Salisbury versus Stevenson should continue
Beginning next summer, Stevenson will leave the Captial Athletic Conference and join the Mid Atlantic Conference, but hopefully that won't end the school's lacrosse rivalry with Salisbury, which will remain in the CAC.
"I think the move is a positive one for our program for a few reasons," said Stevenson head lacrosse coach Paul Cantabene. "One, it aligns us with schools that are similar to Stevenson University core values and academic philosophies. Secondly, it puts us in one of the elite conferences in D-III athletics with a rich tradition of success on and off the field for the last century. The move also helps us have a presence in Pennsylvania and New Jersey hot beds for recruiting purposes. An added benefit will be that it will it decrease our travel times for away games and the amount of missed class time for our student/athletes. One of the biggest benefits is that we are able to go to a conference that is full of great people that understand the needs of the student-athlete and want to be apart of what Stevenson University has been able to create over the last seven years.
"As an Associate AD in charge of 9 sports plus all of the athletic facilities, I had to separate my personal thoughts about how it would effect my program and think how it would benefit the department on a whole on few different levels," said Cantabene. "One being that Stevenson is a growing school that is has over 3,500 students and its enrollment is growing every year. Saying that recruiting is very important and this decisions puts us in some great recruiting markets such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. It will be a great benefit for our mens and womens occer, mens and womens basketball, baseball, field hockey and football programs. This move allows us to have all of our sports in the same conference except for Mens Volleyball. It also allows several of our teams that where not able to compete for an NCAA bid to do that because there are now AQ's. Lastly, I don't think it will have a huge effect on our rivalry with Salisbury. Instead of playing 3 times a year we might only be playing twice a year and that can make the rivalry better. We are committed to keeping the game but I have not yet talk to coach Jim Berkman about it. If I know him at all I would expect that he would want to keep the game for several reasons including recruiting, strength of schedule, and it is one of the most widely attended games in D-III."
"I think the move is a positive one for our program for a few reasons," said Stevenson head lacrosse coach Paul Cantabene. "One, it aligns us with schools that are similar to Stevenson University core values and academic philosophies. Secondly, it puts us in one of the elite conferences in D-III athletics with a rich tradition of success on and off the field for the last century. The move also helps us have a presence in Pennsylvania and New Jersey hot beds for recruiting purposes. An added benefit will be that it will it decrease our travel times for away games and the amount of missed class time for our student/athletes. One of the biggest benefits is that we are able to go to a conference that is full of great people that understand the needs of the student-athlete and want to be apart of what Stevenson University has been able to create over the last seven years.
"As an Associate AD in charge of 9 sports plus all of the athletic facilities, I had to separate my personal thoughts about how it would effect my program and think how it would benefit the department on a whole on few different levels," said Cantabene. "One being that Stevenson is a growing school that is has over 3,500 students and its enrollment is growing every year. Saying that recruiting is very important and this decisions puts us in some great recruiting markets such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. It will be a great benefit for our mens and womens occer, mens and womens basketball, baseball, field hockey and football programs. This move allows us to have all of our sports in the same conference except for Mens Volleyball. It also allows several of our teams that where not able to compete for an NCAA bid to do that because there are now AQ's. Lastly, I don't think it will have a huge effect on our rivalry with Salisbury. Instead of playing 3 times a year we might only be playing twice a year and that can make the rivalry better. We are committed to keeping the game but I have not yet talk to coach Jim Berkman about it. If I know him at all I would expect that he would want to keep the game for several reasons including recruiting, strength of schedule, and it is one of the most widely attended games in D-III."
