Joe Amplo and his exciting journey as the head coach for the brand new men’s lacrosse program at Marquette University has been chronicled for months.
This week the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the main daily newspaper in Milwaukee, wrote a piece about the program and its first victory, an 8-6 victory over Air Force earlier this month.
“It was youthful jubilation,” Amplo told the Journal-Sentinel. “It was one of the cooler experiences I’ve had in the coaching profession, just seeing the smiles and the looks on those guys’ faces. It was just one of those moments that you can’t script. It was fun. It was our first win. And it will never happen again.”
The article goes into a brief tale of building the program and recruiting, and spells out the basics of lacrosse, which shows how unique it is for that area of the country to have a full-fledged Division I mens and women’s lacrosse program.
“Lacrosse, a fast-paced sport of American Indian origin, is popular in Canada and on the East Coast. It is among the fastest-growing sports in the United States, though it is still a bit of a curiosity in Wisconsin and even on the Marquette campus. The sport has elements of basketball, soccer and hockey. Players use a long-handled stick with a basket of loose mesh to catch, carry and pass a small, hard rubber ball. The object is to score by shooting the ball into the opponent’s goal.”
Amplo undoubtably will continue tapping into the tri-state area for recruiting, but his school’s newfound lacrosse presence will help grow the sport tremendously in the midwest, just as the growth of the University of Denver’s program under Bill Tierney has.
“There are some pretty good athletes in this area,” Amplo said. “I just don’t think there’s enough serious lacrosse players yet. Certainly there are athletes in this area that we’d consider. I think in the next couple of years there’s going to be a few of those guys who pop up.”
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro