Health & Fitness
Give Lacrosse a Chance!
Lacrosse is a sport,originated by North American Indians in the 1700s, where players use a netted stick for catching and passing a ball. I think more of you would have a ball, if you tried it.
A friend of mine and Co-East Meadow PAL youth sports coach recently sent me an email.
You see, last year I decided to finally give in to the urgings of my college athlete son and the late great Frank Mazza and lend my expertise and accumulated knowledge to the 5th and 6th grade PAL youth lacrosse players of East Meadow.
I have been around lacrosse for over 10 years. When I say around I mean indoor and outdoor. I mean from PAL, youth leagues, junior varsity, varsity college, club and professional. I have worked closely with coaches and players from ages 5-55, and from East Meadow to California to Vancouver B.C. Both male and female, although the rules are vastly different for both.
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The reason I list all of this is not to brag, but to show that in this case I really have been around enough to know all the aspects of the sport. The people that know me know of my expertise and respect my opinions. It’s like when it comes to insurance or home repair I go to my neighbors as they are well versed in these things that I am not. I respect their opinions in the things I am not well versed in. I was in a unique situation, because I was not the parent of a player, I was just an impartial trainer of skills and drills.
The email was in response to a memo that there was an upcoming LI Lacrosse Foundation Coaches Clinic and that afterwards we would be discussing which PAL team I might volunteer to coach in the upcoming season. The kids I coached last year were a great group of boys and I found it hard to believe that 95 percent of them had never even held a lacrosse stick in their hands, much less watched a lacrosse game (high school, college or professional ) on television.
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Some of the best lacrosse players and coaches in the world have come from East Meadow. And when my son started in the tail end of the 6th grade, the coaches at the EM PAL clinic and the Extreme Lacrosse League could not believe that he hadn’t been doing this since he was in the 1st grade, like kids from Massapequa, Garden City and Farmingdale.
This friend has a son who is in the 7th grade and a younger one who is in the 4th grade. The older one is a very good player and athlete, but his younger brother is exceptional. And many times we let him practice with the older boys from our league this past summer, because of his skill level. But he really should have been with kids his own age.
My son also played many times with older boys. When he was a junior in HS he even played in an indoor league with some of the guys from the professional leagues. That is because he was an exceptional player, who practiced incessantly 365 days a year, including holidays and loved the game. He had the unique opportunity to learn from the best of the best. But he also played with kids his own age.
Many, many studies state that if you play sports with people your own age you develop better emotionally, athletically , physically and behaviorally. My friend wrote “ Yes I am disappointed. He played last year on the 3rd and 4th grade team. He is in 4th grade this year so will stay there. EM never has enough kids for each grade on their own. It would be nice if they could have just a 4th grade team. To think of a town and school district as big as ours and only three lax teams (3 & 4, 5 & 6, and 6 advanced.
Nothing for the 7th graders is a true shame! Bill, EM Lacrosse needs you to get the word out there. To have people really care about our town lacrosse. And he goes on to say that EM parents should encourage more of their children to try lacrosse at an early age. That his kids had a blast when they went to practices and games with the Long Island Lizards and that others should have that opportunity too. And that if we wanted to be competitive in THIS sport we should promote it much more and maybe field 1-2 teams in every grade from 3rd on up. That we can’t let parental apathy rule.
The truth is, that lacrosse is a fast growing sport nationwide, but still not as popular or successful in East Meadow as football, baseball, soccer or wrestling. That the equipment is more expensive than any other organized sport. And that many parents do not want to dress their kids up and be treated as a piñata. But if done right, like we did on our PAL youth team , Lacrosse can be fun, exciting and a great learning experience. And that parents, grandparents and siblings owe it to their relatives as children to at least encourage them to try the sport.
Listen, I know it is not for everyone. (I came from Brooklyn the land of stickball, punchball, dodgeball and card flipping....lacrosse was as foreign to me as bullfighting and rugby at first, but I grew to love it). I understand the affinity that parents have for having their kids play youth Football, Baseball, Soccer and Wrestling.
But I promise you, that if more of you give it a chance, more of you will have fun and learn some great skills in the process. Let’s try to see if this year we can actually field a team for each grade, I’m sure that the dad’s over at the PAL would love that!