Extreme -- but civilized
It was five years ago when Josh Waldbaum agreed to fill in for a day as coach of his son’s Malibu Little League team. Instead of whacking balls fungo-style to the fielders, he launched them with his lacrosse stick, the tool he’d used in an All-American playing career that earned him a spot on the 1984 World Games team.
Not surprisingly, the kids were intrigued. Once Waldbaum had given them a crash course in what lacrosse was all about, they asked where they could play.
His answer: “Nowhere.”
“It made me sad,” he says. “This game has meant so much in my life, and here were some kids who really wanted to play and there was no place for them. So I told them: ‘If you get 15 kids, I’ll coach a team.’ I didn’t really think they were going to do it.”
About 125 kids later, Waldbaum is coaching in a big way -- youth, middle school and high school. His Malibu-based youth league, Point Break Lacrosse, recently opened registration to third- through fifth-graders for its second season, which will run from Sunday through April 25. And with enrollment up in youth leagues in L.A. and Orange County, it appears lacrosse, the lifeblood of some areas on the East Coast, has finally found a pulse in Southern California.
“The kids just love it,” Waldbaum says. “They get to put on gear and feel like gladiators. I think kids are looking for more action these days, and lacrosse is like a civilized extreme sport.”
The nerve center of this sport is clearly still in such areas as Maryland and New York, where kids begin playing at age 6 or 7. But lacrosse is pushing outside its traditional boundaries. Memberships at US Lacrosse have jumped from 70,000 to 150,000 since November 2000, says Brian Logue, the organization’s director of communications.
In the Pacific Region, made up of California and Hawaii, participation increased 21.6% from 2001 to 2002, outpacing the 14.1% national average. During that year there was also rapid growth in other Western states.
Los Angeles is still catching up with the rest of California in the lacrosse race, says Waldbaum. Its middle school programs didn’t get launched until 2000. By comparison, San Francisco had programs for elementary school kids up and running by the early 1970s, San Diego by the mid-’70s and Orange County by the late ‘80s.
Is it finally boom time in Los Angeles? Boz Crowther thinks so. He’s the lacrosse coach at Los Angeles’ Loyola High, and his tryout this year drew 100 players, up from 40 a year ago. He says the sport’s fast pace is sparking growth by “leaps and bounds.”
“All I have to do is show kids a tape of a game, and in about 30 seconds, they all say: ‘That’s the greatest thing on Earth. How do I do that?’ ” he says. “Lacrosse is hard-hitting like football, and it’s got the constant movement of soccer. It combines the best elements of all the major sports.”
Among those who have embraced it is Scott Deke, quarterback of the Loyola High football team that upset Long Beach Poly in December to win the Southern Section Division I championship. Deke got his first taste of lacrosse in elementary school while his family was living in Connecticut. Last year, at the urging of some buddies, he scrapped baseball to join the Loyola lacrosse team, and he enjoyed it so much that he called to get permission to play again this season from his soon-to-be football coaches at the University of Virginia, where he will play on a full-ride scholarship this fall.
“I tell everyone that lacrosse was one of the main reasons for my success in football,” Deke says. “It helped me stay in shape and helped me get a lot faster.”
For younger kids, there’s instant gratification in picking up a lacrosse stick and firing at the hockey-like goal, says Mitch Fenton, who played a lead role in starting the first youth programs in San Diego, Orange County and is a member of the US Lacrosse Greater Los Angeles chapter Hall of Fame.
“The skill of throwing or shooting the ball is one that you can master in a pretty short period of time,” Fenton says. “Unlike a basketball hoop, the goal is big enough where you can score five out of 10 on an empty net if you’re just playing around.”
Getting more kids to give the sport a test run is a challenge being tackled by Casey Powell, captain of the Anaheim Storm. He grew up in New York -- the heart of lacrosse country -- and he was a two-time player of the year at Syracuse. When he’s not playing indoors for the Storm or outdoors for the Rochester Rattlers, he’s coaching at camps, and one of his big goals is to give kids out West early exposure to the game.
“Most West Coast kids don’t pick up a lacrosse stick until they’re 15,” Powell says. “They kind of miss out on the tricks you learn when your father or older brother puts a stick in your hand at the age of 4.”
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Lacrosse: the basics
Origin: Invented by American Indians and played for the first time at the collegiate level
in 1877 at New York University.
Players on a side: 10 for men, 12 for women
Sport it’s most like: Often likened to hockey, lacrosse has more in common with basketball, says Malibu Lacrosse Club director Josh Waldbaum. “The offense is similar,” he says. “There are a lot of pick plays, and it’s man-to-
man defense with zone principles. If your man has the ball, you’re covering him. If he doesn’t, you’re in the middle helping out like you do in basketball.”
Best lacrosse player you’ve heard of: Jim Brown. The football great played for Syracuse in the 1950s and was inducted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1984.
Best player you may not have heard of: Casey Powell, Anaheim Storm captain.
Equipment: Simple. A lacrosse stick is called a stick, a ball is a ball and
a glove is a glove.
Biggest misconception: “Parents are under the impression that lacrosse is violent and kids are going to get hurt,” Waldbaum says. “There’s a lot of contact, but it’s not like the contact in football.”
Don Patterson
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Where to play and watch
Youth leagues
* Los Angeles: www.lalax.org
* Orange County: www.oclax.org
* Point Break League, Malibu: www.lalacrosse.com
* Casey Powell’s camps: www.teampowell.net
Pro leagues
Anaheim Storm: One of the 10 in the indoor National Lacrosse League plays its home games at the Arrowhead Pond. This is the Storm’s first season in Southern California after moving from New Jersey. League play began in December and ends in early May.
Info: (714) 704-2934 or www.anaheimstorm.com.
Equipment
Point Break Lacrosse, 2027 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles. (310) 446-1922.