Finding one college student to wake up at seven in the morning voluntarily is impressive. Finding 30 of them signifies commitment.
Every Monday and Wednesday DePaul’s club lacrosse team practices from 7:30-9 a.m. at Wish Field. The timeslot is the only time the field is available, which often is used by the school’s Division 1 sports ,such as softball or soccer.
“Dealing with the school is not the easiest thing in the world so it’s nice that we do it ourselves,” Peter Augustin, the club’s President and captain, said. “At the same time, it’s a headache. Wherever there’s a patch of grass, we’ll play.”
Augustin’s mentality, which he says carries over with the rest of the team, has led to DePaul Lacrosse’s best season since the inception in 2005.
The team’s record sits at 7-2 with two games in the regular season remaining, and the team is ranked No. 18 in the nation by the Men’s Club Lacrosse Association Division II coaches’ poll. The team hopes to make another run at nationals this year.
“It’s been a huge turnaround from the team that everyone would schedule on its senior night or to get an easy win to now being a contender for nationals every year,” Augustin, a senior, said. “It’s not really a one person league, but it’s the 30 guys on the team who have all bought into it.
“It used to be a beer league for the most part,” he said. “Guys would just come together because they enjoyed each other. This year it’s the same, but there’s a bigger focus on being a developed program. We were tired of being a laughing stock so we decided that we’d be good at lacrosse.”
The program’s culture started to shift last season. DePaul finished 9-3 and advanced to nationals for the first time in club history, where they lost in the first round to St. Thomas, 11-3. To get to nationals, the team won its conference playoffs.
With a taste of success, the team changed head coaches to provide more organizational structure. Charles Mayne, a 21-year-old transfer student, agreed to coach the team this season and Marcus Dent, who was the head coach last year, was switched to assistant.
Mayne transferred from Nazareth College, where he played Division III Lacrosse for two years. He’s using that experience to help guide the team.
“I was told that last year they didn’t run a single play, which I was kind of shocked at since I’ve been coached with set plays,” Mayne said. “One of my goals as an offensive coordinator was to come in and set structured plays so that it’s not just one guy doing his show and everyone is standing around watching.”
On the field, it’s translated to wins. In the first four games of the season, Mayne saw that the team had potential. They upset Missouri Valley, 11-10, who were the assumed conference favorites.
Furthermore, most of the team’s roster was on the team last season, allowing room for growth. Mayne and Augustin pointed to the team’s sophomores as really contributing in a big way. Dario Rovito, a sophomore from Naperville, Ill., leads the team in points with 4.4 a game. Another pair of sophomores, Michael Vaughn and Alex Cha also average 2.5 points per game.
They have already clinched the Northeast Division in the Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference.
“We’ve been really lucky at getting good talent in from kids all around the country,” Mayne said. “We have kids who take it seriously and want to take it to the next level.”
Augustin, who leads the team with 23 goals, says that it’s the team’s chemistry that makes them so successful.
“We try to be best friends,” Augustin said. “In a lot of ways, it’s a fraternity. But, we all get together for the same reason and that’s to win. We all have a bunch of guys who are good at lacrosse, but they all play together well because they’re friends.”