Rising Stars Lacrosse introduces growing sport to area youth

When lacrosse ambassador Jack Theron left the flourishing Florida scene for Spokane last summer, he felt like he had stepped back in time.

“(Spokane lacrosse) reminds me a lot of Florida 10 or 11 years ago,” Theron said. “It was a new sport in the area, growing rapidly, and a lot of kids wanted to start playing, to get sticks in their hands.”

Theron, with assistance from Geoff Goodman, organized the Rising Stars Lacrosse camp to get those sticks in as many hands as possible.

“There were a lot of talented kids,” Goodman said, “but there wasn’t yet a culture to get kids to the next level.”

The camp will be held Tuesday through Thursday at Spokane Valley’s Plantes Ferry Sports Complex. Students will learn the fundamentals of the sport at each position, with hands-on coaching from Major League Lacrosse veterans Sergio Salcido, Callum Robinson and Dylan Maltz.

“They are luminaries in a sport that’s not yet well known,” Goodman said.

Current college players complete the coaching staff, including head goalie coach Adam Sawicki.

Students will be drilled on shooting, passing and scooping. They will test their agility and learn techniques for dodging down the alleys.

“Lacrosse practice is very similar to basketball practice,” Theron said. “but with sticks.”

Most drills are individual, to avoid mismatches between beginners and experienced players.

“We don’t want kid getting beat up and discouraged,” Theron said.

Theron stressed the value of fundamental drills, even for the most experienced players.

“Learning the basic fundamentals will help everyone,” he said. “Even the best kids out there may have never learned the fundamentals, because they taught themselves.”

Local coaches can sign up for the camp and see the sport’s most recent innovations.

“We call it the coach’s pass,” Goodman said. “Local area coaches will be able to … observe the strategies and training techniques that the pro players are using. And then they can go back to their clubs and apply them.”

The first-year camp program was kept relatively simple.

“What we want to do this year is just stick to the core, so they can get their feet wet in the experience,” Goodman said.

Future plans include a girls camp and inviting referees in to learn the latest wrinkles in the rulebook.

Day one of the three-day camp will focus on simple shooting drills. Day two will incorporate drills for dodging and shooting out of the dodge. On day three, groups will split into teams and hold tournament-style competitions.

The camp is divided into older and younger students. “Attention spans will vary,” Goodman said.

The younger students will work on the same drills as the older kids, but periodically split off to play skill-building games.

One of the games is the lacrosse version of an Easter egg roll. “We throw a couple hundred balls out into a field,” Goodman said. “The team that collects the most balls wins.”

Kids learn scooping on the run, one of the most important lacrosse skills.

One of the most popular games is sharks and minnows, a lacrosse-themed variation of the kids game Red Rover. The kids line up on one side of the field, each with a ball cradled on a stick, and the coaches gather in the middle of the field. The goal is to reach the other side of the field without losing the ball.

“There will be 50 kids swarming past about eight coaches,” Theron said. “The coaches love it, the kids love it – it’s just fun.”

“And without knowing it, the kids are building their skills,” Goodman said.

Theron serves as a volunteer assistant coach with the Lewis and Clark High School lacrosse club, now in its second year. “Before that, there were three high schools put together,” Theron said.

Lacrosse hasn’t been sanctioned as an interscholastic sport in the state of Washington.

“I think it’s because it’s such a new sport,” Theron said. “They are waiting for every school to have enough members.”

There is a national lacrosse ruling body, but no structural organization to put those sticks in kids’ hands.

“There’s no equivalent infrastructure, like what Little League has with Babe Ruth baseball and American Legion,” Goodman said. “It would be great if an organization like the YMCA took it on.”

A survey by US Lacrosse, the sport’s governing organization, reported that youth, high school and college participation in lacrosse nearly doubled between 2006 and 2014.

“It’s up and coming,” Theron said. “It’s the next sport to hit town, in a sense.”