“…In the three years since lacrosse was introduced as a club sport in Petaluma, four teams have grown to 16 and 70 players now number 325. With no guarantees, lacrosse fundraisers have raised $36,000. In money-tough times, $36,000 is an impressive return on a barbecue chicken dinner and equally impressive deposit on an unpromised future…”
“…150 people in front of the Petaluma City School Board pleading for lacrosse to be elevated to a CIF-sanctioned sport at Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools. Their request was denied…”
“There are 2,079 high schools in the state of California,” Scheele said, “and 150 of them have lacrosse teams. That’s less than 10 percent (7.2 actually). Fifteen colleges in California play lacrosse and none offer scholarships.”
For some people, a lacrosse player looks like a beekeeper trying to catch a butterfly in a net. Of course, that’s not the game. It takes skill, intelligence, stamina and hand-eye coordination. If a sport’s worth can be so cogently defined, lacrosse satisfies all the necessary requirements to be respected and widespread. It should not need promoting or pleading. It should not have needed Tuesday night.
Yet, there they were, 150 people in front of the Petaluma City School Board pleading for lacrosse to be elevated to a CIF-sanctioned sport at Petaluma and Casa Grande high schools. Their request was denied. It couldn’t have been an easy a decision for the two school principals and seven board members.
In the three years since lacrosse was introduced as a club sport in Petaluma, four teams have grown to 16 and 70 players now number 325. With no guarantees, lacrosse fundraisers have raised $36,000. In money-tough times, $36,000 is an impressive return on a barbecue chicken dinner and equally impressive deposit on an unpromised future.
So there was an elephant in the room Tuesday night. Problem was, it was a small elephant, not a big one. Lacrosse really needs to gain some weight. Lacrosse in Sonoma County needs to become so large, it’s the elephant no one can ignore. Currently CIF-lacrosse is played only at Cardinal Newman and Sonoma Academy. No public high school around here offers it.
“No one else is doing it,” said Linda Scheele, principal at Casa Grande. “When we had a meeting with SCL principals this spring, none of them said they were even talking about it.”
The lacrosse fervor at the meeting was palpable. They are in love. No question. They were not a lunatic fringe. They were responsible and articulate adults, like Todd Samet, their spokesman, a high school science teacher. There is no doubting their zest and commitment.
“There are 2,079 high schools in the state of California,” Scheele said, “and 150 of them have lacrosse teams. That’s less than 10 percent (7.2 actually). Fifteen colleges in California play lacrosse and none offer scholarships.”
As opposed to the East Coast, lacrosse here is in its infancy. Samet said he has heard club teams are being organized in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. All to the good. All the better.
“I just feel we are being strung along,” said Samet, the frustration obvious in a man who has met four times with the School Board in the last 16 months. Not now, they have said. Samet said the Petaluma Youth Lacrosse League (PYLL) promises to fund CIF lacrosse. If it can’t, Samet said, the PYLL will quietly disband. Scheele squirmed.
“I found out Davis High School ran out of (lacrosse) funds in its second year,” Scheele said. “You saw how upset they (PYLL) were when they were turned down last night? Imagine two years from now, if there are no more funds, the next set of parents doesn’t want to pay and we have to shut the program down. How upset would they be then?”
As in most conversations these days, money rears its green head. The School Board said they may have between $2.25-$2.5 million slashed from its school budget. The economy is in a nosedive. People are risk-averse and stewards of a public school system flinch, getting flogged by dollar bills.
“In terms of financing,” Scheele said, “most of us have never seen anything like this before.”
So what do the lacrosse lovers do? Keep feeding the elephant. Get him bigger. Some people want to rent a billboard. Others want to walk down Petaluma streets with placards. Others want to sell T-shirts on campus. Others should invite friends who live elsewhere in Sonoma County to see a club match.
Take the beekeeper and the butterfly out of lacrosse and replace it with the elephant growing bigger by the day. Keep feeding the elephant so that he can’t be ignored. It is the only chance.
“We aren’t going away,” Samet said.
After all, they do have the $36,000. That should buy a lot of elephant food.
For more on North Bay high school sports go to Bob Padecky’s blog at padecky.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or bob.padecky@press
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