Mount Olive College will add men's lacrosse in 2012-13

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on November 25, 2011 1:48 PM

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MOC

Sports Information

MOUNT OLIVE -- Mount Olive College will add men's lacrosse in 2012-13 and Mike Lawson has been named head coach. He begins his duties immediately and has started recruiting for next year's team, according to Jeff Eisen, MOC athletics director.

Men's lacrosse becomes the 19th varsity sport at Mount Olive and the seventh sport to be added in the last 10 years. Mount Olive becomes is the seventh NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas school to sponsor men's lacrosse along with Belmont Abbey, Coker, Lees-McRae, perennial national power Limestone, Pfeiffer and Queens-Charlotte.

"We are very excited to be adding men's lacrosse to our athletics program," said Eisen. "Lacrosse is a growing sport in North Carolina and Conference Carolinas, and this is a great opportunity for Mount Olive to be a part of that growth. We are looking forward to developing a competitive program and Mike Lawson, with his background and experience, is the perfect person to accomplish that."

Lawson comes to Mount Olive from St. Andrews University, where he served as head men's lacrosse coach since 2004. He was named the 2007 Conference Carolinas men's lacrosse coach of the year -- the first year the conference sponsored the sport. He guided the Knights a record of 12-5 overall and a second-place finish in the conference standings with a 4-1 mark.

The Knights were conference tournament runners-up. Last season, St. Andrews went 8-8 overall and finished only a game out of second place in the conference with a 2-3 mark.

Under Lawson, St. Andrews placed at least three players on the All-Conference Carolinas team each year, including the co-player of the year in 2007 and the freshman of the year in 2008.

Prior to St. Andrews, Lawson coached at Anne Arundel (Md.) Community College and Howard (Md.) Community College. Lawson was named the NJCCA Region XX Coach of the Year while at Howard CC.

Lawson earned his BBA in business management at Marymount (Va.) University and his master's in instructional systems design at University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

"Everyone at Mount Olive College is committed to helping the student-athletes reach their full potential and the values of this institution so closely mirror my own," said Lawson. "I am very excited to build this program from the ground up. With the support and structure in place at Mount Olive, we will hit the ground running."