After weeks of gathering signatures, recruiting players and creating bylaws, Olivia Ross is putting the finishing touches on organizing a girl's lacrosse team.
"I am hoping to get everything finalized by next Wednesday or Thursday and turn it in to the office of student leadership and involvement in the University Center," Ross, a broadcast journalism sophomore, said. "I will hopefully get a response by the second week of November, and then we can start organizing practices."
Ross graduated from St. Benedict in 2012 and has played lacrosse since eighth grade. Being unable to play lacrosse in college became problematic for the avid athlete.
"I knew the men's lacrosse coach, Garrett, from St. Benedict, and I talked to him about starting a team, and he said he would give me whatever I needed," she said. "I reached out to the girls I played with at St. Benedict over the summer and had some responses with girls in my classes."
Ross had to gather signatures and University ID numbers from at least 10 women.
"The whole process was really stressful. I did not know if I had 10 people and kept trying to get the word out," she said. "Luckily, during my basketball class, I was reading over the bylaws and a classmate asked about it. I told her about what I was doing it and she decided to join."
Alex Thompson, a sports and exercise sophomore, was very eager to join the team. Thompson almost accepted a scholarship from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., to play on its lacrosse team.
"I have played lacrosse for five years and really wanted to play in college," Thompson said. "I helped Olivia out getting more players by sending Facebook messages to girls I played against in high school."
The University allocates $1,000 to club sports to cover all expenses, including travel, gear, jerseys and referees.
"Our players basically pay for everything out of pocket," said Garrett Wimberly, the U of M men's lacrosse coach. "We do fundraising events like carwashes and summer leagues for middle school players, that reduces the fee to about $300 per player."
Jon Duncan, coordinator of Student Recreation Services, said that the club sports program match up to $1,500 worth of fundraising dollars.
"University of Memphis is a blue collar school, so $300 is a lot for some of our players," Wimberly said. "A lot of players have to pick up extra shifts at work, which cuts into our practice time."
In addition to scarce funds, Wimberly's team cannot use the Memphis Tiger's logo on any of their gear. They are the only team in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association without a logo.
"The logo would really benefit us. We want to feel like we are representing the school to the best of our ability," Wimberly said. "I think if the student body came to more of our games and were more involved with us, we might get a shot at being able to use the logo."
The men's team currently holds practices on Memorial Field and games on the intramural fields near the campus recreation center. Wimberly said he refuses to hold games on Memorial Field because it is dangerous.
"The marching band uses Memorial Field to practice on, all of that stomping up and down with heavy instruments has caused huge waves in the field, and when it rains these spots hold deep puddles of water," Wimberly said. "One of our guys could break their ankle, and it is also dangerous for walkers or runners to be exercising where balls are flying at 90 m.p.h."
Ross said she doesn't want anyone interested in joining the women's lacrosse team to feel intimidated to come out play because of lack of experience.
"I will hold additional practices for anyone who wants help and let them meet with the coach before we start our conference to see if they enjoy it," Ross said. "Even if they do not excel at the sport, I will keep them on the team. Lacrosse isn't a sport you can immediately catch, I would work with them and help them out anyway I can."
