The Beginning

      The Waverly Lacrosse Club had its beginning in the spring of 1991, when Bill Prahler held an organizational meeting to gauge the interest among high school boys.  The club arranged to have three games played at Waverly High School that spring, with teams from Ann Arbor Pioneer, East Grand Rapids, Birmingham Seaholm and Ann Arbor Huron visiting. 

      “At the end of the spring the kids said, ‘We can do this,’” Prahler said.  In the fall of 1991 he had 25 boys sign up to play competitively the following spring.  Initially the club committed to playing men’s lacrosse only. 

      Prahler played lacrosse at Michigan State University, and in 1963 he was a freshman on MSU’s first lacrosse team.  He was a teacher at Waverly High School and an experienced coach, having coached tennis at the high school as well, and he coached lacrosse at Muskegon Heights before coming to Waverly.  Prahler coached lacrosse at Waverly until 2005, when he accepted an assistant coaching position for MSU women’s team. 

      “There were not many varsity lacrosse teams in the state until 1973,” Prahler said.  “A lot of us (high school lacrosse coaches) were just involved as collegiate boosters and coaches trying to get talent to go to MSU.” 

      One of Prahler’s biggest decisions was to decide if the club wanted to work in partnership with other schools.  They met with Potterville schools first, because Waverly had an existing consortium with Potterville at the time for scholastic programs. 

      In the spring of 1992 Waverly fielded its first team.  Waverly, Grosse Pointe North and Madison Heights Bishop Foley had new teams that season, giving Michigan 19 schools with lacrosse programs.  Waverly played a varsity schedule that year.  Prahler credits former Waverly High Athletic Director Rick Schmidt for pushing the club to play a varsity schedule and not a JV schedule. 

      “His advice was, if we played a JV schedule, we’d have to play the heavyweight teams—Birmingham Brother Rice, Detroit Country Day and Cranbrook,” Prahler said.  “But if we played a varsity schedule, we’d pick up a better age group of competition and experience.” 

      Waverly went 3-6 in 1992, and lost in the quarterfinals of the Michigan Scholastic Lacrosse Association (MSLA) state tournament to Ann Arbor Pioneer.  The team fielded mostly freshmen and sophomores.  It beat an established Troy team 5-4 in double overtime for its best win of the season. 

      When lacrosse began at Waverly, the Waverly School District provided fields, field maintenance and line marking.  All other funding was provided by the players, their parents and booster association fund-raising.  All the coaches were unpaid volunteers. 

      In 1993 Waverly went 5-13.  “We took on an incredibly tough schedule,” Prahler said.  “It (record) was not bad for us.  But we got a wakeup call, and we practiced all the time.”  The following year wasn’t much better, as Waverly went 6-13. 

      “We were rated No. 1 in Class B one of those years,” Prahler said.  “We promptly lost our first seven games.  … The first three years were not very impressive record-wise, but we always played the toughest competition in the state.” 

      Prahler was initially assisted in starting the lacrosse program at Waverly by Jim Robinson, who eventually had two sons play in the program.  “Jim Robinson was a key person,” Prahler said.  “He was instrumental in getting lacrosse going.  He was probably the person who developed more lacrosse talent (at Waverly) and was a superb coach.” 

      In 1994 the Waverly Lacrosse Club received another helping hand in Larry Sibiski.  Sibiski had gotten to know MSU lacrosse coach Rich Kimball, and when he asked Kimball about lacrosse at the scholastic level and where he could help out, he put Sibiski in contact with Prahler. 

      “I called Bill and he warmly welcomed me aboard for the 1994 season,” Sibiski said.  “I coached the midfielders and a little bit of defense.  I signed on for what would be a 13-year stint.” 

      Sibiski said the early years were tough, with a lot of games being played in the Detroit and Grand Rapids areas against good competition.  “One of the things that I think it did for us was it made us aware of our vulnerabilities as a program and as a team.” 

      In 1995 Waverly began a streak of winning seasons that lasted through the 2001 season.  Waverly went 11-6 in both 1995 and 1996.  In 1997 the team went 16-6, then in 1998 it posted a 20-3 record.  The team went 16-6 in 1999, and then in 2000 it won the Class B state championship with a 19-2 record.  In 2001 it repeated as Class B champions with a 20-2 record. 

      “All of that was the hard work that the guys put in,” Prahler said about those years. 

Continue reading about the addition of the Women's team...