Did you play Lacrosse?

Interesting, because it didn't exist in the midwest when I was growing up, and now it rivals soccer in popularity (also non-existent in my day). I was talking to a mom today whose three sons all play, and the great thing about it is it combines soccer and hockey without the hassle and commitment of hockey, since you can play it anywhere there's a field. It looks like a pretty cool game and once my son is old enough (3rd grade) I'm going to sign him up.

 

I laxed back in the day. I didn't play seriously but I did play. I had a ton of fun and it's a great game. Fun to play and fun to watch. One of my best sports memories was in lacrosse.
Colleges are also handing out scholarships for lacrosse now

 

Wow, that really surprises me! I always had it pegged as the preserve of wealthy "private school" types.

It's certainly less hassle than hockey - A buddys daughter is a goalie for the junior Sharks and the kit he lugs all round California is insane. Having said that, lacrosse still needs helmets/masks and "real" goals (unless you want to be chasing the ball for miles!). Soccer OTOH just needs a couple of "somethings" to mark the goalposts and away you go....

As for "exciting", I'd have to beg to differ - As a Sharks season ticket holder they gave me tickets to the local pro team last (?) season, and compared to hockey, it sucked! Slow (compared to hockey and even soccer IMO), and the "puck" kept disappearing. Suffice to say I never went back.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I played for five years. Loved it, and I wish I still played it. Tore both knees, both biceps, broke one arm, and sprained both wrists in my last season. It's not a sport for wimps.

Gave it up after all the injuries that season, it took a lot of sports med to get better. I took up Olympic trapshooting the fall afterwards, and that's been my focus. I still want to play lacrosse badly, but it would interfere with shooting too much.

 

I didn't, but a lot of my friends (including two girlfriends) did. I probably would have been good at it, but health issues prevented me from playing any sports in HS.

 

You need to be tough to play for sure. I knew a goalie and hr always had some sort of bruise.
I once got my stick into another guys helmet on accident (I tried to hit the bottom of his stick and he moved it so my stick continued up into his chin) he was fine and played on but just an example of how easy it is to get hurt.

It probably won't live up to the hype (keep in mind, I was never a great athlete and I have a wierd memory sometimes)
On an inbound play from behind the goal, I ran to the sideline in front of the other team's bench and called for the ball. I wasn't very big and the ball was overthrown so I had to jump up and at the top of my jump, an opponent checked me with all his might (he was big) and I went flying into the opposing team's bench and players. I immediately jumped up and enthusiastically said "that was awesome!" and carried on. Not sure why that stuck with me but it did. Funny thing was, the play didn't count because the ref blew the whistle or something like that.
Lacrosse is a great sport that I sometimes wish I didnt give it up but I pursued other things like baseball, which was also a bust come HS. Like Rob said, local high schools are very competitive, especially 5A schools.

 

Played for the first time while I was a 8th/9th grader in central Missouri. Family moved to southern California and it was non existent. So I shot on a net my dad made in my back yard for 2 years and tried to start a high school team. Athletic director said it was "too dangerous" and prevented me from starting it.

Eventually I found a small local group that played and one of them introduced me to a coach an hour away in Orange County. He liked my play and state rules said I could play for them since our high school didn't have a program.

Then I ended up playing for Chapman University until injuries got to me. Overall, awesome sport to play. Maybe not so much to watch, especially if you don't understand it. I received many injuries over the year... broken hand, kidney surgery, and bent a screw that was placed in my knee after a car accident. Plus all the minor stuff.

 

At the risk of someone declaring necromancy , NCAA Finals this weekend!

https://www.ncaa.com/brackets/lacrosse-men/d1/2022

 

In High School I felt like the baseball coach didn’t appreciate me enough, so I went out for Lacrosse. When I told the baseball coach what I was doing he laughed and said I’ll see you in a few days. I was back 2 days later. Lacrosse was tough lol.

 

I went to high school in south Florida in the late '60s, and lacrosse was unknown (as was soccer at the time; we did have a bowling team, however). The first time I saw it played was at the University of Florida, where I saw their lacrosse club practicing on an unmarked field. (Thanks to Title IX, lacrosse is still a men's club sport at Florida and in the entire SEC. The collegiate club league for the south, the SELC, plays their annual tournament here in Atlanta.)

When I graduated and moved to Long Island in 1974, I was dumbfounded to find out that lacrosse was the third-largest high school sport on the island, ahead of even baseball. Newsday, the local newspaper, had extensive write-ups, with photos, of the lacrosse matches, just as they did with football and basketball. (I was told that Jim Brown's scholarship to Syracuse was for lacrosse, not football, but I've never confirmed that. He played at Manhasset High on L.I.)

When I moved to greater Atlanta in 1996, I found that only a few prestige private schools played lacrosse; none of the public schools did, and most people had no idea what the sport was. But gradually, the public schools discovered it and now they all play it. It's still a relatively minor sport, but that seems to be changing. A young fellow in my neighborhood was an aspiring football player; once he discovered lacrosse his thoughts changed and he gave up football before his senior year!

 

Likewise, I grew up on the west coast and when I went to Hopkins for undergrad, a ton of guys on campus were swinging these sticks with their wrists. I was like, what the hell is that? So I bought a lacrosse stick and got as far as playing “catch” with friends. But it was cool to see Hopkins excel, at the time, in the NCAA tournament.


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Never played, but refereed