A History of the Midland Lacrosse Club

2005
The Midland Lacrosse Club was started with 13 5th-8th grade players (12 boys and 1 girl). They had two scrimmages against the club team from Bay City Western (started the year before). Henry Otto, Mark Basset, and Steve Sklenar (who all had sons in the 7th grade) helped coach with Joe Stadelmaier.

2007
The club had grown to 80 boys, and a boys' high school club was started that played teams from all over the state.

2008
The club had grown to 160 players in 5th-12th grade, and a high school girls club team was started.

2010
Having grown to 220 players, the club started our 1st-4th grade boys teams.

2011
Midland Lacrosse became an official co-op varsity sport at the both Dow and Midland High Schools for boys and girls. To this day we are Midland's only co-op sport. Lacrosse was completely self-funded and paid a large fee every year to Midland Public Schools so that the 4 teams could be a part of the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA). 

2018
Having grown to more than 300 players in its 14th year, lacrosse has been officially added as a school-sponsored varsity sport for both high schools. We are still a co-op sport but are no longer self-funded, and the hope is that someday (as the sport continues its rapid growth) each school will have enough players to field their own teams.

Over the 14 years from 2005 to 2018, over 70 coaches have volunteered to coach boys and girls at all levels. Midland Lacrosse is what we are today because of so many volunteers and coaches that have helped over the years.

2021

Both the boys and girls teams won their first regional championship.

2023

Prior to the 2023 season, the petition to renew the co-op between Midland and Dow high schools for boys lacrosse was denied by the MHSAA. Consequently, boys teams from Midland and Dow competed independently in spring 2023.

Q: Where did the team colors come from?
A: The club wanted colors that were not related to any one school. As a new-comer to town, Coach Stadelmaier had heard that the school rivalry was deep, and he did not want someone to be discouraged from playing lacrosse because he or she did not want to wear the other school's colors. The colors were modeled after Clemson and Syracuse to be neutral in Midland.

Q: Why doesn't Midland Lacrosse have a mascot or nickname?
A: The high school boys team was known as the Minutemen at one point in the early years. More recently, the high school teams were known as the Cavaliers because the teams practiced and played some of their games on the grounds of Central Middle School. Central's mascot was the Cavaliers, but the school had been closed at the end of the 2012/2013 school year. The Midland Lacrosse high school teams adopted the Cavalier name to keep it alive while practicing and playing games at that location. Central has since been replaced by the Central Park Elementary School on the same campus. For most of the club's history, no nickname has been used by Midland Lacrosse because the high school players are Chemics or Chargers, and Coach Stadelmaier really wanted to convey the idea that the players are still part of their respective high schools and cannot have two logos. MIDLAND LACROSSE: one town one team.

Below are some of the all-club photos taken over the years by Kathy Morley (http://morleyportrait.com/).