It’s 10:00 p.m. on Aquinas’ campus and all is well. Students are buried in their studies, The Moose is providing a steady stream of caffeine, and 21 guys are running around the field house carrying sticks and yelling strange commands.

Wait, what?

It’s the Aquinas men’s lacrosse team hard at work late into the night. Unbeknownst to most of the college, the team has been training together since last semester, gearing up for games to start later this month.

Scheduled to play against larger schools including Albion and Grand Valley State, the team sees this season as their chance to prove themselves. Not only do they want to be a competitive team, the lacrosse Saints are on track to be approved as an official varsity sport for next year.

The jump from a club sport to a varsity team is a big one. Senior team captains Brad Vandenbroeck and Mike Battaglia are confident the team won’t drop the ball, no pun intended.
As the team straps on face masks and grab their practice jerseys, Vandenbroeck explains their confidence.

“With our level of dedication, I truly believe that we will be one of the best teams in Michigan over the next three years,” said Vandenbroeck.

The team has come a long way already. Three years ago, Aquinas lacrosse consisted of some by-laws scratched out by Vandenbroeck and his brother Roland and about 10 guys with a love for the game.

Now a 21-man team on the verge of reaching the varsity level, they have the dedication, the experience and a coach who has been actively recruiting and building support.

Luke Griemsman, the official coach for the 2009 lacrosse team, has recruited from almost 95 percent of all Michigan high school lacrosse teams and is excited by the potential he sees at Aquinas.

“There are some very good lacrosse players here with leadership and experience,” said Griemsman.

“We will bring pride to the college and its name.”

As the team sprints laps around the empty field house, whip balls at each other and run plays, their enthusiasm is contagious.

Battaglia says that best thing about being part of the team is seeing how far they have come since his freshman year.

“It’s exciting to be at the start of something,” said Battaglia.

“It can be kind of rough [practicing late at night] since we could be studying or working, but we’ve seen huge improvement as a team and have such a high level of dedication. I think we’re more dedicated than most club sports.”

The team’s first game is against Albion on March 22.

Friday night, a group of about 50 students stood outside The Moose. They shivered, huddled, and wrapped their sweatshirts tighter, but refused to go inside. They were waiting for the bus, the wonderful vehicle that would give them a free ride to the highly anticipated and advertised AQ Club Night, a campus program sponsored by RHA, AQRAAD and area residence hall councils.

A short eternity later, the bus arrived. Much to the dismay of the waiting students, the bus was old-school shuttle style with no more than 25 seats. Denied a long-awaited seat, many gave up on Club Night right then and there. Others decided to wait for the next shuttle and give it a chance. After all, Aquinas was spending over $3,000 on this event — it had to be good.

The lucky students that had fit onto the bus rushed into the downtown YMCA. It was Club Night’s first time in this premiere workout facility and they were ready to take advantage of all it had to offer.

Bathing suits in hand, the swimming pools and slides were a top destination for many. Others headed to the rock climbing wall. Still others steered towards the army of flat-screen-equipped elliptical machines. There was one problem — all previously mentioned athletic activities were closed.

The prevention of swimming caused great discontentment. Although the pool eventually opened, students stared sadly into the darkened pool, longing to enjoy the refreshing splash of chlorinated water. Apparently, there had been some misunderstanding and everyone was waiting on lifeguards.

Add that to the fact that remaining options were limited to basketball, volleyball, racquetball, a track and a few exercise machines, and many students were left to dejectedly eat potato chips in the lobby as the YMCA and the Aquinas sponsors worked through their communication issues.

“I thought it was a lot of fun, but it was kind of disappointing that we couldn’t use the rock-climbing wall,” said Drew Anderson, a sophomore resident assistant at St. Joseph. “I thought that would have been really cool.”

Issues were resolved, eventually, and a good deal of the evening was salvaged. People won prizes, went swimming, burned and then consumed calories, but the prevalent sentiment seemed to be that Club Night was really good…last year.

Does Aquinas college have pep? Specifically, does Aquinas have pep when it comes to sporting events — our very own competitive teams? Most would answer that question with a resounding “no.”

To exist without pep is draining, and leaves one in low spirits. Aquinas already has to deal with the never-ending west Michigan winter; handling the repercussions of lacking pep hardly seems desirable.

So let’s get some!

…But how?

Well, one idea — the beginnings of a plan even — is to form a pep band at Aquinas. What a concept — increasing pep with a pep band. But would it work?

The opinions around Aquinas are a solid combination of yes, no and maybe. How’s that for definitive?

Freshman Mary Grace Guild likes the idea. “I think a pep band would improve school spirit,” she said. “And it is definitely possible. There are enough high school band grads to make it work.”

The prospect of an Aquinas pep band seems “pretty cool” to Freshman Jason Hill, forward for the men’s basketball team. “We had one in high school and I really liked it. It gets you hyped before the game, gets the energy up and adds school spirit.”

So maybe Aquinas should go for it. In the words of sophomore Stephen Simon, “Knock your socks off, Aquinas.”

While it is true that a good pep band could increase the excitement at games and raise some school spirit, it would have to actually be good. It would require significant time, dedication, energy, organization and genuine musical ability. Not to mention an audience. With current game attendance, the hypothetical pep band would be hard pressed to find fans to get pepped in the first place. But that is a different issue altogether.

“If it was going to work, it would need to come out of the music department,” said senior Nick Cooper. “It would require a lot of dedication, and students would be more likely to stick with it if it were part of a class.”

As someone very involved in the music department, Cooper seemed doubtful about the prospect of a successful pep band.

“Aquinas has tried this before and it has never worked,” he said. “Honestly, I think getting the new field house will improve school spirit more than trying to have a pep band.”

Athletic Director Terry Bocian was equally doubtful. Also sighting previously failed pep band attempts, he explained that while he would love to have a quality band, he does not see it happening any time soon.

“It would need to a be a dedicated group that could actually play well,” Bocian said. “We don’t want an inconsistent group that would detract from the games.”

The current solution is to play music over the sound system until that amazing, talented and dedicated Aquinas pep band appears.

Bocian did have one more idea. “I could always bring an accordion and few grandkids with some flutes,” he offered.

He may have been joking, but it’s a thought.

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Relaxing. Every muscle in your body. Relaxing. Breathing deeply. Pushing negative energy out of your body.

A holistic calming exercise?

Not exactly, but as Canadian hypnotist Sailesh spoke those words, Aquinas student volunteers sure appeared to be relaxed as they slumped into a deep hypnotic state.

The 13-year veteran of hypnotism made a special visit to Aquinas on Jan. 10.

Greeted by a full auditorium, Sailesh was prepared to hold his audience captive — literally. By the end of the night, students of Aquinas had witnessed their friends do things they would have never imagined performing.

Humiliating? Not even embarrassing, according to Sailesh.

Over 15 students volunteered to relinquish “all control of their actions” into the hands of Sailesh.
Once in the initial hypnotized state, the students could best be described as Sailesh’s personal puppet collection.

The students readily responded to Sailesh’s varied instructions, making the audience laugh hysterically and crossing all sorts of lines in the process.

Seeing the volunteers put on a hypnotized version of Riverdance was hilarious, as was watching them attempt to evacuate the audience in slow motion.

“It was the funniest thing you’ve ever seen,” said freshman Catherine Newman.

Freshman Bridget McCrackin explained that while it was hilarious, she was glad that she was not one of the people hypnotized.

Witnessing them watch pornography, respond to perceived nudeness and explore their sexuality was a bit risqué and received a mixed reaction.

Another student, who wishes to remain anonymous, found the Sailesh hypnotism experience to be quite traumatizing.

But it’s just good, relaxing fun. Right?