Lacrosse Spreading Across America

Once a game concentrated primarily in the Northeast and the New England Region, the game of Lacrosse is growing in popularity all across the country. The game is particularly growing at the high school level.

The traditional collegiate powers are schools like Johns-Hopkins, Duke, Syracuse, Princeton, Virginia, UNC and Maryland. However, more and more schools, particularly small colleges, have started Men's' and Women's' Lacrosse programs. It's an exciting game to watch and probably even more exciting to play. Invented by Native Americans in the northeastern United States and Canada, the game has similarities to Field Hockey and Ice Hockey. Instead of hitting a ball or puck with a stick, the stick has a net at the end of it with which to catch the ball, a rubber ball about the size of a billiards ball.

Earlier today, I was watching a Men's' Lacrosse match between Virginia and Maryland, two of the top teams in the nation. The Cavaliers were ranked #1 and Maryland #5. During the game, Maryland had a beautiful goal started by the Terps goalie flinging an outlet pass to a Midfielder who flicked the ball to his teammate. The teammate faked an overhand shot and ducked under the defender, shooting an underhand shot for a goal. Virginia won the game 10-6, but it was a beautiful sequence of play by Maryland. It reminded me of a fast break in basketball or a counter attack in soccer. For those of you who are familiar with the game and, perhaps, have played it for years, you see this all the time.

Unfortunately, Lacrosse got a bad name in the press a few years ago when several players on the Duke team were charged with rape at a team party. they were all acquitted, but that was how many people not familiar with the sport were introduced to it. However, Lacrosse is not for the timid, faint of heart or the lazy. It requires speed, stamina, power and agility. Many football fans have heard of the name of Jim Brown, the Hall of Fame RB from the Cleveland Browns and, before that, Syracuse University. However, I wonder how many people realize that Brown was also an outstanding Lacrosse player as well. In fact, he was an All-American at Syracuse. Another well-known NFL player who excelled at Lacrosse was former Seattle Sea Hawks and Atlanta Falcons Linebacker Patrick Kearney. Kearney came to Virginia on a Lacrosse scholarship and ended up playing football for the Cavaliers and had an All-American career.

As we get closer to the NCAA Div. l Men's' Tournament, here are the top 10 teams: As mentioned earlier, Virginia occupies the top spot with a 13-1 record followed by North Carolina, Syracuse, Duke and Maryland. Loyola (MD), Hofstra, Stony Brook, Bucknell and Notre Dame round out the top 10. What is interesting is there are schools playing at the Div. l level who at one time would have never though of competing at all, schools such as Presbyterian, Jacksonville and Denver. At one time, the game did not expand south of the state of North Carolina or west of Pennsylvania. But, as mentioned earlier, the sport has grown in popularity in the last 20 years.

Continuing our look at the Men's' College Rankings, NCAA Div. ll looks like this: undefeated Mercyhurst (12-0) is #1 followed by Le Moyne, who is also 12-0 but trails Mercyhurst in the power rating category. Dowling, Limestone and C.W. Post round out the Div. ll top 5. Incidentally, Limestone, a school in Gaffney, SC, barely held on to their #4 national ranking when their goalie, Steve Gartleman, stopped a shot with just seconds left to preserve a 10-9 win in the Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship Game over Belmont Abbey College on Sunday. Belmont Abbey happens to be ranked #15 in the country. The rest of the div. ll top 10 looks like this: Merrimack is at #6 followed by St. Leo, Mars Hill, NYIT and Bentley. Div. lll looks like this: Cortland College from upstate New York is at the top with a record of 11-2. They are followed by Stevenson, Gettysburg, Salisbury and Roanoke. Rounding out the top 10 are Tuffs, Geneseo, Nazareth, Lynchburg and RIT. That is your look at the rankings of NCAA Lacrosse. Many colleges also have teams at the Club level as well.

From what I understand, here are some of the rules of the game. Ten players to a side, there is a 60 second shot clock in which a player must get off a shot before the 60 seconds expire. If he or she is unable to do so, it is a shot clock violation and the ball is turned over to the other team. You obviously cant hit a player in the head with your stick. I'm not sure if there is an offside rule, but there probably is. There is a 2 point arc, much like a three point arc in basketball. The player's feet have to be behind the 2 point arc when they shoot in order to score a 2 point goal. So far, that is all I know. Whoever knows the game is welcome to post a comment on this site as to what other rules are involved.

As mentioned earlier, the sport of Lacrosse has grown at the high school level as well. Like all of Lacrosse, it is most popular in the Northeastern US, but it has spread all the way down to Atlanta, GA and farther south. With the influx of northerners into the Atlanta area, several area high schools have embraced the game and some, like Lassiter High School in Marietta, GA, have produced top notch recruits for colleges. The sport seems to be most popular in the mostly white, upper class communities but some minorities have embraced the sport.

The sport is growing internationally as well. Being that it was invented by the Iroquois Indians of the Northeastern US and Canada, some Canadians play the game. Australia has had a national team in the past. Who knows, maybe Lacrosse will one day become an Olympic sport. Being that there is a lot of scoring and the game is physical, just like Ice Hockey, Lacrosse will only grow in participation and spectatorship here in the United States.