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| Playing The Field
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| Lacrosse, North America’s oldest sport and one of its most exciting, is enjoying a huge international upswing in popularity. A word of warning—you might just find yourself falling in love with the equipment.
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Call it the fifth appendage. If you play lacrosse chances are you’ve developed an extra limb—oh, sure, to the rest of us it looks like a stick but devotees know better.
Kids in particular are unwilling and unable to separate themselves from their lacrosse sticks, which accompanies them everywhere, even to bed. This almost mystical bond with the stick exists among players of both
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types of lacrosse, the field game and hockey-like box lacrosse.
“I think one of the things that’s played a big role in the growth of the game is the actual stick itself,” comments Mike Hanna, director of athletics at Hobart College in Geneva, New York (www.hws.edu). “It’s a very personal piece of equipment not unlike a baseball glove. Players become very possessive of it. When I played, my stick meant everything to me. It was always difficult breaking in a new one.”
North America’s oldest sport, lacrosse was first played by eastern woodland Indians, such as the Huron and Iroquois, whose descendants remain fanatically devoted to it today.
Originally staged over large swathes of countryside with hundreds and perhaps even thousands of participants, a lacrosse game 500 hundred years ago may have resolved a tribal dispute or helped prepare warriors for battle.
Descriptions of these unruly contests written by missionaries describe sticks bearing resemblance to a crosier, the ceremonial staff of bishops. It is from this unlikely coincidence lacrosse derived its name.
In the mid-nineteenth century French settlers adopted the game and modified it, the first of lacrosse’s many incarnations. Through the centuries it has undergone numerous rule changes, and seen the introduction of box lacrosse, an indoor version of the game popular in Canada.
Yet field lacrosse remains the first choice of many, and is played throughout the world.
It’s an institutional sport at many US universities and colleges, both for men and women. Regardless of how or where it’s played, lacrosse is a fast-paced, hard-hitting game, featuring skillful handling of the stick and ball.
“It’s growing tremendously at the high school level,” notes Hanna, who excelled at field lacrosse while attending Hobart College. “There are a lot of reasons for lacrosse’s current popularity. It can be fun without playing a game. Lots of players sharpen their skills by engaging in what we call ‘wall ball,’ bouncing a ball off a wall and catching it. Scrimmage can be fun too, making it different from football. At football practice you can’t actually play a game, but you can in lacrosse. And that helps develop the team aspect of it. There’s a lot of companionship to be had from lacrosse. Also it’s a game where size doesn’t matter. While it helps to be big, strong and fast, there’s certainly room in the game for smaller individuals.”
Playing the Field:
Historically lacrosse has experienced great surges in popularity only to recede just as suddenly into the background. Today its profile is on the rise, with field lacrosse teams emerging even in Hong Kong. Here is a thumbnail sketch of lacrosse’s three forms of play:
- Men’s field lacrosse consisting of 10 players per side is performed on a football-sized field. Checking is allowed, requiring the wearing of pads and helmet.
- Women’s field lacrosse has 12 players in action per team, but forbids body checking, making it a high-speed game with emphasis on finesse.
- Box lacrosse originally featured seven players on each side, but the elimination of the rover position cemented its relationship to hockey. Stick checking lends a fierce aspect to a game that either enthralls or offends spectator sensibilities.
The rules of the game, so conducive to wide-open play, add an untamed quality to lacrosse, hardly a surprising fact given its origins. It’s that tie-in with the free-spirited people who first conceived of lacrosse that may be its greatest allure.
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