Cougar lacrosse team aims for national title

PROVO — Morris "Mo" Poole still remembers the day he opened up the Church News on his LDS mission in Mexico, read an article about the BYU lacrosse team winning the 2000 national championship and tried to explain to his friends how to play the unfamiliar sport.

As a freshman on the team the year before, Poole had the chance to grip a former teammate's championship ring in his palm but was unable to slip on one of his own.

"Holding that ring just creates something inside you, an internal drive that makes you say, 'I want this,' " Poole said.

As Poole and the BYU lacrosse team finish their regular season Saturday against Utah in Salt Lake City before hosting their conference tournament, they still have the goal of returning the team to national glory and raising the bar for a sport that is quickly becoming the spring alternative to baseball in the West.

When Poole joined the team as a freshman, he and his roommate — now fellow senior Sam Goble — were, as he called it, the "Rudy story" of the team, having never played lacrosse before joining the team.

"I'm kind of the exception to the rule," Poole said. "We came down here looking for something to do, so we called coach (Jason) Lamb and tried out."

Now an All-American and team captain, Poole credits his physical endurance and his coach for his success.

"He's taught me everything I know about the game," he said.

A player-coach in the early 1990s at BYU, Lamb returned to the school in 1995 and has worked to create a dominant team, winning four conference championships and two national championships.

"Lacrosse is the oldest American organized sport, and people don't realize that," he said.

California and Colorado now include lacrosse in their list of school-funded sports, and 32 high schools in Utah have club teams.

"Lacrosse is spreading in the West like wildfire," Lamb said. "We're seeing better athletes and better quality lacrosse."

Similar to the soccer, hockey and rugby teams at BYU, lacrosse is a club sport. The team plays in the USL-MDIA A Division of lacrosse as opposed to NCAA Division-I sports at BYU like football and basketball that are familiar to fans.