Monday, May 05, 2008
Lacrosse catching on
The niche sport has grown some 300 percent in the area, the officials association president says.
SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times
Ryan Rotanz and the Salem girls' lacrosse teams practice recently. The popularity of the sport is increasing in the area.
SAM DEAN The Roanoke Times
Jimmy Buriak (front) and the Salem boys' lacrosse teams practice recently. Buriak hopes to reap a college scholarship in the sport.
varsity.roanoke.com
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Lacrosse.
You know the game with the sticks, pads and goals.
The game where athletes fling around a hard rubber ball and fling their bodies around much the same way.
The sport is immensely popular in the Mid-Atlantic states and growing every day, but when will Southwest Virginia catch the lacrosse bug?
While the area only boasts a handful of varsity programs, some would argue that the youth of the area have already begun to embrace the sport and that its growth is all but assured.
North Cross coach Steven Balderas has coached at the high school and college levels and says he has seen large growth in just a few years.
"A few years ago [I'd] struggle to field a team," he said. "Now you've got more kids than the baseball team.
"It's an exciting time. The ultimate goal for Southwest Virginia lacrosse should be stops for college coaches."
Some players are already making the transition to college programs.
Ryan Rotanz, a senior at Salem High School, will be following her older sister, Katie, to play for Virginia Tech next year after earning a partial scholarship.
But getting noticed by colleges requires a lot of effort.
"Definitely, getting recruited is hard," said Rotanz, who played on travel teams in Charlottesville and Baltimore. "I think it would be a lot better with more [area] competition all the time."
Ryan's father Bob Rotanz has coached in various capacities at Salem and has ideas on how to improve that competition.
He said that parents want to help, but the best thing is getting teachers who are familiar with the game to take over the programs and be the driving force behind them.
"Once it's in the schools it's easier," he said. "Draws more numbers [and funding]."
Jimmy Buriak plays for the boys' varsity team at Salem and hopes to continue playing in college. He's undecided on where that will be, but concedes that lacrosse isn't as well known in this area.
"I've known people that haven't even heard of it," he said. "People might not want to get into it because they don't know it.
"The more people are exposed to it, the more they'll like it."
So if the best way to get noticed is to play on travel teams and attend camps in other areas as Buriak and Rotanz have done, what is swaying the interest of student-athletes here?
"You get to carry a six-foot-long pole and you get to hit people with it," Balderas said. "People are starting to put down baseball gloves and bats and pick up a lacrosse stick."
And the shift is happening below the high school level. Middle school programs and club teams are sprouting up more frequently as more kids want to try the niche sport.
"It's exploding. It's really starting to catch on, which is really cool," said Trip Allman, lacrosse coach at Roanoke Catholic. "In five years it's going to be just as big in the valley as Northern Virginia and Tidewater."
As for now, varsity programs are not too abundant.
"We'll be the only AAA team this side of Charlottesville next year," said Josh Wilkinson, coach at Patrick Henry.
But Wilkinson said that the youth teams in the area should translate into rapid growth as the youth leagues filter into the high schools.
Andy Blanton, president of the Southwest Virginia Lacrosse Officials Association also has some suggestions.
"We need more qualified coaches. We need more qualified officials [and] more parents to step up," he said. "That's the only thing that really [hinders us]. The demand has exceeded the resources."
Blanton said there has been, roughly, 300 percent growth for the sport in the area and that the caliber of lacrosse that is being played is increasing.
"This is the fastest growing sport in America," he said. "You are seeing eight-year-olds with [lacrosse] sticks, which is really great."
So it seems the interest is there among kids who want to pursue the sport, but without more involvement from parents, coaches and officials who know the game, the growth will be stunted.
"It definitely takes a group of people who are committed to starting a sport from scratch," said Jacky Foster, girls' coach at Rockbridge County. "The more exposure lacrosse gets, the more people [will want to get involved]."
