Crosse Training

About four nights a week, senior Steve Brown is awake well past midnight. He's not cramming for the next day's test, though. \nHe's practicing lacrosse.\nBrown, captain of the men's lacrosse club, and the team have access to Mellencamp Pavilion from about 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. to practice four nights a week, and they take advantage of it.\n"Sometimes you show up and you're a little bit tired and then you get all your gear on and start practicing and completely forget about it," Brown said.\nThe Hoosiers will be well-prepapred to kick off their spring season against Western Michigan at 8 p.m. Sunday at Mellencamp Pavilion, Brown said.\nCoach Todd Boward said this is the first year the team has been able to practice in Mellencamp Pavilion -- which offers a full-sized field -- in several years and that this is the most effective way they have to be prepared for games.\n"A lot of schools don't get that until they get into their first game," Boward said.\nBoward acknowledges that the team is young, with 17 of 36 travel-team players returning. But Brown said eight new freshmen are "solid" and he boasts a "good core group of upperclassmen." \n"They're going to be very competitive," Boward said. "They're going to surprise some people."\nBoward was hired as coach last October and suggests that Hoosier fans will see a "different philosophy than what's been in the past."\n"We play an Eastern-style of lacrosse," Boward said. "We want to move the ball as fast as we can. I'm from Maryland and that's how I know how to play -- aggressive and fast-paced."\nIn addition to practice four nights a week, Boward said the team goes over plays at least once a week and conditions frequently.\n"They're doing a lot of varsity-level things," he said.\nBrown said this year's coaching is better than that of the past four years he's played at IU, which foreshadows a competitive season.\nJunior Matt Hof, a team captain, said Boward is an effective coach.\n"This is a big step because it's the first time we've had a coach that coaches full-time," Hof said. "He devotes all his time toward us."\nDespite being one of IU's largest club sports with about 70 members, Boward doesn't see lacrosse being moved up to varsity level anytime soon.\n"It's a big jump," he said. "It depends on how much interest we start getting out of kids here on \ncampus."\nBrown said right now the fan base is primarily "friends of friends" and parents of players, mostly because lacrosse isn't a widely played sport in Indiana. \n"I'm from the East Coast where it's (an NCAA) Division I sport," he said. "Ideally, I'd love to see it be varsity, but I understand the rules of NCAA and Title IX."\nBecause lacrosse is a club sport, participants have to pay yearly dues to be on the team. \n"The dues are a big part of it and it turns some people away," Hof said. "It's expensive to play."\nHof and Brown said the fact that so many still choose to play demonstrates commitment to the game.\n"It shows the dedication of all our players," Brown said. "Every single person on our team has a passion for \nlacrosse."\nBrown and the rest of the Hoosiers hope to carry their passion from practice over to games, starting this Sunday. The senior captain said Western Michigan "doesn't know what's about to hit them."\n"We're going to pretty much dominate them," he said.\nBoward is almost as equally optimistic.\n"(Western Michigan) doesn't have a facility like Mellencamp for practicing," he said. "I'm looking for a good game"