By James Joseph
WSL Senior Features Writer

During 2003 and 2004, Kevin Flynn was one of about 15 players on a University of Montana men's club lacrosse team that won just two games and wore hand-me-down uniforms from the school's football team.

Oh, how things have changed.

Last season, with 35 players on its roster, Montana went 15-4 and won the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association Division B title, capping a dramatic rise to prominence.

"It's pretty amazing," Flynn said.

The Grizzlies' rise began after Flynn's sophomore season, when he and fellow sophomore captains Ryan Frey and Gabe Krenza simply decided that they were going to do whatever it took to field a winner.

"At that time, we were going into our third year, we were putting a lot of time in and not seeing much out of it," Flynn said. "So we decided to put extra time in and really get things going."

The captains decided Montana would adopt the "virtual varsity" concept, in which a club team acts and conducts itself like a varsity athletic program. The Grizzlies began aggressive fundraising, bought new uniforms, signed with Harrow equipment, instituted academic standards and, most importantly, began holding each other to a higher standard on the field.

The results were immediate.

In 2005, with Flynn acting as a student-coach because he was unable to play due to mononucleosis, the Grizzlies went 13-2 and went to the national semifinals, where they lost to San Diego. The following year, with Flynn back on the field and his friend Zach Krug coaching, Montana went back to the semifinals and lost again to San Diego.

Last season, with Phil Rohlfing coaching the team, the Grizzlies went on a stunning late-season run that included a 19-18 victory over Westminster in the semifinals and a 15-10 victory over St. John's (Minn.) in the national championship game.

With its title, Montana has been promoted to MCLA Division A for the 2008 season. But the Grizzlies should be able to compete, with all but four players returning from last year's team and Flynn, who is out of eligibility, moving back to the sideline and re-claiming the head coaching position.

Senior Townsend Hall, a three-time All-American and the 2007 Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse League Division B Most Valuable Player, leads the Grizzlies. Hall is going to play midfield this season after playing attack the last three years.

Among the other top returners are junior attack Sam Cameron, who was a second-team All-PNCLL Division B selection last season, and senior attackman-middie Jake Bagley, who was a first-team All-American in 2006 but was injured all last season.

Sophomore defenseman Elliot Buchholz will lead the defense in front of junior goalie Colin Connery, a second-team All-PNCLL Division B choice last year.

Montana also should be helped by a pair of incoming players from Ohio -- Henry Burchenal, a face-off specialist, and Jason Kack, a middie-attackman who transferred from Rutgers.

Unlike when Flynn got to Montana, the Grizzlies are making ripples throughout the West Side.

"We used to be all East Coast-based transplants," and players from Colorado, said Flynn, who grew up in the Chicago area.

Now Montana has players on its roster from California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah. And there is talk that maybe some time in the future, the Grizzlies could become an NCAA-sanctioned program.

One other huge difference? All the players from Flynn's class and before -- the Montana lacrosse program's forefathers who traveled 12 hours to games they knew they would lose just to build the program -- are gone.

Said Flynn: "What's shocking to me is we now have an entire team of over 30 guys who don't know what it's like to lose."