Are you interested in playing Lacrosse at City College?
City College students Taylor Ortiz, Valeria Bond, and Matin Winiarski re-established the Girls Lacrosse club last year in hopes of creating a competitive team for girls interested in playing. Ortiz and Bond are also the team captains.
“We were unsure what to do, and had no idea how to start a club or what it required,” Ortiz said.
Although the girls lacrosse team has committed players and captains, they have faced many challenges when trying to fund their program.
They created an Instagram page to spread the word and started planning pick-up practices and games.
“We have to enter into the Western Women’s Lacrosse League which costs a lot of money, so we have to get the money first to be able to do that,” Ortiz said. “We are having a really hard time with that because we aren’t a team through the school and can’t ask members of the club for money. So we have to come up with a way to pay our dues.”
The athletic department is left to do their own funding and club’s cannot take money from their members. So the girls are trying to find different ways to raise money in order to support their goals.
“The hardest problem is facing finances,” Bond said. “We have to pay for our own uniforms, our referees, and travel.”
The girls have tried fundraising to meet their dues but haven’t gotten enough money to enter into their league. Ortiz has an encouraging attitude about their situation, and hopes they will be able to play a season this year.
“Once we do that, we’ll be in that league playing Cal Poly, UCSB, San Jose State, Fullerton, Moorpark, and some other colleges,” Ortiz said.
The girls have been in contact with Paul Ramsey, who is a coach at Mission Lacrosse, the only lacrosse club in Santa Barbara.
“Paul helped us out a lot with information about what to do next– how to access fields and the next steps to take in order to become an official team,” Winairski said.
Even though the girls have lots of interested players, they are unable to become an official team at City College.
According to LaDeane Hansten, athletic director, Lacrosse is not a sport offered in the California Community College Athletic Association, so no community colleges in California have competitive Lacrosse teams, with the exception of Fullerton College.
The CCCAA website states that in order for lacrosse to be initiated into the Western State Conference they must check all the requirements needed.
The girls lacrosse club seems to check all these boxes however, they need at least 20 other schools statewide with reliable lacrosse teams who also want to join. Hansten recommends the girls to contact other schools with lacrosse clubs to try and start making lacrosse an official sport under the CCCAA.
While this process may take a while, the girls are set for their possible upcoming season and what is to come with this program.
“Our season will start early February,” Ortiz said. “One of the first things we’re going to do is the SB Shootout, which is at the Polo Fields near Carpenteria.”
The team is ready to show off the work they put in at practices and spread the word about their club. “If we can play a legit season this year, I feel like we can show everyone we are a committed team who wants this club to succeed,” Bond said.
City College Women’s Lacrosse Club practices Saturday’s from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at La Playa Stadium; anyone at any level is welcome to come practice.
