New Lacrosse Club Forms At Kendall Campus

Brandon Ortiz has been playing lacrosse since he was introduced to the sport in 2008 in his hometown of Atlanta, GA.

During his time at Mountain View High School, he played lacrosse competitively and had a deep appreciation for the sport.  

But when Ortiz arrived at Miami Dade College, he found that he wasn’t playing as often as he used to; the College does not have a lacrosse team, and the amount of lacrosse leagues in South Florida are scarce.

So, about a month ago, Ortiz, a 20-year-old criminal justice major, took the initiative and started the lacrosse club at Kendall Campus. 

Since then more than 30 students have shown interest in the organization. They conduct practices at least three times a week at the soccer field at Kendall Campus.   

“The idea came when I saw my sticks at home and I was really sad that I wasn’t using them as often with other people, just myself sometimes,” said Ortiz, who serves as the club’s president. “The soccer field is not always used, and I always thought: ‘Hey, what if I start a club here [at] Kendall, because I see that nobody else has done it and maybe people would be interested.’”

The club has grown exponentially after its creation. Currently, they field a men’s and a women’s squad, but the club can’t compete against other schools because most two-year colleges in Florida don’t have lacrosse. The team conducts practices using both women and men players. However, when they play games they are intrasquad games pitting men versus men and women versus women.

David Newman, who played lacrosse at Miami Killian Senior High, serves as the men’s coach. Amanda Horgan, who also played Lacrosse at Miami Killian, is the women’s coach.       

“We [Horgan and Ortiz] have class together and one day we were grading each other’s essays on our laptops, and [Brandon] saw my screensaver, which was of lacrosse,” said Horgan, who also serves as the lacrosse club’s vice president. “We had talked about maybe starting a club for out-of-school. We never thought we could get it done at Dade, but now we did and it’s pretty awesome.”

The club is open to players of any skill level, in fact most players are novices to the sport. To better train the players, the club holds practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays to go over the basics such as throwing and catching. They hold mandatory, regular practices on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from noon to 3:30 p.m.

There is no fee to join the club, but players must bring their own stick, which can range anywhere from $30 to $100. Players are also encouraged to bring their own lacrosse balls. The club does not have uniforms.

To raise additional funds for padding, helmets and additional sticks, the club conducts bake sales on campus. They hope to one day gain enough support and interest statewide to field an official team at MDC.  

“If the time comes, and other schools have the program, I would be more than glad to put it in the proposal to the college, just like we had for soccer,” said Anthony Fiorenza, the Athletic Director for MDC.

For information about the lacrosse club at  Kendall Campus, send an an email to mdclacrosse@gmail.com.