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History Tony’s Tavern Lacrosse Club was originally formed as Club Texas Lacrosse and Sports in the spring of 2000. The opening of a first lacrosse specific store in Texas (Texas Lacrosse and Sports Inc) spurred a few area high school coaches and lacrosse enthusiasts to start a new men’s club team to play in the Gulf Coast Lacrosse Association. 2000 Under the leadership of President Craig Mundhenk, the team, which would become to be known as Club Texas Lacrosse, finished their inaugural season with a 8-3 record and a postseason birth in the GCLA playoffs held in New Orleans. The team beat Loyola College of New Orleans 10-5 in the quarterfinals and advanced to meet the New Orleans Lacrosse Club in the semifinals. CTL played well, but could not bury their shots, as the club from North Houston rang three shots off the posts and lost to New Orleans 8-4. The team was led in scoring for the season by Team MVP Rene Kozarsky, who returned from a one year hiatus from the league. 2001 The 2001 campaign saw a plethora of departures, as mainstays from CTL’s first year left. The second season saw team leaders Andy Tartar and Brian Hill relocating to North Carolina. Face off specialist, Brian Miller retired after the 2000 season to spend more time with his new family. The prior year’s team leader in points, Rene Kozarsky switched into goal to fill the also newly vacated position. CTL also picked up the services of Houston area lacrosse guru and coach, Keith Tintle. Despite the many changes, CTL managed a 5-4 record, including an 18-1 drubbing of Sam Houston State. CTL lost to South Texas Storm LC, 10-6 in the GCLA semis played in Pasadena, TX. Keith Tintle led CTL in scoring for the season and won the team’s MVP award.. 2002 2002 saw CTL again weather same changes as many players relocated. But once again Club Texas (as the team would be called by many around the league) finished 8-3. President Craig Mundhenk transferred with is job in the middle of the season and was replaced by former Penn State player Tim Mullen. CTL finished the season with another early exit from the GCLA playoffs with an 8-6 loss to the New Orleans Club in the GCLA semis. CTL raced out to a 6-3 lead by the beginning of the third quarter, but ran out of gas as New Orleans managed to take a 7-6 late in the fourth quarter. A failed ten man ride late in the game led to the insurance goal for New Orleans. The team was led again in scoring by Keith Tintle with former Air Force grad and CTL newcomer, Mike Inzone finishing second. 2003 The changes just kept on coming as CTL went through another transformation. The team changed their uniforms and much of their roster. The team’s leading scorer from the previous two seasons, Keith Tintle, was gone. So was team president Tim Mullen (with longtime attackman Tim Leyden taking over the responsibilities) But CTL gained the services of former local Houston high school standouts Matt Walton (Kingwood) and Jaques Passino (Episcopal). Club Texas also picked up former Coast LC players James Daugherty and Charles Schmidt. Goalie Rene Kozarsky switched back to his natural attack position, despite the team trying out a myriad of keepers. CTL also picked up the services of former South Texas Storm standouts Matt Carr and Sean Eicholz. With this nucleus in place CTL finished 6-4, with two disappointing defeats to Metro, a loss to Houston Men’s Club, and a GCLA Semifinal defeat to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. CTL raced out to a quick 2-0 lead on NAS CC in the GCLA Semifinals, but the Hodge-Podge team made up of former Academy players, enlisted personnel and local civilians from the Texas Coast took control and won the game 14-4, en route to winning the GCLA crown that year. Despite the loss the team won their first GCLA Western Conference title. Rene Kozarsky led the team in scoring for the second time with a total of 25 points (17G/8A). New acquisition Sean Eicholz proved his worth finishing second on the team with 19 points (12G/7A). 2004 Club Texas gained proved their resilience as the team again turned over a huge chunk of their roster. Out were team contributors Passino, Brad Scott (Kingwood), Jason Lightsey (UNC Greensboro), James Daugherty and Charles Schmidt. The team’s defense was completed uprooted, with CTL original Chris Wilke anchoring the backline. Kozarsky played the entire season at close defense to fill the gaps. But CTL picked up the services of former A&M standouts Bobby Jee (who went on to lead the team in scoring in his first year) and Jimmy Constable. The team also added youngster Mikey Issaacson and former SFA & Bellaire H.S. star Justin Hill. The team finished 7-4 and secured their second straight GCLA Western Conference crown. Due to the unpredictable Houston weather, the Saturday of the GCLA payoff weekend was washed out. The result was an under-manned CTL squad of 8 players was forced to play Bayou City LC in the GCLA Semis. CTL persevered and beat Bayou 10-2 to advance to the GCLA final for the first time in its history where they would face Metro. More reinforcements arrived later in the afternoon, but CTL would still miss the services of starting defenseman Chris Wilke who was out of town. Playing with two new defensemen, CTL quickly found themselves in the hole, 6-0 in the first quarter. Matt Walton switched from his LSM position to close defense where he stabilized the defense and shut down the Metro. But the damage was done as Metro raced out to 11-3 lead midway through the second quarter. Team president and attackman Tim Leyden took a spear in the back in the third quarter, which forced him out of the game. But this rallied the team as CTL scored eight unanswered goals, tying the game at 11 apiece to force overtime. CTL would have its chances in the extra session, with Sean Eicholz ringing a EMO shot off the post. Metro looked to finish the game minutes later as they found CTL keeper, Dave Miller, out of the cage, but misfired. Minutes later, a botched clearing pass would be converted into a Metro goal and another title for the GCLA charter member. 2005 Club Texas secured a new agreement with their sponsor Texas Lacrosse and Sports Inc. for the 2005 season. With it came new uniforms, colors, and a name change. The team formerly known as Club Texas changed its name changed to Team Texlax, to avoid any confusion with Team Texas. The team also dropped navy from its color scheme and took the field sporting only red and white. Despite the changes, Team Texlax would have their first ever losing season. Bobby Jee assumed the role of president from Tim Leyden who was considering retirement. The team gained the services of All-State goalie Roy Nichols (Cy-Fair), faceoff specialist Ian Brown (Cy-Fair), and former Houston area high school stars, Sam Veron (Kingwood), Brandon King (Kingwood) and D.J. Rose (Klein). The team finished 4-5. A driving monsoon forced the cancellation of the first matchup of the year between Bayou City LC and Texlax, but miscommunication on the part of the league forced CTL to forfeit another contest to Bayou. The wealth of high school coaches on the team proved detrimental as CTL was forced to forfeit another game to Bayou City due to many players missing the game due to their coaching responsibilities. Regardless of these situations, Texlax faced-off with Bayou in the GCLA semis. Bayou raced out to what seemed to be a 3-1 lead late in the first quarter, when Bayou was called for a three minute illegal stick penalty. The penalty erased a goal and gave Texlax a three minute EMO. Texlax used that penalty to cruise to a 7-3 win. The win set up a rematch of the 2004 GCLA Championship. The 2005 was a nip and tuck affair as Texlax opened the scoring on a Kozarsky from Nichols goal. The teams would trade the lead into the second half. Metro was able to open an 11-7 lead early in the fourth quarter due to some questionable unnecessary roughness calls. Texlax found themselves down by four with three and half minutes to play. Kozarsky grabbed an errant shot and bull dodged his way to a goal to start the comeback. A minute and half later Jee found twine to close the lead to two. An EMO rocket by Eicholz reduced the lead to one with under a minute to play. Brown won the ensuing faceoff and Texlax called timeout. The ensuing play resulted in a good look for Justin Hill who forced Metro goalie Gotleib to make a good, low save to his right. Texlax would have another opportunity as Constable picked off the clearing pass, but it resulted in an Eicholz errant pass with 11 seconds to play. But Texlax was still not finished as Eicholz was able to get shot off from just outside the restraining box off with two seconds remaining. Kozarsky had an opportunity to grab the pass but with under a second left elected to let the shot to pass though for an easy Gotleib save. Despite the 4-5 campaign, Texlax once again found itself one goal from a championship. The team was led scoring by offensive MVP Sean Eicholz with 32 points. Jee and Kozarsky finished with 24 and 23 points respectively. Together the trio accounted for 51 of the team’s 64 goals. 2006 The club formerly known as Team Texlax saw yet another massive upheaval as Texas Lacrosse and Sports suddenly, and without warning, closed it’s doors, thus leaving the team looking for a new identity and sponsor. Jeff Jaffurs from Tony’s Tavern of northwest Houston stepped up to the plate providing the financial backing to keep the team alive. The newly dubbed Tony’s Tavern Lacrosse team took the field in the spring of 2006 sporting their traditional red and white, adding a hint of silver as a third color. The team also added Smith Bits, WarFab, and Rage Cage as secondary sponsors giving the team a huge financial edge over the other teams of the GCLA. The team also picked up the services of many of the top players of the area, including Matt and Mike Shearer (LSU), Jeff Mazzolini (Texas A&M) and Nate Daniels (Utah State), while gaining transfers Tim Glass (Buffalo) from Bayou City and Joel Hill (Texas A&M) from Houston Lacrosse Club. Mikey Isaacson returned from a one year hiatus to help anchor the midfield. A totally revamped defense consisting of former local high school standouts Cole Nowak, Colin Gittings and DD Davis, along with a healthy Matt Walton, and new addition John Rose (Texas Tech) asserted themselves as the best defense in the GCLA with their physical style of play. Roy Nichols returned for a second year as he platooned with Mike Shearer between the pips. This potent combination gave up a total of 34 goals in 12 games. Offensively the team was led by captain and president Bobby Jee’s 46 points. Mazzolini proved his worth in his rookie season putting up 42 points, including a team high 23 assists. The club’s all time leading scorer and leader in games played, Rene Kozarsky, rounded out the powerful attack putting up his best numbers since the team’s inception in 2000, with 32 points in’06. But the attack became less of the focal point of the team as the season wore on as middies, Joel Hill and Matt Sherarer asserted themselves late in the season and bore most of the team’s scoring late in the season. Tony’s went 12-0 in 2006, winning their first GCLA title. The season was full of highlights including the team’s first three victories over rival Metro, two shutouts and a victory over the SWLA’s Alamo Lacrosse Club. Tony’s had a team high seven goals from Kozarsky against UTSA, a team high of assists (4) from the attack, Jee (two times), Mazzolini, and Kozarsky-all on different occasions. The GCLA championship saw Tony’s break out white jerseys for the first time in their history. The contest featured a nip and tuck affair for the first 20 minutes, until Walton’s transition LSM goal just before half seemed to break the game open. Tony’s offense, confused by Metro’s defense, adjusted after the first quarter and saw scoring from eight different players en route to a 11-4 victory.
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