UDM lax team look for new markets in city

The city of Detroit is home to the state's only Division 1 Varsity lacrosse team, the University of Detroit Mercy Titans. And while we're better known for our professional sports, the Titans' growing competitiveness on the field and willingness to embrace the city off the field is winning them some new-found fans.

It's all part of the Titans' new branding effort, which focuses on integrating the lacrosse teams as members of the Detroit community, not just as sports teams. They've got a new motto for publicizing their outdoor matches, Relax with D-Lax, and a new YouTube video that shows some of the teams' star players eating Coney Dogs at Lafayette, sporting their gear on the People Mover, and generally goofing off around downtown.

"We need to be more connected to our community, that's one side of it," says UDM's Greg Haapala, "and the other side of it is, as people in higher education, part of our student athletes' development should be learning to be members of their community. That's one reason that we reason that we really tried to jump on board with, what can we do to really make this city feel like we're one of their teams?"

One challenge is that most kids in Detroit don't grow up playing lacrosse. They're finding ways to bring the sport to local kids, and also to get more youngsters to the games. They're working with Think Detroit PAL and PlayWorks Detroit to invite their youth participants to the last game of the season on April 16.

"We have players from all different backgrounds on our team, all different ethnic groups. The barriers in lacrosse are starting to change a little bit. And we want to expose that, as a new opportunity for youth, and we just want to give them that ability to learn," Haapala says.

UDM is promoting two more Saturday afternoon games left in the season. On April 9, the men's lacrosse team will play Manhattan College at noon. The April 16 game will have a carnival atmosphere, Haapala says, to celebrate the last home game of the year. The woman's team will play at noon, and the men at 3 p.m. Find out more here.

Source: Greg Haapala, University of Detroit Mercy Athletics Department
Writer: Ashley C. Woods