If you think that lacrosse is a passing fad, you're only fooling yourself.
And if you think that lacrosse at Penn can never become a dominant sport, you're still moving further away from the truth.
Fact is, other than football and basketball, lacrosse is the only collegiate sport with the potential to truly excite students on a large scale.
As evidence, you need only to look at the NCAA lacrosse championships, held at Lincoln Financial Field two weeks ago. What other college sporting event breaks its attendance records every year the way that one does? It blows away comparable tournaments in baseball, tennis or track.
Lacrosse is also one of the few sports in which Ivy League schools can be nationally competitive. Plus, there really is no spring sport that draws significant interest here in Philadelphia, which leaves a huge void to be filled.
And after a remarkably successful year, the Quakers' program is finally in a position to fill that void after years of being little more than an afterthought.
Don't believe me? Then just listen to what the authorities on the subject have said.
Bill Cottle, head coach of Maryland, after his Terrapins thumped Penn 12-4 in the regular season: "What I think of Penn right now is that they had a group of kids who were 2-11, their seniors elevated their game to the next level, and their freshman came in and helped. I'm not sure what came first, the winning or the confidence. ... I have a lot of respect for the Penn kids and their program."
Princeton coach Bill Tierney, after his Tigers beat the Quakers 16-7 in the regular season: "I don't think of them as a program on the rise, I think of Penn as a program that is already there."
Dave Pietramala, after his Johns Hopkins squad demolished Penn 13-3 in the NCAA Tournament: "What Brian Voelker's done with this team, to turn it around from where they were a year ago -- that's phenomenal. That doesn't happen just by accident. That doesn't happen just by luck.
"Ivy League lacrosse this year was outstanding, and there's a reason why there were four Ivy League teams in the tournament."
What he failed to mention was that this success -- for Penn and for the Ivy League -- comes after a long period of uninspiring results from the Ivy teams not named Princeton or Cornell. And after years of being a one- or maybe two-bid league, those who know the lacrosse world are talking about the Ancient Eight as one of the most exciting in the coming years.
That's what makes this next season so important for Penn lacrosse, because playing in one of the fastest-rising conferences in the nation is meaningless unless the team puts up numbers within its own league.
The Ivy League "is a tough league to play in, and that makes it great for our kids that play here," Voelker said immediately after seeing four Ivy teams -- two seeded, two unseeded -- make it into the postseason, totalling four from the league for the first time in history.
The success can come on an individual level, too. Just last week, two graduates of the Quakers program were drafted by Major League Lacrosse teams. That's two more than were drafted out of Princeton -- this year's Ivy winner and the NCAA champ in six of the last 15 years.
Parity is on the rise. And in this case, parity equates to strength.
All of these signs point to the fact that Penn is in a prime position to grab the spotlight in the coming years.
Not that there are no obstacles in the way. After all, the Quakers are losing most of their top producers to graduation this year.
Even so, if lacrosse at Penn -- and in Philadelphia, which will likely be the site of future NCAA championships -- continues on its current path, things are looking up.
Heck, it might even prompt the athletic department to finally put some muscle behind marketing its games.
It might even prompt some Penn students to get up before 1:00 in the afternoon just to see their team play.
Andrew Scurria is a sophomore in the College from Wilmington, Del., and is Sports Editor of The Summer Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is scurria@sas.upenn.edu.
