DENVER - Newly discovered historical data comes from many different paths. It could be from a question from a media member or television broadcaster, it could be a question from a coach, it could be a question from a parent or fan.

While on the road in Chapel Hill, N.C., earlier this season, the coaching and support staff began a trivia competition played during bus rides and team dinners to pass the time, and give another outlet for the competitive nature of the staff. The game started with a question about the fastest six players to 100 career goals in Denver's DI history, before junior Ethan Walker broke the record later that weekend, and a handful of questions about head coach Bill Tierney's career record against certain opposition. Then Denver associate head coach Matt Brown, who's been affiliated with the program one way or another since the fall of 2001, suggested there should be a set of trivia questions around the number of states the Pioneers have had players from since the program turned Division I in 1999.

The following week as the Pioneers sat at their gate waiting to board a flight to California to take on Notre Dame in the Pacific Coast Shootout, three questions came out of Coach Brown's proposed research question.

1. How many states have the Pioneers had players from since the program turned DI in 1999?
2. Name the states the program has never had a player from
3. Name the top-six states the program has had players from

When a program is located more than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the lacrosse world, it gives a program that's relatively alone out west (compared to the east coast programs that in some cases are very few miles from each other), and had the success Denver has had on the national stage, an opportunity to recruit in both lacrosse hot beds and states where the sport is still young.

Director of Lacrosse Operations Sue Kelley was closest and earned the first trivia point of the weekend with her answer of 33 states, one state off from the correct answer of 32. Brown and Volunteer Assistant Coach Erik Adamson tied for the second trivia point, each naming 17 of the 18 states, with Brown incorrectly choosing Vermont (Dallas Hood) and Adamson incorrectly choosing Georgia (Jordan Cunningham). Brown earned points on two of the three state questions by correctly naming Colorado, California, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland and New Jersey as the top six states.

Denver's current roster occupies 16 different states across the country. The 32 states that Denver has had players from since 1999 are: Alabama (1), Arizona (3), California (23), Colorado (86), Connecticut (31), Delaware (1), Florida (3), Georgia (1), Idaho (1), Illinois (9), Indiana (2), Kentucky (2), Maine (2), Maryland (18), Massachusetts (7), Michigan (7), Minnesota (5), Missouri (5), Nevada (2), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (22), New York (11), North Carolina (3), Ohio (18), Oregon (3), Penn (10), Rhode Island (3), Tennessee (1), Texas (10), Vermont (1), Virginia (4), Washington (8).

Similar to east/west and other season-long competitions the Pioneer student-athletes have amongst themselves, the battle for 2019 staff trivia supremacy is still far from over.