(From FridayFlyer.com article) “It happened most unexpectedly, following a short bike ride from my home up to the high school on a beautiful Saturday morning in June 1965. I was 9 years old. As I rounded the corner of the back of New
A group of boys in grades 3 to 5 (Cobra division) play lacrosse in the same type of field space required by soccer. Zachary Hodge shows off the equipment worn in the sport.
York’s West Islip High School and gazed ahead to the soccer field, I could not believe what I was seeing. Two teams dressed in what appeared to be half-football, half-hockey uniforms were running up and down the soccer field, throwing a small round ball between teammates using sticks with nets on the top and shooting the ball into a goal about a third of the size of a soccer goal. The action was fast and non-stop – running, passing the ball, offense trying to outmaneuver the defense, body- and stick-checks, shooting and scoring. At the time I didn’t know it but I was watching a boy’s lacrosse game between West Islip and Huntington High Schools. I was immediately hooked on lacrosse.”
Such is the description of Canyon Lake resident Neil Rodden’s introduction to a passion that has consumed his life for almost 45 years, leading him and two friends, Mike Hodge and Brian Davis, to begin a boys’ youth lacrosse program in Southwest Riverside County in 2010.
Their goal with Snakes Lacrosse (www.snakeslacrosse.com) is to have 160 boys in grades 3 to 8 participate in two divisions: grades 3 to 5 (Cobra) and grades 6 to 8 (Python), with four teams (20 players per team) in each division playing a slate of inter-league games. Signups begin this month, with practice scheduled to begin in early February and league play concluding in late May.
“Our program also will offer a chance for the best players to be part of a traveling team (one team in each division) competing in games against the San Diego Club Lacrosse Association,” says Neil.
He notes that, with a history that spans centuries, lacrosse is the oldest sport native to the North American continent. Rooted in Native American religion, lacrosse was often played to resolve conflicts, heal the sick, build strength and virility and give thanks to the creator. Many Native Americans still refer to lacrosse as “The Creator’s Game.” It is also the national sport of Canada – not ice hockey, as some suppose.
Neil points out several other interesting statistics as well: lacrosse is the fastest-growing amateur sport in the USA for boys and girls under the age of 21, with the number of people playing lacrosse growing at an estimated 10 percent annually. Numerous colleges are launching lacrosse programs at all three NCAA division levels and California (CIF) will officially sanction boys and girls programs statewide at the high school level, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year.
Lacrosse is played with 10 players on each team, comprised of three offensive players, three transitional offensive/defensive players and four defensive players, including the goalie. In that way, it is very much like soccer. The field of play is dimensionally similar to a soccer or football field, with an open area for play behind each goal.
“It is said that lacrosse combines the elements, strategy, skill, stamina and physical play of four major sports – football, basketball, hockey and soccer,” says Neil. “Lacrosse also has been called the fastest game on two-feet.”
Why youth lacrosse? That’s a question Neil answers by reflecting on his growing-up years in the ’60s in West Islip, Long Island, where there were no youth programs for lacrosse, even on Long Island, long considered one of the three area hotbeds for boys and girls high school teams. Twenty years after launching lacrosse at the high school level in 1965, West Islip started a youth program in 1986.
The value of the youth program was revealed 20 years later when West Islip won its first-ever New York State Boys Class A Lacrosse Championship in 2006 and never looked back. It now has won three of the last four State Boys Class A Championships and its success story (chronicled in the June 2009 cover story of “Inside Lacrosse” magazine) is directly attributed to the development of the youth program.
“I speak for our organization when I say we only hope to duplicate that level of success in Riverside County,” says Neil.
Of course, being a Canyon Laker, Neil is very excited to introduce the program to Canyon Lake youth and invites parents and kids to check it out at www.snakeslacrosse.com. Signups can be taken online or contact Neil at 246-2742 or neil@snakeslacrosse.com.
Signups also will be held Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Los Alamos Sports Park in Murrieta and Saturday, November 21, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Patricia Birdsall Sports Park in Temecula. “Come join us for the start of something big and stick with lacrosse,” says Neil.
laxbuzz
My son is 9 years old and interested in playing Lacrosse. Is there a team he can join in Temcula??
Thanks!