With the MCLA season upon us I talked with Head Coach of Missouri Valley Kevin Totaro. Kevin is a Maryland native who played his first two years of college at Harford community college before transferring to Division III Shenandoah University. After his playing days Kevin went on to coach at both Northern Virginia Community College and Catonsville Community College. I had a few questions for Coach Totaro to talk about coming from the Junior college ranks, the growth of the game in Missouri and of course the up and coming MCLA season.
1. What has the transition from Junior College to the MCLA been like?
The transition my first year was pretty good overall. I would say the biggest transition is running into the natural clubs teams verse the varsity program (NAIA). Overall I am happy with how the MCLA operates as a league and think it’s great to see programs popping up in states that are prone for lacrosse.
2. Does it make it easier to have some of the same players from CCBC Catonsville coming with you To Missouri Valley?
Yes, it did make it pretty easy to have some transfers to build a team around. Last year was our first year as a NAIA varsity program so it’s very appealing to me to get this opportunity as it was for them.
3. Was it hard to recruit those players to come out to Missouri Valley?
Once I had core of players committed, it wasn’t to hard for me to build up the program. All the players I had started the program with were very good lacrosse players from all over the United States. After our first year’s success it had helped open the doors for recruiting in many other areas.
4. How much have you seen lacrosse grow in the state of Missouri?
Lacrosse in Missouri is honestly still pretty new to me. I was born and raised in Maryland with surrounding hotbeds of lacrosse. There is plenty of lacrosse in metro areas of Missouri however, I have noticed the play is much different in the styles from the east to mid-west.
5.What is your outlook on this MCLA season?
My outlook for this coming season is very high hopes. With being able to start from nothing and win our conference and make it to nationals with a good showing sets the bar extremely high for us. Last year we were able to take 17 players and come up three points shy to St. John’s, who was ranked second in the nation, makes a huge statement on the map.
Since nationals of last year, I have hit recruiting much harder and I am extremely happy with the outcome of talent on the 2015 team. I was able to bring in a few more players from the east coast transferring in from NCAA Division 1 to the juco level along with Canada. This year’s roster we will have players from 13 different states along with Canada.
Last year my goal was to get Missouri Valley College on the map. So doing that I had planned out a pretty even balanced schedule to promote us well. With that being said, looking into many other teams in Division 2 in the MCLA I believe that we have one of the most toughest schedule ahead of us. We will be playing five teams in the top 20 of the nation and four of those are in the top five of the nation. So with that I demand from my team very high expectations to be very successful this spring. We are hoping to shock the nation in our second year as a program.
In 2014 Missouri Valley finished with a 13-2 overall record and went 4-0 in Great Rivers Lacrosse Conference. Their only regular season loss came in a 11-10 game to DePaul and after that did not lose another game till the MCLA Division II playoffs, it was a close 13-10 loss to St. Johns. This year Missouri Valley is back and looking to win it all when they start their regular season February 28th vs. Asbury University.
