#MCLAHOF20: Sonny Pieper
Sonny Pieper enters the MCLA Hall of Fame as an outstanding contributor.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame last year as Founder, Pieper follows that up with an induction for his work publicizing and promoting the MCLA in its early years. Most notably was his development of the iconic CollegeLax.us, which served as a virtual meeting place for the ever-expanding association.
With its Top 25 rankings, game stories and – perhaps most importantly – the message boards, CollegeLax.us brought the MCLA under one roof. His work covering the annual national tournament and coordinating photography of the event has been a vital resource in archiving over 20 years of action.
“Sonny’s work with the website and nationals was instrumental in elevating our product and enticing more and more teams to join our organization,” said MCLA president Ken Lovic. “His dedication as a founder has been established, but his work in bringing the MCLA into the Internet age was just as important.”
In addition to his publicity work, Pieper also gave back to the MCLA as the president of the SELC and as a long-time lacrosse official.
“The goal of my web site efforts was to publicize the underserved college lacrosse club programs,” said Pieper. “I've always been a college sports fan and thought the lacrosse clubs would be an easy extension of that popularity. The rapid commercial acceptance of the Internet and the explosion of the USILA Associates/USLIA/MCLA mirrored that in many respects.
“It was a perfect storm, with the rapid expansion of lacrosse nationally, in retrospect. Probably due to my officiating roots, I always maintained decent sense of professionalism and fairness when it came to our online media coverage of the teams and leagues. And that seemed to help when running a national web site.”
With the cancellation of the 2020 MCLA National Championships presented by New Balance, Pieper and the MCLA Hall of Fame Class of 2020 will be inducted along with the Class of 2021 next spring Texas.