Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

Fastest sport on two legs, as the saying goes.

But can it span the East Coast all the way to Sequim?

Undoubtedly, says Port Angeles lacrosse head coach Dave Farrington.

With more than 70 high school club teams across the state, up from just 20 in 2004, lacrosse is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) prep-age sports in the country.

The Port Angeles squad certainly has seen its share of success, winning the Division I state title in 2001, two deep playoff runs in 2004 and 2005 and winning a league title this spring.

But beyond the numbers, Farrington says, lacrosse is a lifeblood sport, the kind that once someone starts they fall in love with the details: the speed, the physicality and the competition.

So why not Sequim? Farrington, a Sequim native himself, says it’s more than a possibility.

“Lacrosse can work anywhere — it doesn’t take a huge population base,” Farrington says. “We just need to coax them out of the bushes. They (youths) have to start it.”

Though the Clallam County YMCA has a youth program that some Sequim youths attend in Port Angeles, there aren’t any lacrosse organizations in Sequim.

All it would take, Farrington notes, is about 10 or 11 youths to petition the high school to make lacrosse an Associated Student Body club, as the Port Angeles team is.

From there, a Sequim lacrosse club would need to get a coach and file paperwork with the state lacrosse association while getting the requisite equipment and insurance through US Lacrosse. New teams start with a provisional schedule in their first year, playing predominantly junior varsity teams, and then can move up to the B division the following year, joining teams including Port Angeles, North and South Kitsap, Klahowya and numerous eastern Washington teams.

Farrington says he’s met several former players in the Sequim area who could provide a solid booster club base.

“I bet locals would support it,” he says.

Lacrosse players are, by nature, a rather mixed bunch. Farrington notes his team has players of all shapes and sizes, many of whom come to lacrosse after getting bored with other sports.

“Most of our kids are the brainiacs, the nerds,” Farrington says, noting 72 players tried out for Port Angeles’ varsity and JV squads.

The P.A. team doesn’t discriminate, with three roster spots taken by females.

While the sport is nothing new to East Coast residents, lacrosse is a whole new ball game on the West Coast. In Washington, despite a 355-percent jump in teams in four years, the sport has yet to get a sanction as an “official” prep sport from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. In April, the WIAA board overwhelmingly voted to drop a request to make girls’ lacrosse a sanctioned sport.

With 40 teams in two divisions statewide, boys’ lacrosse goes to the WIAA board for consideration in 2010 and might have a better chance of sanctioning than the 24-team collection of all-girls teams.

For information, e-mail Farrington at portangeleslacrosse@yahoo.com.



Local/state lacrosse links

www.walax.com/

www.uslax-wa.org

www.paathletics.com/lacrosse/

portangeles.wa.uslaxnet.com/



Lacrosse slideshow

Catch some photos of the Port Angeles-King’s Way April 12 lacrosse match online at: www.sequimgazette.com/static/slideshow/lacrosse/.