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February 10, 2021 - Image 15

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After leading the Michigan men’s

lacrosse team to three consecutive

championships at the club level, John

Paul was gearing up to prepare the

Wolverines for their first season as

a part of Division I varsity lacrosse.

Now competing in the upper echelon

of collegiate lacrosse would bring

new challenges for Paul and his

players, but they were committed to

charging forward in hopes of build-

ing a brighter future for the program.

Starting a Division I program on

a year’s notice isn’t exactly the easi-

est thing to do.

For “Team One,” as Paul dubbed

it, Michigan had numerous pieces

to try to put together on a narrow

timeframe.

First, the Wolverines needed to

find Division I opponents. The Big

Ten didn’t exist in NCAA lacrosse

until 2015, so Michigan signed

on as an affiliate member of the

then-prominent Eastern College

Athletic Conference for the 2012

season, joining traditional rivals

Ohio State and Penn State, as well

as lacrosse stalwarts like Denver

and Loyola.

Second, the Wolverines needed

to find a space to operate on Michi-

gan’s athletic campus. Although the

team now had greater access to the

University’s and athletic depart-

ment’s vast resources, including a

strength and conditioning coach,

more reasonable practice field

times and academic support, it

didn’t have its own stadium yet.

In the meantime, Team One had

to use other programs’ facilities

when they weren’t occupied. For

practices and games, the Wolver-

ines continued to use the football

team’s Oosterbaan Field House

as they did during the club days.

They also now played in Michigan

Stadium and used the baseball

team’s visitors’ locker room for big

matchups. Paul had a trailer in a

nearby parking lot that served as

his “office.”

At the top of Paul’s priority list,

though, was mentally and physical-

ly preparing himself and his players

to compete in Division I lacrosse.

Having never played or coached

beyond the club level, Paul didn’t

have quite the pedigree or con-

nections that his future opposing

coaches did. Until this point, he had

largely pulled his coaching career

up by his bootstraps.

“I had to learn a lot of it on my

own,” Paul said. “I was a student

of the game. I ate up everything I

could.”

For advice on coaching a Divi-

sion I sport, Paul tapped into Mich-

igan’s rich network. He became

close with coaches like Erik Bakich

and Carol Hutchins, often stopping

by baseball and softball practices to

watch and talk shop with them.

“I don’t think you have to just

pigeon-hole yourself into your

sport,” Paul said. “Obviously Michi-

gan has a whole stable full of coach-

es, so I would learn as much as I

could from my friends who I was

surrounded with, other coaches in

other sports.”

From a roster perspective, since

the 2012 season would commence

without bringing in a single Divi-

sion I recruit, Team One was com-

posed solely of players carried over

from the club days. While the team

was tight-knit and accustomed to

playing at a high level of lacrosse,

culturally, becoming varsity

brought new challenges to over-

come and expectations to meet.

“I think culturally we had to

become a little more disciplined,”

Yealy said. “Even in the club

days, as a non-varsity sport, we

weren’t always under the watch

of the athletic department and the

administration, so that required

some adjustment to make sure that

guys were always doing the right

things.”

After sitting at the top of the

food chain for several years in the

MCLA, members of Team One

now had to manage battling with

some of the best lacrosse players in

the entire country. To compensate

for such a daunting talent gap that

lay ahead, Paul put an enormous

emphasis on practicing fundamen-

tals to ensure that Michigan was

always the more technically sound,

disciplined team on the playing

field.

“As a club program, we won on

what was a combination of talent

and coaching,” Yealy said. “When

we got to the Division I level, we

were still a talented team, but we

were no longer the most talented,

that’s for sure. … So there was an

incredible focus on fundamentals,

because what we couldn’t afford

was to be the least talented and also

be the sloppiest. There was a real

focus on back to basics.”

The odds would be significantly

stacked against the Wolverines in

their first couple seasons. It was

going to be very, very difficult to

win individual games, let alone

enjoy the same kind of success

attained at the club level.

To lead the charge, though,

Michigan had offensive leaders

like Yealy — now a fifth-year senior

— and junior Thomas Paras. After

finishing the 2011 season first and

second on the Wolverines in points

with 69 and 66, respectively, Yealy

and Paras were consistent contrib-

utors and active leaders who knew

how to compete and energize their

teammates.

And above all, players like Yealy

recognized their role in laying the

groundwork for the future of Mich-

igan lacrosse. They were grateful to

have the opportunity to play at the

highest level of the sport — some-

thing they didn’t think they would

ever get to experience during their

time with the Wolverines.

“It was great to continue playing

with that set of guys, play at the

highest level of collegiate lacrosse,

and try to build the foundation for

something that would last longer

than any of us as individuals ever

would,” Yealy said. “To be some-

thing that was bigger than us.”

***

On Feb. 12, 2012, Michigan

played its first game as a Division

I program against Detroit Mercy.

The Wolverines stood toe-to-toe

with the Titans for the better

part of the contest, heading into

halftime tied, 5-5, thanks in large

to a pair of goals each from Yealy

and sophomore midfielder Doug

Bryant. Detroit Mercy went on to

score eight of the next 12 goals in

the second half, though, to secure a

13-9 win.

Michigan dropped its next four

matchups as well. On March 4, the

Wolverines tasted victory for the

first time in varsity program his-

tory following a commanding 14-4

win over Mercer, in which Paras

tallied six points and Yealy and

Bryant each netted hat tricks.

The sweet flavor would only

remain on Michigan’s tastebuds for

so long, though — the Wolverines

lost their remaining eight games to

finish their inaugural season with a

lowly 1-13 record.

Although Michigan expected to

lose games early on in its transition,

it was still jarring for Paul and his

players to deal with defeat on such

a tilted scale. After going 76-2 the

previous four seasons, the Wolver-

ines did a complete about-face in

just one year.

“(It was) really hard,” Paul said.

“When you have a bunch of guys

who are used to winning 90% of

their games, if not 100%, and then

going to winning none of their

games, that’s hard. Culturally,

that’s really hard.”

Added Yealy: “Nobody was

thrilled about losing and I think

that did weigh on people’s minds. It

was frustrating in the moment for

sure. Going week to week practic-

ing and itching to get that first win,

and then once we got the first one,

itching to get more wins. It was

definitely trying.”

Michigan’s initial struggles

weren’t necessarily a signal of

imminent failure, though. Instead,

they were indicative of who the

Wolverines were competing

against right off the bat. Rather

than slate his players against lack-

luster opponents to pile up some

easy wins, Paul elected early on to

put them against some of the best

teams in all of Division I, including

No. 9 Loyola, as well as out-of-con-

ference foes like Harvard and No. 5

North Carolina.

Michigan played the 39th most

difficult schedule in the NCAA

in 2012. Around the same time,

Richmond took an easier route in

its inaugural season, playing just

the 63rd most difficult schedule

in 2014. As a result, the Spiders

notched a 6-11 record in their first

year as opposed to the Wolverines’

1-13 in 2012.

But rather than give Michigan

a false confidence of what it was

like to play at the varsity level, Paul

figured that, in the long run, it was

best to throw the team into the

deep end. If the Wolverines want-

ed to someday be one of the best

programs in Division I, they had

to know what those kinds of teams

looked like and how they operated

up close.

***

Partially due to Paul’s commit-

ment to playing a strenuous sched-

ule, Michigan’s growing pains

carried over into its next couple

seasons as well.

After leading the Wolverines in

points in 2012, notching 26 goals,

Yealy left a gaping hole in Michi-

gan’s offense when he graduated at

the season’s end.

To fill it, Paul turned to the

recruiting trail, where he found No.

7 Canadian prospect Kyle Jackson.

Growing up in Sarnia, Ontario, just

under a two hour trip on I-94 from

Ann Arbor, the crafty offensive

weapon played high school lacrosse

at the Hill Academy, a forceful

independent school that has sent

Canadians to the best lacrosse col-

lege programs in the United States

since its inception in 2006.

While some of Jackson’s

teammates elected to go to more

established East Coast schools like

Loyola and Lehigh, Michigan was

the perfect place for him. Eager

to go somewhere he could start

all four years and contribute to a

program’s grassroots development,

Jackson knew that he could have

an instant positive impact on the

Wolverines as a member of their

inaugural recruiting class. He also

wanted to show his fellow Canadi-

ans that the future of lacrosse lay

not in its East Coast strongholds,

but in programs like Michigan

that had benefited from the game’s

westward expansion.

“Going to the Midwest and

having Michigan open those doors

for a lot of people, it allowed other

players to have an avenue to go that

wasn’t just the East Coast,” Jackson

said. “I wanted to go somewhere

and show, not (just) the top-tier

players, but (also) your mid-level

lacrosse players, your bottom-tier

lacrosse players, that you don’t just

have to go to a powerhouse school

in order to be successful long-

term.”

And so Jackson did exactly those

things.

In 2013, his freshman campaign,

Jackson led the team in points and

goals, with 26 and 17, respectively.

While attackman Ian King took

over his role as chief goal scorer in

2014 and 2015, Jackson became the

program’s all-time career leader in

points and goals in his senior year,

racking up a cumulative 113 and 88,

respectively.

While talented newcomers

like Jackson and King racked up

incredible individual statistics and

accolades, Michigan still struggled

to get tallies in the win column. In

2013, the Wolverines once again

went 1-13, and in the subsequent

three campaigns, they never

eclipsed more than five wins in a

season.

Culturally, according to Paul and

Jackson, this dichotomy created an

interesting dynamic between the

tenured club players who remained

with the team and the fresh, high-

ly-touted recruits like Jackson and

King. Although everyone got along

in the locker room and had fun

together in their spare time, the

disappointment and frustration

of losing — compounded by the

natural evolution of the roster’s

composition — sometimes breeded

competition and animosity across

its castes.

“Without deliberately saying

that we weren’t the most liked on

the team when we came in, I think

that’s the best way of phrasing it,

because there were players that

had played for the club team for at

that point three, almost four years,”

Jackson said. “You had people that

were on teams that were extremely

successful at the club level and now

you got all these young kids coming

in as freshmen, trying to take their

spots and really ultimately doing

so.”

In a way, though, Jackson saw

all of this as a necessary step in

Michigan’s growth as a Division I

lacrosse program. If the Wolverines

were going to become a legitimate

force in the sport, he believed that

they were going to have to push

one another and compete with one

another

As Jackson entered his upper-

classman years and the last remain-

ing club players graduated, he

became the pace car that dictated

the direction of the program for

years to come. The club days were

over, but just as Michigan’s seniors

did in 2007 to elevate the club team,

Jackson began to take the next step.

Players like Yealy that came before

him had set the foundation for the

program.

Now, he was building it up.

“We literally (were) building

the framework for what Michigan

lacrosse is today and (will be) in 10

years and 20 years and 50 years,”

Jackson said. “And you can always

look back on that and know that

although you didn’t have the suc-

cess in the world at the beginning,

you built the framework. You built

the structure that that house is now

built on, and people can move for-

ward with and they can take it and

make it their own.”

***

In 2017, although Jackson had

since graduated, the Wolverines

began to reap the benefits of the

team culture he helped cultivate

during his time at Michigan. His

enthusiasm and fervor had been

contagious, and it now permeat-

ed throughout the Wolverines’

roster, particularly in players like

midfielders Brent Noseworthy

and Decker Curran — who were

budding freshmen during Jackson’s

senior year and began taking on

larger roles.

“They just took more ownership

of what the team could be,” Paul

said. “They weren’t as much just

waiting for the coaches to tell them

what to do. The leaders of the team

were taking more charge of the

younger guys and saying, ‘Look,

this is the way it’s gonna be.’ And

it was just shifting from a team of

reactionary people to a team of a lot

more proactive guys.”

Michigan got off to a hot start,

winning six of its first seven games,

with its sole loss coming from No.

5 Notre Dame. Halfway into the

season, the Wolverines took down

No. 10 Pennsylvania, 13-12, to pick

up their first win against a ranked

opponent.

While Michigan was subse-

quently swept in Big Ten play — a

misfortune of playing in what had

become the NCAA’s most compet-

itive conference — it finished the

2017 season with an 8-6 record. The

program had its first ever winning

season and made its first appear-

ance in the top-20 rankings, reach-

ing as high as No. 18 in the Maverik

Media Poll. Behind King, who set

the Wolverines’ new record for

points in a season with 47 his senior

year, Noseworthy and Curran fin-

ished second and third on the team,

with 43 and 25 points, respectively,

in breakout sophomore campaigns.

“We were just getting started

there,” Paul said. “It certainly

wasn’t there yet. (But) you (saw)

where the team (was) going. We

had the kind of start we were look-

ing for that year, and that didn’t

come because we were more talent-

ed, it came because the guys were

really starting to push each other

harder.”

Added Noseworthy: “We were

starting to develop confidence. I

think we showed some glimpses of

what a great program could look

like. It was good to have the feeling

of some big wins.”

After five years of trudging

through losses and molding the

team’s culture, it finally looked like

Michigan was moving into the next

phase of establishing itself as a solid

Division I program.

The athletic department likely

shared the same sentiment that

the Wolverines were on the brink

of something. But upon the arrival

of new athletic director Warde

Manuel in 2016, there was some

concern that Paul, whose contract

was set to expire, had taken the

program as far as he could. Despite

an overall successful season in 2017,

after witnessing several blowouts

to ranked and Big Ten opponents —

including a particularly transparent

18-7 loss to No. 9 Ohio State prior to

the football team’s spring game —

perhaps Michigan needed a fresh

start in order to start winning the

big games.

On May 2, 2017, Manuel

announced that the University

would not be renewing Paul’s

contract, thus ending his nearly

20-year journey with the program.

As the man who had largely

built Michigan lacrosse to become

everything that it had ever been

and everything it was at the

moment, Paul was obviously disap-

pointed by the decision.

At the end of the day, though,

Paul was finally content knowing

that he had poured everything

he had into the program and the

players he loved from the instant

he came aboard back in 1998.

Through trials and triumph, he

had given Michigan all that he

could, and that was enough for

him.

“I did this out of love for Mich-

igan and the program and not so

much for any kind of career ambi-

tions,” Paul said. “I kinda stumbled

and bumbled along for 20 years and

came out the other end with what

we had. And that’s how it kinda felt

the whole time. I was just kinda

latched on and rode it for wherever

it went.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 10, 2021 — 15

DREW COX

Daily Sports Editor

Michigan lacrosse: Becoming Varsity

FILE PHOTO/Daily

In his 20 years as its coach, John Paul laid the foundation for the Michigan lacrosse program which is celebrating
its 10th season this year.

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