New changes in store for the SELC

This article is originally from CollegeLAX.

By Colleen O’Connell

On Sunday, September 17th the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC) held their annual Fall meeting in Atlanta, coming up with some new changes for the upcoming 2007 season. Among those changes were the addition of two teams, new divisions in the SELC-A Division, a new tournament set-up for SELC-B Division, and additional eligibility checks. Also, the league will have a new look, a new website that is.

New to the SELC in 2007 will be the University of Miami Hurricanes and the Kennesaw State Owls. Miami will be joining the A-Division while Kennesaw State joins the B-Division. KSU is located in Kennesaw, Georgia – a northern suburb of Atlanta.

“Kennesaw State was a club team last year that scheduled plenty of games against SELC teams,” said SELC Vice-President Ken Lovic. “They are very organized, have the school's support, and have great coaching.”

“Miami has been ready to go to the next level,” added Lovic. “With the addition of Miami, the SELC now has all the non-varsity ACC lacrosse teams, with the exception of Boston College, who is part of the Pioneer League.”

Kennesaw State’s team has only been around since October 2005. In less than a year, the Owls have gone 8-4 while playing against teams in the SELC or those trying to get accepted into the league. Already, the Owls are looking to make a major impact on the division.

“Our immediate goal for the year is to be a playoff team,” said KSU Head Coach Ken Byers.

“We hope to have good competition in our first year,” said team president Brett Davies. “With the talent we have coming in, we hope to be in the top half of the division. We did well against those SELC teams that we played against.”

Miami, a former member of the Florida Lacrosse League (FLL), becomes the final “big” Florida school to join the SELC. The 2007 season will mark Miami’s sixth year since the club was reformed.

“While in the FLL, we faced the University of Tampa, Eckerd, and Palm Beach Atlantic,” said team president Steven LeGuizamo. “Last year, we played MDIA teams UC Davis and Pittsburgh.”

For the Hurricanes, the process to becoming part of the SELC has been a bit of a process. The idea of joining came up a couple of years ago, but decided to hold off for one year. The Hurricanes applied again this past summer and received admittance.

“It was a relief and definitely elation among the team,” said LeGuizamo. “We had been trying to prepare for this for the last year. When we applied in the summer, we held a team meeting to explain what was going to be expected. The dedication was there. We do not want to enter the league and get blown away by other teams. It is what we wanted to do.”

With the addition of Miami, the size of the SELC-A Division increased to 16 teams and three divisions – North, Central, and South. Located in the North Division are Clemson, East Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest. The Central Division is composed of Auburn, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt.

The South Division will include all the SELC-A Florida schools – Central Florida, Florida, Florida State, Miami and South Florida. With three divisions, the playoff structure has changed just slightly with the top two teams of each division receiving playoff bids.

The SELC-B will still have two divisions; however it will have a different playoff structure. New in 2007 will be a quarterfinal round for the B-Division teams.

“Competition-wise, the B-Division is equal to the A-Division,” said Lovic. “There has been an increase in dues for them because of everything that is required for those two games. But they have warranted it.”

The SELC tournament is set to take place on April 20-22 at Northview High School and Georgia Tech. The only games that will be played at Georgia Tech will be the two SELC-B quarterfinal games. All others will occur at Northview H.S., site of the last two years� conference championships.

In order to make sure all teams are compliant with the MCLA, the SELC added an additional eligibility check. In previous years, SELC teams were required to go through two checks. The league is now instituting three checks with the third coming after the final drop date.

“Previously, the second check was only required for teams that made it to the tournament,” said Lovic. “The third check just allows us to further make sure that all teams are in compliance.”

Later in the fall, the conference is expected to launch a new cyberspace look. With the help of several Savannah College of Art and Design students, the SELC will have a new website.

“The site will be more up-to-date and include things that our current site is lacking,” said Lovic. “It will be more user-friendly and have standings, stats and more information.”

Finally, the SELC has selected its executive board with Buff Gruff as President, Lovic as Vice President, Mike Cummings as Director of the B-Division, Eric Rudolph as the CAA, Joe Magee as Tresurer and Joel Nachlas as Secretary.

For more information on the SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC), visit www.selc.org