Ducks give lacrosse official nod.

Byline: Ron Bellamy The Register-Guard

Of all the reasons that women's lacrosse emerged as the final choice to become Oregon's 10th varsity sport for women, don't discount the fact that the Ducks believe it offers them the best opportunity to become a West Coast power.

Already fighting uphill battles against warm-weather schools in sports like softball, tennis and volleyball, and a relative late-comer to the soccer boom when that sport for women in was added in 1996, the University of Oregon formally announced women's lacrosse as its next sport on Monday, picking that over sports such as crew - in which Oregon State and Washington already have firmly established programs - and other sports in which Pac-10 rivals have had long head starts.

"We're the first (Division I) university that has added lacrosse north of California," associate director of athletics Renee Mack Baumgartner, the department's senior women's administrator, said Monday. "Our hope is to do it right and be a dominant team on the West Coast. ... That was one of many variables that helped us come to the conclusion that lacrosse is the right sport for the University of Oregon to add at this time."

The addition of the sport, which will begin play in the spring of 2005 on the field used by the women's soccer team in the fall, also enables Oregon to further contend that it is in compliance with Title IX, the federal law banning gender discrimination in institutions that receive federal funds, by demonstrating a history and continuing practice of expanding opportunities for female athletes.

That's the second of three prongs used by the federal Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to measure compliance with Title IX. The Ducks readily admit that they don't comply with the most-publicized prong, which requires proportionality, nor will they do so by adding women's lacrosse. That's because 53.6 percent of UO undergraduates are women, but only 37.47 percent of UO athletes - 136 of 363 - were women during the last school year. Average squad size in women's lacrosse is 26 athletes, with 12 scholarships that can be divided among athletes by the coach.

In 1996, the OCR made clear that meeting the standard of any of the three prongs - the third requires a school to show that it is meeting the athletic needs of women on campus - is sufficient to be in compliance with the law.

When they added soccer in 1996, the Ducks were already envisioning the eventual addition of another women's sport, but lacrosse wasn't in the picture. However, its steady national growth and moderate start-up costs helped lacrosse rise to the top of the list, as did the strong support of current members of the university's club lacrosse team, UO officials said.

The Ducks have already been accepted as part of the Mountain West Lacrosse League, which also consists of Cal, Stanford, Saint Mary's College, UC Davis and the University of Denver and will have a berth in the NCAA Tournament when Oregon joins the league.

Of the 77 Division I women's lacrosse programs in the country, there are less than a half-dozen west of the Mississippi River. However, the sport is growing rapidly, with the number of NCAA schools offering lacrosse increasing 115 percent in the decade that ended in 2001, and high school participation increasing 267 percent during the same period.

Currently, 16 Oregon high schools offer girls lacrosse, and there are 20 prep programs in Washington. Chip Rogers, chair of the U.S. Women's Lacrosse National Team committee, said Monday that initially Oregon would have to predominately recruit East Coast athletes, but that he believes the program can do so successfully because of its stature as a Pac-10 school and its attractive Pape Field venue.

Other sports considered by Oregon were crew, equestrian, water polo, gymnastics and swimming and diving. Of those, rowing would have added the most numbers - 20 allowable scholarships and an average squad size of 54 athletes - but had the largest projected budget, of $800,000 per year, with heavy start-up costs for equipment and an off-campus venue at Dexter Lake.

Oregon's current swimming facility, Leighton Pool, is neither regulation size for collegiate swimming nor official depth for water polo. However, Baumgartner said those sports could compel Oregon's interest in the future if plans to add a swimming pool to the student rec center come to fruition.

The budget for a fully funded women's lacrosse team - and the Ducks don't expect all 12 scholarship equivalencies to be offered in the first few seasons - is about $530,000 per year. Baumgartner said the salary range for the Oregon head coach - whom the Ducks hope to have on staff by July - will be $45,000 to $55,000.

Rogers said that salary range will be nationally competitive and that, combined with Oregon's commitment to build toward a fully funded program, will enable Oregon to hire a proven head coach, if it so chooses.

Almost all the Division I head coaches in women's lacrosse are women, Rogers said.

Baumgartner said strong recruiting abilities will be very high on Oregon's list of credentials for the new coach.

"It's got to be the right fit," she said. "If we can find someone who's done great things in women's lacrosse, and they're the right fit, then I believe we can hire them, because of the salary and because we'll be a fully funded program. Our goal would be to entice a coach that has a track record."

The building of a local fan base for women's lacrosse, as well as promoting the sport to younger athletes, will begin this summer, when Rogers plans to bring some members of the national women's lacrosse team to the UO for a series of clinics.