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The Grand Valley Lacrosse Club Junior-Varsity team was undefeated at the Eagle Lax Jam tournament held last weekend in Eagle County. The sixth grade team took home a first-place trophy as well.
GRAND JUNCTION — Lacrosse originated as a sport among the American Indian tribes of northeastern North America — and has long been a popular sport in schools in the eastern United States. The sport is gradually making its way westward.
Lenny Lang grew up in New York and played lacrosse in high school and college. His son “got a taste” of the sport while visiting family back east in 2006 and wanted to be able to play it in Grand Junction.
Three years ago Lang and other parents who wanted to make the sport available to their kids formed the Grand Mesa Lacrosse League in Grand Junction.
That first season 23 players in grades sixth through eighth played for the Grand Mesa Lacrosse League.
“We realized there was too much of an age span between sixth- and eighth-graders,” Lang said.
And so the next year, when 85 kids wanted to play, the league expanded to four teams: a fifth and sixth grade, a seventh and eighth grade, junior varsity and varsity.
In 2008, the league grew to include nearly 170 kids playing in five different teams: two sixth and seventh grade teams, a girls high school team, and junior varsity and varsity teams.
The junior-varsity team finished its season last weekend by taking home a first-place trophy from the Eagle County Lax Jam tournament, where they played against Loveland, Basalt, Durango and Telluride teams.
Junior-varsity coach Mark Young said he knew his team would win the trophy when they beat the more experienced Loveland team 7-1.
“They’re (Loveland) a really good team. They’ve been around awhile,” Young said. “Once we won that game, you could see the excitement in their eyes — they knew that trophy was theirs.”
Sixth-graders were also undefeated in the Eagle County tournament and took home the first-place trophy for their division. Seventh-graders missed taking first place by one game, and the varsity team missed first place by only one point. The girls’ team won two and lost two.
Next week the District 51 School Board will decide whether to ask the Colorado High School Athletic Association to sanction lacrosse as a school sport.
Sanctioning lacrosse as a school sport would provide more game opportunities, Young said.
Lacrosse is already played at schools in Aspen, Steamboat Springs and Summit County.
Eagle, Vail and Durango schools are considering playing lacrosse at their schools.
There will still be a lacrosse club league even if it becomes a school sport, Lang said.
“They’re only looking at sanctioning lacrosse at the high school level,” Lang said. A club league would introduce the sport to kids in the younger grades, as well as provide a high school team for those who don’t play for the schools, he said.
“We’d have our Western Slope league — Steamboat, Summit County, Eagle, Vail, Grand Junction, Durango and Aspen. We would only have to travel to Denver for state playoffs,” Young said.
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
Lenny Lang grew up in New York and played lacrosse in high school and college. His son “got a taste” of the sport while visiting family back east in 2006 and wanted to be able to play it in Grand Junction.
Three years ago Lang and other parents who wanted to make the sport available to their kids formed the Grand Mesa Lacrosse League in Grand Junction.
That first season 23 players in grades sixth through eighth played for the Grand Mesa Lacrosse League.
“We realized there was too much of an age span between sixth- and eighth-graders,” Lang said.
And so the next year, when 85 kids wanted to play, the league expanded to four teams: a fifth and sixth grade, a seventh and eighth grade, junior varsity and varsity.
In 2008, the league grew to include nearly 170 kids playing in five different teams: two sixth and seventh grade teams, a girls high school team, and junior varsity and varsity teams.
The junior-varsity team finished its season last weekend by taking home a first-place trophy from the Eagle County Lax Jam tournament, where they played against Loveland, Basalt, Durango and Telluride teams.
Junior-varsity coach Mark Young said he knew his team would win the trophy when they beat the more experienced Loveland team 7-1.
“They’re (Loveland) a really good team. They’ve been around awhile,” Young said. “Once we won that game, you could see the excitement in their eyes — they knew that trophy was theirs.”
Sixth-graders were also undefeated in the Eagle County tournament and took home the first-place trophy for their division. Seventh-graders missed taking first place by one game, and the varsity team missed first place by only one point. The girls’ team won two and lost two.
Next week the District 51 School Board will decide whether to ask the Colorado High School Athletic Association to sanction lacrosse as a school sport.
Sanctioning lacrosse as a school sport would provide more game opportunities, Young said.
Lacrosse is already played at schools in Aspen, Steamboat Springs and Summit County.
Eagle, Vail and Durango schools are considering playing lacrosse at their schools.
There will still be a lacrosse club league even if it becomes a school sport, Lang said.
“They’re only looking at sanctioning lacrosse at the high school level,” Lang said. A club league would introduce the sport to kids in the younger grades, as well as provide a high school team for those who don’t play for the schools, he said.
“We’d have our Western Slope league — Steamboat, Summit County, Eagle, Vail, Grand Junction, Durango and Aspen. We would only have to travel to Denver for state playoffs,” Young said.
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
