There was one question on every fan's mind this weekend at Oosterbaan Field House: When will Michigan initiate a varsity lacrosse program?

"Speaking with my head and not my heart ... I'd say 10 to 20 years," Michigan coach John Paul said. "They have a ton of facilities issues and other things that need to be addressed right now."

Paul worked in the athletic department for years before he finally became a full-time coach three years ago. That experience gave him an appreciation for the difficulties associated with funding a program. As a result, he is not the least bit bitter about the relationship between his program and the athletic department.

"We have never been pushing for varsity status because that just isn't financially possible right now," Paul said. "I'm very happy with our support. (Michigan Athletic Director) Bill Martin has done a great job of listening to our situation and giving us the assistance we need."

Paul and coach Gregg Hartsuff of the men's crew team went to see Martin shortly after he took over the athletic director position in 2000, and that meeting helped to create the new "varsity club" status for two programs. That status enabled the them to get hundreds of thousands of dollars from the athletic department along with access to other services, like academic counseling, career planning, media relations and marketing.

"We have a bigger travel budget and a bigger equipment budget than a lot of the true varsity programs here," Paul said. "But the academic support is the most important thing for us."

Expanded medical coverage is the next issue that Paul is looking to acquire for his program. The team currently has a trainer on hand for games, but players must go to an outside sports clinic and pay to treat long-term injuries.

"It's the little things that impress me most," Paul said. "If you look, they painted our lines on this field. (Michigan football coach Lloyd) Carr said no, but the people in Martin's office overruled him. That's really impressive to me because nothing overrules football around here."

This commitment to supporting lacrosse has led many followers of the sport to view the Wolverines as the premier western club program in the nation.

Champions of the west

Last year, Notre Dame became the first lacrosse team from west of the Appalachians to make it to the NCAA Final Four. It was a symbolic occurrence that speaks to the westward expansion of the sport and the inevitable rise of lacrosse at schools in states that lack a lacrosse tradition. What has traditionally been a sport for the prep-school elite of New York, Maryland and Massachusetts is spreading both geographically and socio-economically.

Michigan, in a sense, is a sleeping giant, and it is the team in the west that may rise the farthest and fastest once it eventually becomes a varsity sport.

"The whole lacrosse world would love to see (a varsity program) here," Paul said. "Michigan is already drawing East Coast kids. Everybody thinks of this place and the mystique about athletics here. It would be a natural, and this program could be a top-five program. Everybody really thinks that this is the program in the west. If it is added, that could very quickly be a Syracuse or Virginia."

In recent years the program has grown considerably, evolving from a team of mostly novice players involved in what was very much a club sport to one of the elite club programs in the country, fielding kids who are nearly as talented as many of the best players nationally.

The talent "is picking up every year," Paul said. "For one thing, we're Michigan. Every coach says that but its true: Kids come here because it's Michigan. For another, our program is getting better and better, and we get a lot of national media attention in the lacrosse world so kids know about us, and they know this is a great program."

Westward ho

Never underestimate the appeal of Ann Arbor. For junior midfielder Chip Thomas, the prospect of spending four years in Lancaster, Penn. or Schenectady, N.Y. was enough to lead him toward becoming a Wolverine.

"I was planning on playing at some D-III schools out east - Trinity, Union, Franklin & Marshall - but I talked to (Paul) and he said that the competitive level is pretty much exactly the same (as D-III). It's incredible. And we still get to have some social life, so it's the best of both worlds," Thomas said.

"Obviously the kids getting recruited hard by Syracuse and Virginia are not coming here," Paul said. "But if they're getting recruited by a middle-of-the-road D-I school and they can get the whole package here - a great experience on a winning team and a Michigan education - they're going to come here."

Spreading the gospel

Paul sees his program as an important part of the process of lacrosse's westward expansion.