With lacrosse being the summer national sport of Canada and fastest growing sport in America many of us wonder, what is lacrosse?

Lacrosse is a sport where two teams of ten attempt to score a small rubber ball into the other team’s goal.  Matches at the high school level are typically 50 minutes long with two 25 minute halves.  Lacrosse was originally played by Native Americans and to them lacrosse meant little brother of war, because the sport was used to get young men used to war and feel what battle is like.  Native Americans also played lacrosse for religious reason, it is said that they played to please their “creator”.

The teams consists of one goalie, three defenders, three midfielders and three offensive players.  Midfielders can roam the whole field while defenders and offensive players are held to their respective halves of the field.  In the attempt to take the ball players can hit the opposing player’s stick or gloves but if they hit the arms body legs or head it is considered a foul.

Players aren’t allowed to touch the ball with their hands, instead they use one of three types of sticks ranging from 40-72 inches.  Midfielders and offensive players use shorter sticks while defensive players use longer sticks and goalies use any length between 40-72.  

At the end of a lacrosse stick there is a special basket called a head.  The heads of lacrosse sticks can be 6-10 inches in length with an exception to goalies that have heads ranging from 10-12 inches wide.  

Lacrosse is a club sport in Sandpoint that hasn’t been very popular in the past, the team hasn’t had very many players didn’t win very many games.  New lacrosse coach Ken Hutchings is hoping to turn that around this year.

“I plan to win more games than the team has before”

The lacrosse team is already larger than it has been boasting around 30 players compared to around 20 from last year.  Hutchings is excited to have so many players, this will allow the team to have a faster and more adaptable style of play.  This is possible because they will be able to make a lot of subs and have nearly enough players for 3 full lines.

Jason Leedle (sophomore) plays offense for the sandpoint lacrosse team and feels good about the upcoming season and the new coach,
“We have been playing so much better than last year.”