Lesley to Sponsor Baseball for 2010-2011 season
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Lesley University Athletic Department has responded to the success of their teams and growth of their student-athlete body population by sponsoring their sixth sport on the men's side by adding baseball to begin play for the 2010-2011 season. The addition of one of the region's and nation's most historic games will bring Lesley's varsity sports total to 12, six men's and six women's programs.
"The university is extremely excited about the addition of baseball here at Lesley and the successful future we expect it to have," comments Athletic Director Stanley Vieira.
Needing one more sport to meet NCAA compliance for the equality of men's and women's sports on campus, the possibility of making baseball the sixth men's sport seemed intriguing for many different reasons.
"As a staff we felt that being in the New England region that is rich with baseball history, that adding baseball was a wonderful match for our growing athletic department."
Lesley received full support from the New England Collegiate Conference, their site of competition, who agreed that adding another institution that sponsored baseball to their conference had its benefits. The most important benefit will be the automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament that the conference champion will receive in the spring of 2011.
Leading the Lynx in their first year of competition will be Head Coach Michael Rocco, a former assistant at fellow NECC school Daniel Webster College, who knows the ins-and-outs of the conference and what Lesley's chances are of success.
"I am privileged and honored that the Lesley Athletic Department has chosen me to pilot it's athletic program to a new level of competition and notoriety with the addition of baseball to the men's varsity sports," says Rocco.
"Lesley University stands out as one of the most outstanding universities in the nation and the addition of baseball will only create more interest from talented student-athletes. The NECC is a conference on the rise in New England and in Division III. The blend of location and what the university has to offer should give us the ability to compete and flourish in our conference."
Before Coach Rocco leads his team on the field, however, he will focus his efforts on recruiting a group of young men to come to the university.
Lesley, a former women's college, opened its doors to the male population in 2004 and has successfully brought in new students with a wide variety of academic majors that embrace a liberal arts philosophy. The expanded curriculum includes business management, global studies, communications and technology, history, and mathematics to name a few but the university still stays true to its roots as one of highest quality education programs in the country.
"With the expanded curriculum and the growth of the university, we feel that Lesley is not just a viable option but an ideal place for student-athletes to grow both in the classroom and on the playing field," says Vieira.
For the next year, however, the Lesley community and its supporters must wait to see the product of a full year of preparation for the 2010-2011 season. The team will plan to play the non-traditional fall ball season where there are two weeks of practice and a single day of competition.
Early in that first year, the baseball team will also be fundraising for a spring training trip to a destination to be determined with the goal of establishing legitimacy in the Division III baseball world right off the bat.
There is a sense of excitement and anticipation for men's baseball in the Lesley community and with strong leadership and direction from the coaching staff, a solid core of student-athletes on the field, and the support of students, faculty, and administrators on campus the team will undoubtedly have success in the years to come.
To learn more about the Lesley University baseball program, please visit their website
Story Courtesy of Lesley Sports Information
