UT joins lacrosse boom among Florida colleges

Lacrosse, a mainstay sport at Northeast colleges, finally has roots in Florida, which has five NCAA Division II programs.

Coach Rory Whipple, who launched the University of Tampa's program this year, has done more than his part. This is his third go-around at building from scratch. His 28 seasons as a coach include start-ups at Florida Southern College and Bryant (R.I.) College.

"I've been very fortunate … to come to the University of Tampa," said Whipple, who led the Spartans to their inaugural win Friday - ironically against FSC, where coached for two years before coming to UT. "This has been the easiest school to start at program at."

The task begins with finding players. Whipple, the winningest active coach in Division II with 229 wins, hit the Northeast hard and found several athletes interested in coming to the Sunshine State.

"We want to be the college that's recruiting the best kids from Florida to come to Tampa," Whipple said. "Also, the local kids - it's booming at the high school level."

Several Florida high schools field FHSAA-sanctioned teams, but in the Bay area, it's mostly private schools such as Jesuit, Tampa Prep and Berkeley Prep. There are several club squads, however.

Among the local players at UT is junior Eric Dance, who also played football at Freedom High School. Dance, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound defenseman, spent two years at Salisbury (Md.) University – playing in 15 games - before transferring to his hometown college.

The attraction to lacrosse is "just the speed," said Dance, a UT captain. "It's just so fast. Everything is moving."

"Football is all military-style. You have to do whatever it is the coach likes. Everything is play by play. But here, you've got to think for yourself, freelance a little bit," said Dance, who earned All-America honors in 2009 for Freedom's lacrosse squad.

Two others from Tampa, sophomore Ryan Becker, and freshman M.J. Lorenzo, attended St. Andrews Prep in Palm Beach. Becker transferred to UT after a year at New York's C.W. Post.

The Spartans believe it's just a matter of time before more Florida prep athletes opt for lacrosse.

"You still get your full dose of the violent-ness you see in football," said Greg Khanzadian, a team captain who played at Roanoke (Va.) College and Stony Brook (N.Y.) before transferring to UT for his senior year.

"Having just this model and this program for them to look to and learn from is going to help this sport grow exponentially in the next few years," said Khanzadian, who attended high school in New Jersey.

The Florida schools play in the Deep South Conference, which also has four teams from North Carolina. The other state schools are Florida Southern, Saint Leo, Florida Institute of Technology and Rollins - longtime UT rivals from the Sunshine State Conference.

Tampa's next game will be the first of five straight road contests at Wingate (N.C.) on Friday.