"University of Denver Men's Lacrosse Coach Tierney talks of finding hidden talent in California and Texas and, most of all, Colorado, but he knows the majority of elite players still reside in the East."
(From Colorado Springs Gazette.com) Peg Bradley-Doppes started an earthquake in the insular world of college lacrosse when she swiped coach Bill Tierney from Princeton.
It was an audacious move by Denver’s athletic director, but Bradley-Doppes has audacious plans.
“I want to win a national championship,” she said.
That sounds great. It really does. It also sounds impossible.
Since 1971, seven schools have won the NCAA lacrosse title, and each of the schools is within 270 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The DU campus is 1,500 miles from the Atlantic. That’s a long swim.
Tierney and Bradley-Doppes seek a lacrosse revolution. They plan to construct an elite team on the edge of the Rockies, far from where the sport is played at its highest level.
Good luck on that one.
Lacrosse, a complex, fascinating sport, has long been dominated by athletes from upstate New York, Long Island and Baltimore.
It’s also been a sport of the economically elite. Trust me on this one.
I covered the college Final Four several times in the 1990s, and walking through the parking lot before games always carried adventure. It was as if I had landed in preppie heaven.
This was a realm where men really were known as Buff, Skip and Scooter, where BMWs and Benzes were the vehicles of choice, where everyone was bemoaning the high prices in Paris.
The game is changing, but slowly. Lacrosse ranks as the fastest growing team sport in the U.S. It’s catching on all over the West.
But there’s a lot of catching up to do. Tierney talks of finding hidden talent in California and Texas and, most of all, Colorado, but he knows the majority of elite players still reside in the East.
Syracuse won its second straight title this season, and virtually every player who saw action hails from east of the Mississippi.
Tierney understands the odds, but he embraces Bradley-Doppes’ plan. He won six national titles with Princeton during an amazing run from 1992 to 2001. He traveled to DU to win No. 7.
“We’re going to do great things,” he said.
He knows it won’t be easy. During 22 seasons at Princeton, his Tigers never traveled by plane to a game. Every opponent on the schedule offered an easy bus ride.
Now, the best teams are hundreds of miles away.
One promising team is a quick bus drive from the DU campus. The Air Force Falcons finished 7-7 this season, including a 10-7 triumph at DU. The teams will again battle in 2010.
Air Force coach Eric Seremet started for North Carolina’s 1991 national title team. He knows what elite lacrosse is all about.
He has his own lofty goals.
“I think we’re all after the same thing,” Seremet said. “And that’s to get on the national stage.”
Seremet has enormous respect for Tierney, and he’s glad his new rival earns a fat contract from DU. Bradley-Doppes told the Denver Post that Tierney could earn $250,000 per season, huge money by lacrosse standards.
Still, Seremet is not intimidated by the Tierney invasion.
“I don’t think this changes my life at all,” Seremet said. “It just means we have a nice rivalry right up the highway.”
Tierney’s arrival in Colorado is great news. The minute he set foot in our state, lacrosse took a massive leap forward.
But a national title?
No way.
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