By now you may have heard that John Paul of Michigan Lacrosse fame has been named US Lacrosse’s 2011 Person Of The Year via Lacrosse Magazine. If you don’t we’ve included a link to the press release at the bottom of the page, and you can learn more there. But in the meantime, we’d like to go above and beyond and call out a couple of other accomplishments of JP’s that might fly under the radar at times.
John Paul is a Michigan guy through and through. He grew up in-state, played for UMich in college, and then led the way as a Coach for 14 years. He is now the school’s first-ever Division 1 Head Coach. We love hearing stories about people who GTG in their own backyard, but it’s hard to say anyone has been as successful as Paul. He has been involved with lacrosse in Michigan for DECADES, and has never waivered in his support of lacrosse in MI. He’s probably had a number of opportunities to jump ship, but he hasn’t. And for this, we give him a MAJOR tip of the hat. Keeping it close to home, and doing great things over a long period of time… SUPER SPECIAL!
Adding to the amazing work JP has done, Michigan is also the first BCS school to add lacrosse since Notre Dame added the sport back in 1980, and this is definitely an important accompishment! If lacrosse wants to continue to grow on a truly national level, big schools are going to have to add the sport. JP loves him some Michigan, and he made it happen. HUGE tip of the hat for that!
And finally, we wanted to congratulate JP on being so darn approachable! Coach Paul is willing to talk lacrosse with anyone. He’s an includer, not an excluder, and this fact has shone through for years and years.
The sport of lacrosse needs more guys like JP, and we’re very happy to see him recognized by US Lacrosse!
John Paul named Lacrosse Magazine’s 2011 Person Of The Year [Lacrosse Magazine]
