The Wilkes Lacrosse team will begin its inaugural season on March 8th in Ferrum, VA, where they will take on Ferrum College. Wilkes will be joining the Middle Atlantic Conference, in which they are projected to finish eighth.

Head Coach Curtis Jaques will be pursuing his first ever head coaching position. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute; however, Jaques does not consider himself a “military man.”

“I am a teacher.  I know a thing or two about leadership, teamwork, and the game of Lacrosse, but winning and losing in my profession does not result in life or death,” said Jaques.

Coach Jaques has a military background, but there are certain things that carry over to the field, and certain things that do not. He does not want his players to be robots.

What he means by this is simple: in the military, they tell you what to do and you do it. In a sports setting, his job is to teach you what to do, and your job is to apply what is taught in live situations. There is a distinct difference, you can not expect everything in a game to go exactly as you plan.

Junior goalkeeper Bobby Lok described his coach using the word organized. This is no coincidence to a VMI graduate.

Seeing how this is Jaques’ first year with the team, he has a clear goal for the season. His goal is to teach his players how to compete against themselves.

“I have three goals for every practice. When we leave the field, I want my players to be sweating, smiling and feeling a mental or emotional response to success or failure.” said coach Jaques. One of his long term goals for the university is to be driving down Main St., and seeing kids in the city playing wall ball and carrying around lacrosse sticks.

“One thing that separates coach Jaques is that he not only wants to be your coach, but he also wants to be your friend.” said Lok.

Being the head coach of Wilkes Lacrosse is more than just a position to Jaques. He is taking this opportunity to carve the young men on his team into men that will succeed after graduation.

The main thing Coach Jaques emphasized to me was the word “family.” Family is one of the most important things to him. He went on to say, “at the end of each day, I goes home to my wife and two daughters.”  Without that balance in his life he would burn up quick.

With the help of his players, Coach Jaques, and his players should have a productive season. Jaques could not express enough that it is not about the wins and losses. It is more about where his team was a year, month and week ago, and where they will be in a week, a month and a year.