Loyola Greyhounds men's lacrosse

Loyola Greyhounds
Loyola Greyhounds logo
Founded	1938
University	Loyola University Maryland
Conference	ECAC
Location	Baltimore, Maryland
Coach	Charley Toomey (since 2005)
Stadium	Rev. Harold Ridley, S.J. Intercollegiate Athletic Complex (capacity: 6,000)
Nickname	Greyhounds
Colors	Green and Grey
NCAA Tournament Runner-Up
1990
NCAA Tournament Final Fours
1990, 1998, 2012
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
1998, 1999, 2012
NCAA Tournament Appearances
1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012
Conference Tournament Champions
2012
Conference Regular Season Champions
2012

The Loyola University Greyhounds are the NCAA Division I men's collegiate lacrosse team that represents Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland. The Greyhounds are members of the ECAC Lacrosse League.

Loyola, a Jesuit university with over 3,700 undergraduates, has produced 13 USILA First Team All Americans, 25 Second Team All-Americans, 18 Third Team All-Americans, and 68 Honorable Mention All-Americans.^[1][2][3] The Greyhounds local rivals are the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, located just down Charles Street. The annual lacrosse game played between these two institutions is known as the "Battle of Charles Street".^[4] Until recently, the 'Hounds' conference rival in the ECAC was the Georgetown Hoyas. However, beginning in the 2010 season, Georgetown has left the ECAC and joined the newly-established Big East lacrosse conference. According to Coach Charley Toomey, the Hoyas will remain a nonconference opponent.^[5]

History

Beginnings

The Loyola Greyhounds men's lacrosse team was founded in 1938 and coached by Jack Kelly.^[6] Kelly coached five seasons before leaving after 1942, with an overall winning record consisting of 21 wins and 14 losses. The Greyhounds struggled after Kelly left, going through two coaches in two seasons, both of which did not break .250. In 1947 began the reign of the program's longest active coach until that time, Bishop Baker. Baker coached for six consecutive seasons, almost breaking even with wins and losses. He was followed by John Mohler, who only coached for one year.^[7]

The Wenzel years

For 17 seasons, from 1954 to 1970, the Greyhounds were coached by Charles Wenzel. Under Wenzel, the Greyhounds went .379.^[8]

Cottle's revival

From 1983 to 2001, for almost two decades under Head Coach Dave Cottle, Loyola saw growth in to their lacrosse program. In 1982, Loyola moved up from NCAA Division II lacrosse.^[1]Starting in 1983 Cottle, brought the Greyhounds national attention. The Greyhounds advanced to the 1990 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship game where they were defeated by the Syracuse Orangemen.^[9] The 1990 championship, however, was revoked from Syracuse when investigations deemed the activity between coach Roy Simmons Jr.'s wife Nancy and star player Paul Gait illegal. She signed the lease of his car earlier that season. Though the NCAA has yet to remove Syracuse from the record book, Loyola was the runner up and technically is the next in line for the trophy.^[10] In 1999, the Greyhounds went undefeated in the regular season.^[11] before losing in the quarterfinals of the 1999 NCAA tournament. His run lasted 19 seasons, beginning in 1983 through 2001. He coached his teams to a winning record of 181 wins and 70 losses.^[12]

Toomey

Following Cottle's long coaching tenure, Loyola hired Bill Dirrigl as their head coach. After four seasons Dirrigl stepped down and Loyola graduate Charley Toomey took over as head coach in 2006. In both 2007 and 2008, Toomey led the Greyhounds to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament.^[13][14] The 2010 and 2011 NCAA lacrosse championships will be held at M&T Bank Stadium. Loyola, will work in conjunction with Johns Hopkins, Towson, and UMBC to run these. ^[15] The Hounds failed to advance to the 2009 NCAA lacrosse playoffs despite having the ninth place RPI, the third highest strength of schedule, and a 9-5 record. Instead Brown gained the slot because of their wins over Cornell and University of Massachusetts. Brown had an RPI of twelve, their schedule ranked a low of thirty six, and were ranked third in the Ivy League.^[16] Coach Toomey compared the 2009 Greyhound's dilemma to that of the 2006 Harvard squad saying, "I can remember in 2006, Harvard gets in at 6-6, losing their last three games, and they said, ‘It’s not a numbers thing, it’s a strength-of-schedule thing.’ … So what is it going to be? Is it going to be big wins or numbers? If it’s numbers, we look doggone good. If it’s about big wins, then we might be on the outside looking in."^[17] Harvard made the tournament over Toomey's squad that season, the reason being that their 'big wins' were not as competitive as Harvard's record, RPI and SOS. RPI vs. Big wins has been a very large argument in the NCAA tournament selection process the past few years.^[18]

Annual Record Men's Lacrosse

Players

The Greyhounds have graduated many All-American players: thirteen first team, twenty five second team, eighteen third team, and sixty eight honorable mentions. Many have also played professionally. There have been twenty three National Lacrosse League players and twelve Major League Lacrosse players.^[3]

Alumni in the MLL

The following Loyola lacrosse players are currently or have played Major League Lacrosse.

References

General

• "2008 Men's Lacrosse Media Guide". Loyola College. http://loyolagreyhounds.cstv.com/sports/m-lacros/archive/021508aaa.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
• "Official Men's Lacrosse Homepage". Loyola College. http://loyolagreyhounds.cstv.com/sports/m-lacros/locl-m-lacros-body.html. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 

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