"There's enough time in life to do the things you really want to do--if you don't waste your time," Joel Nachlas says when asked how he manages the equivalent of two full-time jobs. An associate professor in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) and head coach of Tech's men's lacrosse team, Nachlas was named Coach of the Year in May by both the Southeastern Lacrosse Conference (SELC) and the U.S. Lacrosse Intercollegiate Associates (USLIA). In addition, Virginia Tech placed first in the SELC. Defenseman Ernie Lemmert was named SELC Defensive Player of the Year, and Lemmert and four of his teammates--Andrew Randall, Aaron Connelly, Drew Enstice, and Ben Gogolwere chosen for the SELC All-Conference 1st Team.

The success of Nachlas' team, however, is not a typical Hokie sports story.

Men's lacrosse at Virginia Tech is a club sport, not a varsity sport supported by the university's Athletic Department. Lacrosse team members receive no sports scholarships. In fact, Nachlas explains, each of the 35-40 students on the team pay a $1,000 annual membership fee to support the bulk of the team's expenses. Virginia Tech contributes another $6,000-$7,000 each year from student activity fees, which helps pay for equipment.

And unlike varsity coaches, Nachlas does double-time, making the team's travel plans, booking hotels at modest prices, and chartering buses for games that are long distances from Blacksburg. But despite the financial drawbacks, this pro bono coach has become a great believer in the sports club system.

Nachlas began his lacrosse career at the age of seven while growing up in Baltimore, Md. When he later played lacrosse as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, his team won the national lacrosse championship. In 1974, when Nachlas came to Virginia Tech as an assistant professor, Kim Flint of the university's ROTC program was the men's lacrosse coach. Nachlas signed on as assistant coach and became head coach when Flint left the university in 1975. At that time, the NCAA had oversight of lacrosse, and club teams were associate members. "The goal of the NCAA was to let club teams make the transition into varsity teams," Nachlas says. From the early 1970s until 1994, the Virginia Tech team competed with NCAA varsity teams. "We did well against the varsity teams and usually had a winning record," he notes.

Then the NCAA began pushing the club teams away and the USLIA evolved to provide a league for them. Virginia Tech is one of 130 member teams in the association, and the SELC is one of eight conferences. Although Nachlas hoped during the 1970s that men's lacrosse would become a varsity sport at Virginia Tech, he has since decided that students are better served as members of a club team under the umbrella of the USLIA.

"The students on our lacrosse team put academics first," he says. "A club sport provides something worthwhile that I'd like to preserve. The students learn how to balance the aspirations they have for both academics and sports." However, one thing does bother the coach. "These students shouldn't have to pay so much in order to play lacrosse," he says.

The team practices three afternoons a week the first half of fall semester, then every afternoon until the season starts in February. The season ends with a national tournament in May. Virginia Tech has reached the tournament almost every year since joining the USLIA and came in fifth in the nation in 1998 and 2001.

About half of the team members are engineering students, Nachlas notes. For the USLIA 2001 season, eight of the Virginia Tech players were selected as lacrosse All Americans and four were named academic All Americans. "For a student who is well-organized, competing in club sports is not a hardship," he comments. "The enjoyable thing about coaching and teaching at Virginia Tech is that the students are smart, capable people."

To learn more about the Virginia Tech men's lacrosse team, visit its website: www.GroupLoop.com/VTLax/index.asp?Action=Old.