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Men’s Lacrosse Sets Sights on SSC Title

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Currently sitting at a 6-3 record this season, the Florida Tech Men’s Lacrosse team has their eyes set on EmbryRiddle this Wednesday in hopes of keeping their dream alive of winning the Sunshine State Conference.

After losing two straight games, the Panthers were able to defeat Palm Beach Atlantic by five goals this past Saturday.

This was the first of five straight inter-conference games to finish out the season.

Goalie Jake Hahn said the team is locked into focus and ready to secure the SSC.

“The remaining five games are all sunshine state conference games and we know that these are games that we must win to keep the dream alive,” said Hahn. “Our conference is very competitive within itself to the point where anybody can beat anybody on any given day.”

The Panthers have a 2-2 SSC record and need to win the remainder of their games and the University of Tampa to lose a game in order to win the conference’s regular season title.

However, the goal doesn’t stop there; Ryan Lepp, a defensive player on the team, said that the team has aspirations of ultimately making it into the NCAA tournament.

After the team fell short of their goal last season of winning the SSC, the team felt that there needed to be a change in mentality, according to Hahn.

However, with just two conference loss this season, the Panthers have taken a different mental approach that has led to their success this season.

“The mentality that we brought to those games was that we thought we could easily beat those teams that we ended up losing to, which is not the case this year,” said Hahn.

Hahn mentioned that his captains and coaches have placed an emphasis on discipline and not underestimating the opponent, regardless of their record.

With the recent success, the team has also noticed a steady increase in fan attendance at home games.

Lepp said the recent success and their style of play this season is the reason for the increased turnout.

“I believe that we had such a great turnout against Rollins, which was our most recent home game because students were excited to see us go up against a good team in our conference,” Lepp said. “I believe that our next home game will bring an even bigger crowd because of the exciting comeback-style victory that the students got to experience on that day.”

The teams next home game, as well as their senior night, is April 20 against Florida Southern.

The lacrosse team encourages fan support as they close out the season and make a push for the SSC title.

Scabies Outbreak – Third outbreak “second nature” to athletics

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A quiet moment in the diseased-infested Varsity Training Center. Photo by Florida Tech Athletics.

The Panther’s Varsity Training Center is filled with more than just sweaty athletes.

It is now home to an extremely irritating and flesh-eating disease: scabies.

Scabies is a highly contagious skin condition that causes severe itching from sarcoptes scabiei mites, also referred to as itch mites.

The itch mites burrow into and lay eggs in the outer layer of the skin, resulting in nonstop itching and an angry rash.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, scabies is mainly caused by poor hygiene and is spread through skin-to-skin contact.

What is even more worrisome about the recent outbreak is the fact that this it is not the first time, nor the second time, but the third time the skin rash has wreaked havoc on campus.

There have been numerous outbreaks in the past three months, all of which have been due to a lack of proper hygiene practices.

“It’s almost second nature,” one athlete in a Facebook post. “I think the team has had a scabies problem longer than it hasn’t since I’ve started.”

While the athlete declined to speculate where the outbreak started, a Florida Tech coach has been investigating on his own.

“It’s a lot of he-said-shesaid, but I think I’m closing in on the culprit team.” The coach requested to remain anonymous. “Wouldn’t want it to be from my own court, you know?”

Showering , washing clothes and equipment and other basic cleaning practices that you would think to be essential to people’s everyday routines have proved not to be so essential.

The VTC will close down for a day so the athletic trainers can wipe down a few racks with a Clorox wipe and declare it “all good.”

“Hopefully certain players on the field will invest in some soap and a nice hot shower,” said the investigative coach.

Athletes might then be able to rid themselves of disgust and infestation, as well as put the rest of the student body out of misery and fear.

Men’s lacrosse overcomes hot start by Rollins

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In the largest comeback in program history, Florida Tech men’s lacrosse fought back from an 8-0 deficit to hand the Rollins College Tars a 17-16 defeat.

This was the Panthers’ first game of the season against a fellow Sunshine State Conference opponent.

They improved to a 5-1 score on the season and 1-0 in the conference play.

Midfielder Reid Chaconas led the way for Florida Tech with four goals and an assist.

Three other midfielders, Brett Pohlmeyer, Logan Sweeney and Justin Williams, each added two goals and an assist.

Midfielder Tommy Bowser added a goal and two assists of his own, as Attacker Brad Schillinger tacked on another two goals.

Rollins started the scoring early, giving the Tars a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game.

They continued their scoring barrage with seven more unanswered goals, giving them an eight-goal cushion with 9:35 to go in the second quarter.

The Panthers finally responded with 8:52 left in the second quarter, as Schillinger scored his ninth goal of the season.

The Tars reacted quickly, though, making the score 9-1 and pushing the lead back to eight.

After back-to-back goals by Chaconas, the Panthers narrowed the Tars lead to six.

Before halftime, the Panthers scored three straight goals by Pohlmeyer, midfielder Bryce Johnson and defensive midfielder Tyler Oblong.

Rollins responded with a goal, making the score 10-7 heading into halftime.

Schillinger started the scoring in the second half, followed by another goal by Pohlmeyer, making the score 10-9.

After the Tars and Panthers traded goals for most of the second half, Florida Tech was able to build a three-point lead.

This was soon reduced to just a one-point difference after the Tars scored consecutive goals.

The score now stood at 16-15 in the Panthers’ favor with 5:42 to go.

Chaconas then scored his fourth goal of the game, but a little over two minutes later, Rollins was able to counter attack.

It ultimately proved to be too little too late for the Tars, as Florida Tech retained their lead for the last 1:32 of the game, securing their fifth victory of the season.

The Panthers take on another SSC opponent Wednesday, March 27, against the University of Tampa Spartans.

Start time is set for 8 p.m. at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex in Tampa, Florida.

Women’s lacrosse cruises past Fighting Scots

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Florida Tech’s Women Lacrosse team easily defeated Edinboro University, 19-6 on March 8.

The Panthers outscored the Fighting Scots 11-2 in the second half, vaulting them to the victory.

Senior attacker, Leah Dunn, led Florida Tech’s offense with three goals and four assists.

Junior midfielder, Mollie Kaplan, tallied a team-high five goals.

She contributed an assist for the game.

Senior defender, Brittney Embree, finished the game with a new program single game record.

Embree caused seven caused turnovers against Edinboro, the previous record held at six.

Senior Sam Schiano tacked on four of her own goals, along with two goals each from freshman Kailee O’Brien and freshman Lexi Woviotis.

At the start of the game Edinboro scored the first goal, just 42 seconds into the match.

Florida Tech rallied back with two straight goals, taking a 2-1 lead with 25:34 left in the first half.

The Fighting Scots tied the game at two a piece just a little over a minute later.

The Panthers had a strong retaliation though, scoring four consecutive goals, making the score 6-2.

Edinboro did added two more goals before halftime, but Dunn and Woviotis also found the back of the net, making the score 8-4 after the first half.

O’Brien got the second half going for the Panthers with her first goal of the match. 28 seconds later the Fighting Scots answered with a goal to make it 9-5.

Quickly, O’Brien scored her second goal less than a minute later.

Kaplan shortly after made her third goal to make it a six point game, 11-5 with less then 22 minutes remaining.

This offensive momentum continued from there for the Panthers, outscoring Edinboro 8-1 for the remainder of the game.

This explosive second have solidified Florida Tech’s second straight win and makes their season record 4-3.

They played Slippery Rock University March 11 and will visit Florida Southern University to take on the Mocs on Saturday, March 16.

Men’s lacrosse showcases program in new documentary

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Promotional material for “On the Prowl.” The lacrosse team documentary had input from their alumni, players and coaches, the team effort resulting in a 28 minute documentary. Photo by Florida Tech Men’s Lacrosse.

The Florida Tech men’s lacrosse team released a new documentary last month showcasing their fall season.

“On The Prowl” is a 28-minute documentary that shows the different aspects in the sport, including practices, games and scrimmages.

The documentary was released on YouTube on Feb. 14, with a screening open to the public at Gleason Performing Arts Center the day before.

Nick Bailey, a communications alumni, edited the video as a side project while he worked at the Florida Tech athletics department.

“It was something I wanted to do, even though I had no experience in working a documentary by myself before,” Bailey said. “Pretty much I would leave my job at Florida Tech and go film the lacrosse team.”

Bailey transferred to Florida Tech in the fall of 2015 and played lacrosse in the spring 2018 semester, and graduated in the previous fall semester.

Addison Abramson, construction management senior, and Tyler Oblong, business administration seniors, were the producers of the documentary and planned the idea with Bailey last summer.

“It made me really excited to get involved,” said Abramson. “We finished it the exact way we hoped about it.”

Bailey said that the whole team, including Coach Mark Penn, was on board with the idea at the start of the season.

“I wanted to showcase the program and expose the name of Florida Tech men’s lacrosse in the area,” said Bailey, describing the idea for the documentary. “I wanted to do something like that in the past, though I was busy with lacrosse and classes. I talked to the coach and [Addison and Tyler] and we started planning in July for the video.”

Penn became head coach in the fall 2018 season after serving as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator for five seasons from 2014 to 2018.

“I loved the idea from the start, having a former past with the television industry. I got excited,” Penn said.

Before coaching, Penn worked in the television industry for 11 years for a sports network in Washington.

The idea was inspired by a documentary done by Tufts University in 2015, according to Abramson.

“They wanted to make something more artsy flavored, more music drive with different camera tech,” Penn said. “And they knocked it out of the park.”

As the season went on, Bailey filmed most of the footage with additional help from Charlie Morissette for drone footage, as well as Ryan Land and Will Eredeck, all of them lacrosse members.

“From day one, being out there on the field, everyone was like ‘Wow, this is different, there’s a camera on my face,’” Bailey said. “People were weirded out and the best thing I told them was to ignore me and go along. As they got more comfortable around the camera, we got to see more of their personalities and excitement while playing lacrosse.”

The men’s lacrosse team was the first team in Division II that filmed a documentary.

“It was made by a bunch of people considered as amateurs, but it turned out to be professional work,” Abramson said. “Everyone was blown away by it.”

As his first season as head coach, the documentary Lacrosse continued showcased Penn’s coach ethics and training in the program, as well being the opening interview.

“It’s really cool to see something that’s unique and can capsulize the moments of the team being enthusiastic of lacrosse,” Penn said. “It’s a great tool as a coach to reflect on that enthusiasm and didn’t realize how much I would be in it.”

Alongside Bailey and his equipment, the lacrosse team reached out to Florida Tech Video Productions to record the interviews in their studio and borrowed their equipment.

Bailey says that the contribution of FITV was a tremendous help in filming the interview scenes for the film.

“They were super awesome and the documentary wouldn’t have been possible without them,” Bailey said. “There were three or four guys that took their time out of their days to help us out without wanting to get paid.”

After posting the documentary online, Penn received a lot of feedback from alumni and other coaches in the lacrosse sport around the country, as well as recruiters interested in Florida Tech.

“I was overwhelmed by the amount of feedback and got recruiting interest immediately,” Penn said. “I hope the school sees this as a good way to represent ourselves in the variety of athletics.”

When discussing about plans for future media content, Abramson hopes for more media content for the lacrosse team’s social media.

“Nick was the best filmer that the team ever had,” Abramson said. “Replacing him is gonna be a hard challenge for us.”

With the boost publicity from the documentary, the team became the second most followed team on Twitter and Instagram in division II.

Penn is open to the idea of creating another documentary about the games of the Spring 2019 season.

“I think you can make a different, unique perspective every season; though ours inspires people to do other types of things,” Penn said. “I hope somebody else would something like it because it was the student-driven style that gave it the unique spin.”

The documentary was featured on Florida Tech Sports and can be viewed below this article.