UWG Lacrosse

The University of West Georgia recently added their first lacrosse team to its list of organizations. The team was brought to campus by a group of West Georgia students. Justin Wahl, president of the team, started the team with fellow friends and classmates. 

  Wahl started his lacrosse career in high school and carried it over into his college career beginning at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. “I took over and set the foundation for the University of Alabama – Birmingham club team,” said Wahl “My sophomore year I was acting president where we played three games our inaugural year.” While at UAB Wahl was also the head coach for a local high school JV lacrosse team. 

  When transferring to UWG Wahl realized that the school was lacking a lacrosse team, he saw an opportunity that he had to take advantage of. 

 “Having the experience from my time at UAB, my friend Zack Amoroso and I talked about having lacrosse at West Georgia all last spring and eventually started the process to bring lacrosse to West Georgia,” said Wahl. Wahl and Amoroso then began the process by starting their club at the Center for Student Involvement located in the Campus Center. 

  “To start a club sports team one must first start the club as a student organization,” said Wahl. “After going through that process you can then go through the University Rec Center and proceed as a club sports team.” 

 Wahl mentioned that when starting a team you want to find a group of people who have the same vision and passion as you. Another key element in starting a club or organization is to hold each other accountable and to stay on the same page. 

  “Zack Amoroso, the Vice President, and I were the ones to formally found the club,” said Wahl. “Chase Wieland was one of the first guys to step up and Stephan Santa Marie joined shortly after we started the club. Storey Mizzell also showed a lot of dedication and came on as an officer early fall. The rest of the team is every bit as important,  If we didn’t have them to field the team, we wouldn’t be able to do much.” 

  Wahl has faced some adversity while trying to get this team started.  

 “Getting enough people to actually make this season happen was a challenge I faced,” said Wahl. “Since this is the first year it is easy to not take things seriously but with the work that myself and my fellow officer group put in, we were able to make a decent schedule for our first year on campus.”  

 Despite the hardships Wahl said he met many incredible people through this experience and is excited that he gets to continue his lacrosse career.