WALESKA, Ga. -- Reinhardt College begins its inaugural season of intercollegiate men's lacrosse later this month when traveling to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Institute of Technology. The game at Georgia Tech is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.  

"We‘re making improvements weekly," Reinhardt head coach Binz Hansen said. "We've got a lot of young guys but they're coming along. There's a lot of enthusiasm to get going and the guys can't wait and are very anxious."

For the 2010 season, the Eagles are members of the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association's SouthEastern Lacrosse Conference. Reinhardt is affiliated with Division II of the SELC, and competes as part of the Central Division with Emory University (Atlanta), Furman University (Greenville, S.C.), Kennesaw (Ga.) State University, Georgia State University (Atlanta) and Tennessee Wesleyan College (Athens, Tenn.).

The MCLA is a national organization of college lacrosse programs. The MCLA currently operates in the United States and Canada with 213 teams in two divisions, across 10 conferences. The SELC is the largest of the 10 MCLA conferences, consisting of 19 Division I and 18 Division II squads. Last year's champions were Florida State University in Division I and Emory in Division II.

After opening up against the Yellow Jackets, the Eagles play three more contests on the road before their home opener. Reinhardt is at Furman for its first SELC Central Division game on Feb. 21 before traveling to Charleston, S.C., to face The Citadel on March 2. After playing at Emory on March 19, the Eagles host Tennessee Wesleyan the following day in their first home contest. Reinhardt concludes its regular season with home dates vs. Kennesaw State (March 27), the University of Alabama (March 28) and Georgia State University (April 3). The top six SELC Division II teams advance to the SELC Championship tournament, which is set for April 23-25 at three different sites around metropolitan Atlanta. The MCLA National Championship event is slated for May 11-15 in Denver, Colo. Printer-friendly versions of the schedule are available in MS Word and as a PDF.

"We have a lot of the better teams in SELC Division II in our division, so we have a pretty tough conference schedule," Hansen said. "Overall, I think we'll be able to give some of those teams a good run.

"Outside of our division, I wanted to schedule teams that I thought the kids would be excited to play. We'll get to play against larger schools that Reinhardt usually doesn't get to play."

Hansen competed in lacrosse at NCAA Division III Goucher College in Baltimore, Md. He earned his bachelor's degree from Goucher in 2006.