It is time to write a few words about lacrosse. This is a game that began in New York by several local Indian tribes. It is now well organized and gaining in popularity. I was familiar with the game more sixty years ago when I was manager of our high school lacrosse team.
We had a good team and even beat the plebes (freshmen) of West Point. That is the U.S. Military academy. We beat them badly. They did not want to play us again. Our graduates went on to play at Syracuse, the Naval Academy, Dartmouth, Johns- Hopkins and other schools in the northeast. Scholarships, to be sure.
Lacrosse is played with a stick that has a net on the end to catch a hard rubber ball that can be passed at about 100 miles an hour. The ball is smaller than a baseball and excellent eye-hand coordination is needed to pass and catch the little white ball. The players wear helmets and padding on the shoulders. Padded gloves are needed on the hands. The legs are bare. The attacking players use a short stick to whip the ball at the net; the defending players use longer sticks to extend their reach to intercept the ball. There is pushing and shoving and hitting. Kids love it. Experienced players develop finesse and get involved in less pushing and shoving and hitting. The game becomes more graceful as the players grow older. And the game gets faster. A good eye is needed to follow the game.
The people who watch the game are fun to watch. They know nothing of the game, so they sit and politely, applaude for goals and never have a comment about the coaching or the officiating of the game. It is a wonderful experience to behold. Well behaved parents.
I have a grandson who played lacrosse. He wore all the equipment plus black paint under his eyes. I often cheered for the wrong player! Who knew? They all looked the same!
The club was run by the coaches; no parents were invited. Also, the rules of the game were never passed out so the parents were in total ignorance.
I liked that.
I have a cousin in Santa Barbara who wants to start a lacrosse club there. The game is spreading to the west coast. It should grow as it is a good game. I hope that she does not consult soccer people for help
Here in the east the clubs act as feeders into the various high schools. There is no competition during the fall or winter. It is played only in the spring and a little in the summer. Players never play for the school and the club and they never play for two teams or more. There are no out of town tournaments. There is no frantic fund-raising. No trips to Disney or Europe or South America. There are no coaches from Australia or some other part of the world trying to pass themselves off as experts. This is all home grown America, sticks and helmets. And it is growing.
I go to church Sunday mornings in the next town. I pass a Fields of Dreams park developed by the town. There are three fields and basketball courts. Last Sunday I passed two lacrosse games and no soccer. This Sunday it was the same thing. There were two lacrosse games and no soccer. On the way I passed a house with three young kids playing outside. They were 5-7 in age. Two boys and a girl. Three lacrosse sticks and no soccer balls. Today near my old school four more lacrosse sticks and no soccer balls.
Parents wake up. You have killed it for soccer.
IT IS ALL OVER.
Parents join the clubs and become officers to appoint themselves as coaches of their own kids. They rip opposing coaches and vilify the refs. They create a contest of how much they can spend for uniforms, personal trainers and trips to other parts of the world.
In my last five years of high school soccer coaching, I have more kids get scholarships for lacrosse than for soccer. Here soccer is played in the fall and lacrosse in the spring. There is more bang for the buck with lacrosse because the payoff is a college scholarship
By the way, the local soccer shop is thinking of having a lacrosse corner to sell lacrosse sticks and balls. Remember when sport shops had a soccer corner? Will soccer be relegated to the corner again?
My dear friend Gordon Bradley just died. He coached the old Cosmos teams in New York. He really promoted youth soccer. When he died did the youth game die with him?
P.S. Check your local paper for attendance at the final college lacrosse game and compare it to the attendance for the final college soccer game. It will knock your socks off. And many in attendance do not even know the rules of the game!
P.P.S. A final note to lacrosse readers. Never, never let the parents become members of the club. Also, never give them the rules of the game. Let them sit in the stands and be polite in blissful ignorance