Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, May 11, 2007, Washington Post

Lacrosse Is Picking Up Speed

Lacrosse is the hottest sport in America. Look around: There are more lacrosse gloves and helmets in sports stores, more lacrosse scores in the newspapers and more kids playing catch with lacrosse sticks.

Why are so many kids turning into lacrosse players? There are lots of reasons.

Lacrosse has cool equipment. A player has a stick, helmet, gloves and pads on their elbows and other places. When a player is dressed for a game, he must feel like he's in the new Spider-Man movie. Female lacrosse players don't wear as much padding, but they have cool eye protectors that make the girls look as if they're running faster.

Everything about lacrosse is fast. Unlike baseball and softball, where kids stand around waiting their turn at bat, lacrosse players go full speed all the time. So lacrosse is a great way to get, and stay, in shape.

Yes, kids run around in soccer, too. But soccer is so low-scoring. Recently I checked out the high school lacrosse scores in the Sports section. They ranged from 6-5 to 18-9 -- with every kind of score in between (including Landon's 9-8 overtime victory over DeMatha). In lacrosse, when one team scores a few goals the game isn't over, it's just getting started.

Another thing, most moms and dads didn't play lacrosse when they were kids. In the "old days," it seemed only kids at private schools or in a very few areas around the country played lacrosse. So today's kids feel as if they are discovering a new game.

Lacrosse has a fascinating history. Native Americans played the game centuries ago. Teams had hundreds of players on a side. There were no boundaries and few rules. Games lasted for days. Native Americans believed the game was a gift from the gods, and they played to please the gods. When an Iroquois (a Native American tribe in New York) player died, he was buried with his lacrosse stick.

Whether you are already a big lacrosse fan or simply wondering what the fuss is about, you can see some big-time college games in the area over the next few weeks. Tomorrow and Sunday, the men's teams from Maryland, Georgetown, Virginia and Johns Hopkins are hosting first-round games in the NCAA tournament. The women's teams from Maryland and Virginia also host tournament games this weekend.

Next weekend, two of the men's quarterfinal games will be played at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. The Final Four of men's college lacrosse will be played on May 26 and 28 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.

You had better move fast. More than 40,000 tickets have been sold already.

Like I said, lacrosse is hot.