Cultivating the Creator's Game

Very good article about growing the game of lacrosse in Montana.

Cultivating the Creator's Game 

 Montana's fastest growing sport is the oldest in North America 

  by EDNOR THERRIAULT

Rain was spitting and a cold wind had the few dozen sideline spectators pulling their winter coats tightly around themselves as they watched the Hellgate Knights lacrosse team play its home opener against the Big Sky Eagles. Lacking access to high school facilities, the teams played at DeSmet School, west of the airport. The tiny schoolyard was barely big enough to accommodate a regulation lacrosse field and one sideline was just six inches from the asphalt basketball court.

The whistle blew. A Hellgate midfielder won the face-off and quickly ran the ball upfield. He passed to a waiting attacker, who was immediately confronted by an Eagle defender. Panicked, the attacker fired the ball toward the far sideline, hoping a teammate was there.

Five yards off the corner of the goal, Hellgate's Spencer Schultz leaped high into the air to spear the ball with his stick and save it from sailing out of bounds. As he came down, he rotated toward the goal and curled his stick down low, sneaking a shot an inch or two beneath the goalie's stick and into the goal. Schultz pulled off the move in one seamless motion that left jaws gaping both on the field and along the sidelines.

After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd went nuts. If only more people had been there to see it. 

Lacrosse is still an anomaly in western Montana, an exotic "prep school sport" they play Back East. The West is catching up, though, with high school and college programs thriving in Washington, Oregon and Colorado. Even the University of Montana has a club team with a national championship under its belt. But it's taken more than 400 years for the oldest game in North America to make steady inroads throughout the Treasure State.                                                                  

Lacrosse's origins are hard to pin down. European explorers and missionaries first witnessed American Indians playing in the 1630s, but different precursors of the game, such as shinny and double ball, were part of Native culture for centuries. The age of lacrosse is usually placed between 400 and 1,000 years, but many tribes familiar with the sport believe it has been around longer than they have, a game that was played by the animals before man even existed. 

The Native version of the game was a deeply spiritual undertaking; it is still referred to by tribal members as "The Creator's Game." American Indian lore tells of games sometimes lasting for days. The playing field frequently stretched for miles, involving as many as one thousand players on each side. Games were played to entertain the Creator, but also to heal the sick, train and strengthen warriors and as an alternative to war itself.  PLEASE GO HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE

The Grow Lacrosse Experiment in Minnesota

Like Kevin Flynn, I like maps too.  And, I like Kevin Flynn's idea for growing the game in more remote areas.  Let's take a look at Flynn's idea and see how we can apply it to Minnesota.

Outside the Twin Cities Metro area, where 85% or about 71 of our total of 84 boys teams in the state reside, Minnesota is a big state as well.  With a total of 84 boys lacrosse teams in the State of Minnesota, you could say we're doing pretty darn good here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  In fact, of states with lacrosse west of the Mississippi River, only California with 245 teams (Texas has 82 and Colorado has 66 school sanctioned teams) has more lacrosse programs than Minnesota.  But, with some relatively large cities and towns in Minnesota with almost no idea what lacrosse is, much less programs there, we can always do better.

Let's take a quick look at what Kevin Flynn is proposing to do for lacrosse in the Big Sky country of Montana.  Despite the spread out nature of cities and towns in Montana, Flynn believes if Montana can make football work for these spread out communities, lacrosse will work too.  He sees lacrosse fields everywhere.

By the end of this year, Flynn is planning to arrange and host lacrosse clinics at 50 high schools across Montana.  He'll bring a few well known friends along, teach whoever shows up and hopefully leave one or two people in each community with the inspiration to start their own team.  He'll have a team of game growers from across the state to help and enlist the support of the larger lacrosse community.  He'll bring in some big names, give away some cool stuff and bring the infrastructure to communities so they can get started.  With passion like this, I think he can get it done.

So, now let's take a look at Minnesota.  Where can we most likely grow the game here in Minnesota where it isn't already being played?  Let's first break it down into large (population 10,000+), medium (6,000 - 10,000) and small towns (less than 6,000) where we might be most likely to grow the game of lacrosse in Minnesota.  Let's also break it down into cities North of the Twin Cities and those South (using Highway 12 as the dividing line).

North:

Large Communities (7):  Hibbing/Chisholm, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Cloquet/Esko, Alexandria, North Branch, Virginia/Eveleth (Iron Range)

Medium Communities (8):  Thief River Falls, Detroit Lakes, Little Falls, Crookston, Litchfield, International Falls, Morris, Montevideo

Small Communities (10):  Wadena, Two Harbors (North Shore), Cook County, Ely, Hinckley, Mora, Cambridge, Princeton, Baudette, Walker

South:

Large Communities (11):  Winona, Austin, Faribault, Willmar, Albert Lea, Red Wing, Marshall, New Ulm, Worthington, St. Peter

Medium Communities (5):  Waseca, New Prague, Stewartville, Kasson, Glencoe

Small Communities (5):  Redwood Falls, Cannon Falls, LaCrescent, Pipestone, Fairmont

Some of these communities may combine with other communities to form lacrosse associations and collaborate.  However, especially in the larger communities shown above, these are likely communities with enough youth to support a thriving lacrosse community with the right motivation.  Just focusing on the large communities and a couple medium sized communities in the North and the large communities in the South would be a great place to start.  Pick 25 total in the state and start there.  Hibbing/Chisholm, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Cloquet/Esko, Alexandria, North Branch, Virginia/Eveleth (Iron Range), Thief River Falls, International Falls, Crookston, Morris, Detroit Lakes, Cambridge, and Princeton in the North and Winona, Austin, Faribault, Willmar, Albert Lea, Red Wing, Marshall, New Ulm, Worthington, and St. Peter in the South.  This would spread the game much further than its current boundaries.  Minnesota Native American communities are also growing the game and are locations that we can look to spread the game of lacrosse across the state.

The hope is that, like wildfire, once it catches on in one community it continues to spread until the entire state is populated with youth and high school lacrosse programs.  Just like the effort going on in Montana, we CAN make this happen here.

The Minnesota lacrosse community is a thriving one.  If any state can make this happen, we can.  With organizations like Homegrown Lacrosse which works to grow the game in Minnesota and provide lacrosse opportunities and the Minnesota Boys Scholastic Lacrosse Association (MBSLA) which helps communities get started with club lacrosse programs before moving up to the state high school league, Minnesota has leaders that can make this happen.  The Minnesota Swarm have also been active in growing the game of lacrosse in Minnesota particularly in the Native Communities.

Let's all say we've got it pretty good here, but we can make it even better.  Here's to growing lacrosse in the Land of 10,000 Lakes!

The Grow Lacrosse Experiment in...Montana?!?

Big Sky, Big State

Lacrosse is growing tremendously all over the country and Montana is no different.  However, Montana is a HUGE state with towns spread far and wide and no large metropolitan areas (think Twin Cities).  This fact complicates things for the growth of the game there.  So, what does this have to do with Minnesota?  Actually, a lot!

In Montana, a tireless promoter of the sport is embarking on an experiment to Grow the Game there and bring it to as many towns as possible by 2015.  Please go read his plan at Montana.laxallstars.com and then come back to this article.   Kevin Flynn's idea is bold, grand, tireless and audacious, and that's why I like it so much!

The reality is, outside of the Twin Cities metro area, where 85% of our state's lacrosse teams are, Minnesota is much like Montana.  There are only 13 teams (which includes 3 from Rochester and two from St. Cloud) outside the Metro area of the Twin Cities, and very few of these teams are located in smaller towns.

Lacrosse in the tiny town of Pablo, Montana

Of states with the most growth in lacrosse West of the Mississippi River, Minnesota is the most "Metro-Centric" of them all.  Look at Colorado with their Mountain Conference and teams in small towns like Aspen, Frisco, Steamboat Springs, Durango, Glenwood Springs, and Eagle to name a few.  Or Oregon, with teams ALL over the state - and they're all club programs!  With teams in smaller towns outside metro areas and spread from one corner to the other in small towns like Sisters and Redmond and from Hood River to Salem to Bend to Eugene to Roseburg, Oregon really is a model for spreading the game throughout an entire state to small towns and large.  Washington and Utah are also good examples of states with lacrosse programs spread out across the state in small towns and large.  Even Idaho with only 19 teams in the state manages to spread their teams out to smaller communities from north to south like Cour d' Alene, Sandpoint, Moscow and Wood River.

Could Minnesota do better?  Yes, I think we could do a better job spreading the game to smaller towns and cities in out-state areas in the North and South.  How could we do that?  Let's take a closer look at Kevin Flynn's plan for Montana tomorrow and how that might be done in Minnesota.