<p>My son is in early at U of C. He plays lacrosse and would like to continue in college. He does not want to play varsity (and maybe couldn't make the team) due to the time commitment. Is there an active group of laxers on campus? Club or intramurals would be OK. If so-how active is the team? How much do they practice, how many games, are there tryouts and how intense is it?</p>
<p>Here is a link to a list of club teams and e-mail contacts:</p>
<p>University</a> of Chicago Sport Clubs</p>
<p>From limited experience, club sports tend to vary in their intensity and commitment. Some have a commitment near that of a varsity team, and others are more casual, with practice and games 4-5 hours a week.</p>
<p>Just to be clear: There is no varsity lacrosse at Chicago, so anyone who plays there will be on the club team.</p>
<p>One of my kids has a substantial involvement with a popular club sport (not lacrosse). They have daily substantial practices and semi-frequent external competitions (not every week during the season). He probably averages somewhere between 15-20 hours a week on it; recently, he has been missing one day of practice per week due to a lab conflict. In his sport, there are more participants than competitions can accommodate (maybe half the club members take part in any given game); obviously, that leads to different levels of dedication and commitment within the club. But in this case it really is a club, and as far as I can tell the kids care as much or more about the internal training and intramural competition (and intramural socializing) as they do about playing against other schools.</p>
<p>S2 is an active lax player and is concerned about his ability to continue in college as well. I have not looked into Chicago's club, so it would be helpful if anyone with any info on how active and competitive lax is at Chicago could post. We have looked into some schools with very active and competitive clubs and some Div III schools that are attractive, but have heard little about Chicago.</p>
<p>I played on the U of C lax team back in the day and its always been a touch and go sort of club in terms of participation and funding. I've tried to keep tabs on the team over the years and they have a Facebook presence that you can check on.</p>
<p>The men's team seems to have about 8-9 games a year, playing against local post-collegiate and college clubs. The level of play is mixed, with a combination of grad school players (always one or two All Americans from the law school/B school) and first time college players.</p>
<p>The main rival is the Northwestern team. The downtown clubs usually beat the U of C team since the conditioning level is about the same and they are stocked with former Div I players.</p>
<p>I also played in grad school with the Columbia University lax club and I'd say that the quality of play was about the same. The Columbia Univ. team's main rival was NYU and it was funny because both NU and NYU had the same school colors and we'd always have one or two bench clearing fights a season. I have come to hate those colors through repeated run-ins with those cheap shot artists...</p>
<p>Anyway, the level of play would be somewhere between a mid ranked East Coast prep school and a decent Div. III club. It all depends on who decides to turn out for any given season. The talent on campus is enough to field a pretty strong club but not everyone wants to make the effort.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. It is helpful.</p>
<p>Yes, very helpful. Thank you.</p>