I wrote the following feature for the February 2009 issue of Inside Lacrosse: Anyone trying to make a tee time at Finley Golf Course, the University of North
Carolina’s pristine campus links, on the final Saturday of last September was out of luck. The lacrosse team booked the whole course for their alumni weekend.
“In the past, there were five or six alums if we were lucky,” says former defenseman Steve McElduff (UNC ’06). “It was mostly locals. And basically [the alumni game] would turn into a blue and white scrimmage.” This autumn 24 foursomes and an estimated 400 people, including Brett Davy (’89), who came all the way from Ireland, were in attendance at the alumni game and team awards ceremony.
All this for a program that hasn’t won an ACC Tournament game since 1996, a conference game since 2004 and hasn’t made the Final Four in 15 years. It’s tempting to say, ‘what a difference a year makes,’ but it’s not just that time has passed.
Since last spring, which saw the team’s early exit from the NCAA Tournament and the subsequent dismissal of eight-year coach John Haus, there’s been a seismic shift in team operating procedures that has alumni excited, current players reinvigorated and recruits intrigued.
At the epicenter is first-year coach Joe Breschi, an All-American Tar Heels defenseman (’90) who’s hellbent on reuniting a family that’s grown apart since the mid-’90s.
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