At the lacrosse-roads

Like a brush fire on a windy day, youth lacrosse is rapidly catching on and spreading throughout Utah County.

In the fall of 2000, only one junior high team and two high school squads dotted the Utah County map. Today, those numbers have increased to 16 junior high teams and seven prep varsity units. The only Utah County high schools without lacrosse teams are American Fork, Provo, Payson, Spanish Fork, and Springville.

Much of that growth can be attributed to the efforts of BYU lacrosse coach Jason Lamb. Now in his 11th year at the helm for the Cougars, Lamb organized a junior high lacrosse league in autumn 2001.

"I have a commitment to working with the youth junior high age," said Lamb. "I don't want to have to go pre-sixth grade; I don't want to do post-ninth grade. I just want grades six, seven, eight and nine. That's a grade that I think is the right time to start thinking competitively about a sport. It's that time when kids get pushed away from (other) sports they think they're going to play (like football and basketball)."

Last fall, more than 370 students played on 12 boys and four girls teams in Lamb's junior high league. Over time, he has acquired approximately 200 sets of lacrosse gear to rent to players new to the sport so that they don't have to dole out more than $250 for their own set of equipment before being able to decide if lacrosse is for them. Lamb plans on expanding the junior high league to play a springtime schedule this year for the first time.

"It's good that it's growing tremendously at the junior high level," said BYU senior Tyler Storer, a former All-America goalie on the Cougar lacrosse squad who, unable to play this season because of a serious shoulder injury, is helping to coach the Orem High team. "That's when the guys will get better and really have a chance to get developed enough in high school to play in college is if they're picking it up in junior high, because if guys are picking it up in ninth or 10th grade, it's hard to get where you want to be."

Dan Mortimer is Orem's head coach. He played for the Tigers while in high school prior to graduating in 1999. According to Mortimer, the number of high schools in Utah fielding lacrosse teams in the years since his graduation has jumped from 17 to 37.

Currently preparing his team for the season that begins later this month, Mortimer is ambivalent about the support he receives from the school administration at Orem. He knows his is not a worst-case scenario but is equally aware that it doesn't begin to approach the resources enjoyed by lacrosse teams at Salt Lake County schools such as Alta, Juan Diego and Waterford.