JACKSON, Miss. - Millsaps College
President Dr. Frances Lucas and the Millsaps College Board of
Trustees announced at the April 17 board meeting that the college
will add men's and women's lacrosse as varsity sports beginning in
the 2010-2011 school year.
"Millsaps College is widely recognized for our strong tradition of
successful scholar-athletes," Lucas said. "The new lacrosse teams
will allow us to build on this tradition by offering more varsity
opportunities for our students."
Millsaps will be the first college or university in Mississippi to
add lacrosse as a conference-affiliated intercollegiate
sport.
Lacrosse, which has been a women's club sport at Millsaps since
2005, is one of the fastest-growing high school sports. During a
10-year period between 1997 and 2007, the sport showed a 200
percent growth, according to the National Federation of State High
School Associations.
"The addition of lacrosse will make Millsaps College more
attractive to prospective students who want to play the sport as
part of their college experience. We can recruit students more
competitively at the national level," said Dr. Brit Katz, vice
president for student life and dean of students.
With the addition of the lacrosse teams, Millsaps' athletic program
will now field eight programs for men and eight for women. Women's
varsity sport offerings are: basketball, cross country, golf,
soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Men's offerings included:
baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, football, soccer and
tennis. The new teams will begin competing in 2010-2011.
"A national search for both the men's and women's lacrosse team
coaches is currently underway. A college of Millsaps' great
academic stature will attract terrific applicants," said Tim Wise,
director of athletics at Millsaps College.
Millsaps College is a member of the Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference. Five other schools have men's lacrosse teams
including Birmingham-Southern College, Colorado College, Hendrix
College, Southwestern University and the University of the South.
Four conference schools have women's lacrosse teams.