The difficulty of becoming an official sports club for LSU’s Department of University Recreation is something the women’s lacrosse club knows all too well.
The squad is currently in the process of upgrading its status from a university club to being recognized as one of the many UREC sports clubs.
The team was dropped as a UREC sports club in 2010 after general interest among team members and funding slowed.
Former women’s lacrosse president and current senior Mary Condo said the squad had plans to join the Southeastern Women’s Lacrosse League in 2010, but the money needed to attend SWLL away games proved too costly.
“It would’ve been a lot of traveling,” Condo said. “If we had joined the SWLL we would’ve had to travel to South Carolina and Florida.”
The team joined the Texas Women’s Lacrosse League instead, where the destinations are much closer.
After being released by the UREC, the team disbanded for a year before junior Kylee Rader and sophomore Erin Schwenzfeier approached Condo about reviving it.
The three formed the club which was reorganized as a Recreational Campus Life organization, but it didn’t regain its status as an official UREC sports club.
Condo said being a Campus Life organization isn’t a bad thing, but the perks of being a UREC club are certainly evident.
If accepted by the UREC, the team would get free access to the Student Adventure Complex and receive funding and advertising to benefit the team’s travels and other expenses.
Teams must meet certain criteria to be considered a UREC sports club. Some of these include registering with Campus Life as an active student organization, submitting names of at least 10 active student members and showing the club’s schedule of practices and competitions.
Rader said the squad has fulfilled most of the criteria at this point and is finalizing paperwork to submit to the Sport Clubs Advisory Council.
If the Sports Club Advisory Council and coordinator accepts the club after it submits all of its paperwork, it will enter a “provisional status” for a minimum of two years.
Rader said if accepted, she believes the now 20-woman squad would be a positive, one-of-a-kind addition to the UREC sports club community.
“Women’s lacrosse and men’s lacrosse are completely different,” she said. “We would definitely draw a unique fanbase that the UREC wouldn’t normally get.”
Condo said she thinks the club would be a great addition to the other sports clubs, but wants to make sure it fulfills all the requirements to ensure the program’s longevity this time around.
“It’s a lengthy process, but they want to make sure we’re going to last for years as a sport,” Condo said. “We want to show that we’ll be competitive as well as having a plan for the club’s future.”
The squad is now 2-2 in its TWLL season and will face North Texas and Tulane on Saturday at the SAC on River Road.
 
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Contact Morgan Wampold at [email protected]