Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/26/10
From Press Releases
Reading’s Albright College has received a $1 million gift from the John K. Roessner III Trust to build a new multisport practice field and to launch the College’s new men’s and women’s varsity lacrosse programs.
The gift will create a new practice field for lacrosse, other sports, and recreational activities, as well as underwrite the operational costs for the first three years of the lacrosse programs, including personnel and equipment.
John K. Roessner III of Bonita Springs, Fla. and West Harwich, Mass., an Albright College trustee and alumnus, is the president of EJB Real Estate Associates Ltd. For nearly four decades he was the president and chair of E.J. Brooks Company, the world’s leading manufacturer of indicative and barrier security seals for electric utilities, transportation, government and healthcare.
About the gift Roessner said, “Lacrosse has become a really popular sport and students have asked for it. It is an immediate need and I’m delighted I can help this portion of Albright’s strategic plan.”
Lacrosse has been a club sport at Albright since 1994. Both men’s and women’s teams will remain at the club level for the 2010-2011 academic year. The varsity teams will be able to play in fall 2011 and compete in their first varsity season in spring 2012.
Albright president Lex O. McMillan III said, “Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports at the NCAA Division III level, and adding lacrosse has been an athletics priority for some time. We are grateful that Jack Roessner has envisioned the benefits of both the much-needed field space and the varsity lacrosse programs will bring to the students of Albright and to the College itself.”
Lacrosse brings the number of Albright varsity teams that compete at the NCAA Division III level to 23.
Work on the new field will begin immediately and be ready for play by fall 2011. A search for head coaches will begin immediately.
There are currently more than 180 women’s lacrosse programs and more than 150 men’s lacrosse Division III programs in the nation. The lacrosse teams will compete in the Middle Atlantic Conference, which currently sponsors 13 women’s teams and 12 men’s teams.
