Lamar heading back to Southland Conference

[bullets13]

On 4/9/2022 at 10:54 AM, Coach85 said:

Agree 100%. The Beaumont/Port Arthur area has declined drastically and there is nothing for college age students to do. Lamar itself doesn’t put hardly any emphasis on its athletic programs like they use to when they brought in good coaches, instead of retread’s or first time head coaches with very little experience, and had good teams that people would actually go to watch. 

I'm not sure what they can do.  The whole area surrounding lamar is impoverished and crime-ridden.  Not only do college students have to travel all the way across town to find anything to do in the evenings, they have to travel nearly that far to get to where it's safe to walk to your car after dark.  I commuted to lamar for a year, and never had any desire to spend any extra time up there.  My buddies thought it would be a good idea to get a house together just off campus, until they were broken into twice in six months, once while they were inside sleeping.  and this was nearly 20 years ago, and things have only gotten worse in that area.  I taught less than two miles from lamar for the last ten years, and just can't really see anything at all that would appeal to students to choose to attend from out of the area.    

[Separation Scientist]

I recently posted, with a link, that Beaumont was in the 99th percentile for crime. Some did not like it but the truth is the truth. Beaumont, PA and Orange are all dangerous areas, at least relative to other surrounding areas. This is an uphill battle for Lamar to fight.   

[Clueless]

Back in the mid 2000’s Lamar made a push to up enrollment. They hit D/FW and Houston hard, built new dorms to get more kids on campus, but when the President at the time, I think Dr. Simmons left so did the vision. They built an Honors college and Administrative building like 6-7 years ago and that was the first academic building built in over 40 years. Like I said, Lamar has failed to plan or put anything in place to make it attractive to outside folks not interested in Engineering or Masters program for adult teachers. They have I believe the largest endowment in Southland Conference, but no vision. At this point they should just try to get as many local athletes that can make them competitive until they figure out a larger game plan.