middle of the spring season, Seaman and assistant coach Kevin Mulvey had to hit the pavement to construct a team ready to compete. Their roster features players from as close as Edmond and Yukon, as well as in-town products from the local Shawnee Lacrosse Club.

“From the guys we did find, we took a lot of guys in the area. We definitely found some diamonds in the rough,” said Seaman about the local crop of players. “There’s one guy from Edmond who plays for the Oklahoma City Knights who’s our captain now, we just named him captain after our fall season, who could have played at a lot of small to medium programs around the country.”

However, the coaching staff also showed they weren’t afraid to compete on the east coast, generally considered the hot bed of lacrosse talent. They were successful in earning in commitments from two Georgia high school standouts. The Cavaliers also signed one player from California.

“We got a guy out of California who is a really talented player and a real good athlete and a couple of guys out of Georgia,” said Seaman. “The guys that we did get are all hard workers and they’re all buying in to what we’re selling here. We’re trying to be a piece of the future here and trying to make history here at St. Greg’s. It’s definitely a good group and a real good foundation to build off of for the future.”

The NAIA currently does not sponsor lacrosse as a championship sport; however, NAIA schools in the region, such as St. Mary (Kan.), Ottawa (Kan.), Benedictine (Kan.) and Missouri Valley College all field, or have begun preparations to field, teams. This lack of support from the NAIA does not present a problem for these teams though, as they currently compete in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The MCLA is the premier league for men’s lacrosse outside of the NCAA. Several of its teams have made the jump to NCAA competition, most notably Michigan and Ohio State at the Division I level.

The Cavaliers will compete in the Lone Star Alliance (LSA) as a Division II member, though they will also compete against a couple of LSA Division I foes. St. Gregory’s non-conference schedule is highlighted by matches against North Texas, who finished fourth in the LSA North, and Oklahoma, who finished third in the LSA North.

“The Oklahoma game, we’re just looking to get a lot of excitement in the area. Oklahoma being a big, local name here, it’s kind of a hidden gym in the area here for lacrosse,” said Seaman about the non-conference schedule. “The North Texas game, for multiple reasons, we were looking for another out-of-conference game and it was convenient to the fact we were going down to play Dallas Baptist that weekend. Hopefully we rise to the occasion and get a W. We’re always looking for the win every game that we’re in.”

For their conference matches, St. Gregory’s will face in-state rivals Tulsa, who finished fourth in their first season of play since returning from hiatus, and Oklahoma State, returning to the field for the first time since 2012. The Cavaliers will also square off against Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, Dallas Baptist and the UT-Dallas. Coming into their first season of competition, St. Gregory’s are picked to finish seventh in the annual LSA Division II poll.

“The conference schedule should be fairly tough, but it is something that we’ll be ready for. We think we can put out a good showing and potentially get ourselves in the playoffs,” said Seaman when asked about the Cavs’ conference outlook. “We believe we can win every game that we’re in. I think we’ll be ready for when we do see conference play and we’re expecting to come out and win. Anything else will be a disappointment to us.”

The Cavaliers’ season begins with a scrimmage against Dallas-Irving on Feb. 7, 2015. A week later, their first true test awaits as they host Oklahoma at Fr. Victor Roberts Field on Feb. 14. No matter what happens this season, it will be a monumental step forward for lacrosse in Oklahoma.

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