SPORTS
game is fast-paced. Although its popularity only recently
soared in the South, lacrosse is considered to be America’s
first sport, born of the North American Indian, and developed
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by the Canadians, who call it their national summer
sport. Although the Indians first played a form of lacrosse
to settle land disputes, modern lacrosse has been embraced
by athletes and fans in the United States and Great Britain
for more than a century, with its U.S. roots in Maryland and
upstate New York.
The sport is a combination of the physical contact of
football (for the boys only, for girls, lacrosse is a non-contact
sport), the speed of soccer and basketball and the skill of
hockey. It’s ideal for a youth sport because anyone can play
the game, big or small. Lacrosse requires speed, coordination
and agility, not brawn, according to US Lacrosse Inc., the
national governing body of men’s and women’s lacrosse in
the United States.
Lacrosse athletes sprint up and down the field with quick
starts and stops as in soccer, but lacrosse is played with a
stick, the crosse, which is used to throw, catch and scoop
the ball. Good eye and hand coordination is crucial, says
Don Balch, another former All-American who coached boys
lacrosse at St. Edward’s, and was inducted into the South
Florida Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Balch, who officiates college
and club lacrosse, also was named to officiate at the 2008 International
Lacrosse Federation World Championship games.
Balch’s wife, Trina, is the only nationally certified women’s
official in the state of Florida and continues her officiating
career at the NCAA level, while helping to coach the St. Edward’s
girls team.
Vero Beach is ahead of the curve for the Treasure Coast,
with lacrosse programs in every high school and middle
school, but Fort Pierce, Palm City and Stuart are working
hard to establish youth lacrosse programs. Nationally, youth
participation in the sport has grown more than 500 percent
in the past decade to nearly 250,000. It was the fastest-growing
high school sport over the past decade, with an estimated
200,000 players. This is the first year lacrosse has been
recognized as a sport by the Florida High School Athletic
Association, so many high schools that fielded club teams
are now expanding into varsity programs, with club teams
also on the rise.
In Martin County, the Pine School fields the only lacrosse
teams at the high school and middle school level. The
county’s Parks & Recreation department has partnered with
parent volunteers like Chris Anderson, who established the
Pioneer Lacrosse Little League, creating a feeder program
in Palm City and Stuart. Having no program in the public
high school has frustrated a group of parent volunteers, who
want their high school kids to have the opportunity to play
lacrosse in Martin County. “We have the support of parents
and kids, we have financial support, but we desperately need
the support of the Martin County School Board,“ said parent
volunteer Jeanne Gasoriak.
In St. Lucie County, John Carroll High School just
finished its inaugural season of boys and girls lacrosse,
John Carroll High School’s girls just finished their first season of play, starting the season with only two girls who had ever played lacrosse before.
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