SJSUCS Athletics

    The founding of San Jose State's Men's Lacrosse Team can be largely traced back to the founding of the San Jose Junior Lacrosse Club (SJJLC) by John Gurley and Bob Mezeul in 1983. The SJJLC was made up of high school players from Del Mar High School, Willow Glen High School, and Leigh High School, and at the time was the 7^th high school team in all of Northern California. As many players graduated high school and left the SJJLC, some wanted to play lacrosse at the collegiate level, namely John Hagele and Joel Dibble, and on August 10th, 1987, the San Jose State Lacrosse team was officially formed.     While Joel Dibble was officially listed as president of the team (an honor he won in a game of rock paper scissors against Hagele in a Togo's), John Hagele performed most of the administrative and operational duties of the team, including the negotiation of funding and field space from the school, and recruiting players for the new team. The team was luckily able to receive field reservations and a small budget, which was enough for them to host their inaugural season in 1988, where they went 4-8 playing in the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL).

    This continued for several more seasons, with new players and coaches joining the team, including SJJLC's Bob Mezeul as Head Coach, leading to San Jose State's first winning season, a 7-4 in 1991. This success was unfortunately short-lived, however, as the team folded after their 1992 season due to a mix of lack of interest, the departure of John Hagele, Joel Dibble, and Bob Mezeul, as well as league penalties.       The team stayed dormant for many years until freshman Patrick Burchfiel decided to re-found the team in late 2004. Together, he and his friend Tyler Macaulay rebuilt the team from the ground up, including hosting a tournament to raise funds for the new team. Finding a new head coach was luckily easy for Burchfiel, as the head coach for Cal-State Hayward's team, Derek De Lemos, was looking for a new team to coach after Cal-State Hayward folded the previous season. San Jose State Lacrosse competed as an associate team in the 2005 and 2006 seasons, before being fully admitted to the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA) in 2007, and the team has stayed strong since. [Note: the game schedule and results of the 2005 season are currently lost, if you have any information regarding that season, please email menslacrosse@sjsusports.com].
    In 2007, the team received its first All-American Honors, as Ismael Thornz-Mendez was awarded MCLA 2nd Team All-America Defense and Emanuel Figlia was awarded MCLA 3rd Team All-America Defense. In 2008, the team received its first Hall of Fame inductee as Illiad Rodriguez was inducted into the USA Lacrosse NorCal Chapter Hall of Fame.

    Throughout its history, the San Jose State Lacrosse Team has been a focal point of Bay Area Lacrosse and has demonstrated both athletic and academic excellence, the future looks bright for Spartans Lacrosse.