Can a sport that gets people this excited
possibly be a bad thing?
It was unseasonably wet and cold, but the pair of
semifinal games in the Oregon High School Lacrosse Association
still managed to draw quite a crowd on Wednesday.
The event resembled a party atmosphere, and that
was beyond the packed stands.
Around the sidelines young lacrosse players
tossed the ball back and forth, members of the Portland
Lumberjax indoor lacrosse team that recently reached the Major
League Lacrosse championship game signed autographs, and
announcers raffled off top-of-the line lacrosse gear for players
in the stands (of which there were plenty) to take home, and
suit-wearing officials of the OHSLA roamed through the crowd.
Judging by the line of cars trying to find any
available parking space within a few blocks of West Linn High
School, it was as if the entire Oregon lacrosse community had
gathered to toast its success.
The sport has grown exponentially in the state in
recent years, with new schools starting up programs every
season. In a relatively short span, lacrosse in the Hood River
area has developed a boys team at Hood River Valley High School
that reached the semifinals for the first time on Wednesday and
a girls team that just completed its first varsity season.
Below that is a fully supported feeder system of
boys and girls youth teams ranging from second and third grade
to middle school. Many of those younger players can regularly be
found in the stands and on the sidelines tossing a ball or
playing an informal pick-up game.
Some of the middle school players even sat on the
bench as HRV upset Lake Oswego in the quarterfinals of the state
playoffs. Many other sports just wish they had such a completely
developed and integrated youth system.
I have heard some people complain that lacrosse
takes away fields and athletes from
other more
traditional sports, but if a sport is obviously successful, I’d
say it has just as much right to a field as any other, and if
players are flocking to it, their must be a reason.
I know that if I were a 10-year- old and given
the option of building grass mounds in deep right field, or
getting to whack somebody with a metal stick, the decision would
not be very hard.
From lacrosse to rugby to water polo to mixed
martial arts to sailing there are more options than ever for
young people to get involved in sports today.
Yes the rise of some of those sports may sap the
numbers of other sports, but a little competition never hurt
anybody. And I’m not talking about on the field competition.
If a sport wants to give kids a reason to stay
and develop, they need to develop ways to keep them interested
or risk losing them to other activities.
Saying lacrosse and sports that are rising in
prominence are hurting other more traditional sports is like
college programs complaining Title IX is depleting their
numbers.
That may be true, but it also provides many
athletes with opportunities that they have not had before.
And that is what lacrosse is doing with a new
generation of youngsters who decided it was more fun to play
with a stick than be the fifth outfielder sitting almost beyond
sight range.
In a day and age when we are trying to find ways
to keep kids active and off the couch, I say the more ways that
are found to do that, the better.
And if it’s as fun to watch as lacrosse, well,
that’s an even better deal.
