Lacrosse on the offense
"Stick to it" is what all aspiring Lacrosse players are urged to do -- not that they necessarily have to stick to just that one sport. Mo Rocca has been doing some field research:
In 1964 Jim Brown led the Cleveland Browns to the NFL championship title. Brown is considered one of greatest football players who ever lived. But you probably knew that.
But what a lot of people don't know is that Brown was also a pioneer in lacrosse.
"Well, I just found that out talking to you today," Brown laughed. "I never thought of it that way!
"It was a fascinating game because of the nature of the game, the speed and combination of strength and power and skill," he said.
In lacrosse players armed with sticks run, throw, and battle their way downfield. The game is played fast and furious.
It was first played by Native Americans hundreds of years ago. Their sticks were made of wood, and heavy -- carrying rocks instead of balls.
Today the sticks are lightweight titanium, but the game is no less challenging.
Brown demonstrated a "cradle": "The cradle is a rocking motion. So the ball sits right here and it doesn't move when you rock it."
"Oh, I see," said Rocca. "So 'Rock-a-Bye Baby' -- wow. Okay, did I do that right?"
"Almost."
Brown picked up the game in high school in Manhasset, New York. At Syracuse University he dominated in football, basketball, track ... and lacrosse. Brown is in both the NFL and Lacrosse Halls of Fame.
Rocca asked, "If there had been pro lacrosse back then, do you think you might've ended up playing that?"
"I might've flipped a coin," Brown laughed.
What a difference a half-century makes. Today, college scholarships, bona fide lacrosse stars and, yes, two pro leagues have helped make America's oldest team sport its fastest-growing team sport, with participation tripling in the past decade.
If the sport has a sweet spot in popularity, it would be along America's East Coast, where it became popular in the late 1800s at elite colleges like Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
At Baltimore's Boys' Latin prep school, lacrosse has been played since 1929. Bob Shriver has been head coach for 35 years.
"It's hard to describe," he told Rocca. "Once you start playing, honestly it gets in your blood.
"I think kids like activity, and lacrosse is definitely active."
Former Boys' Latin star Shack Stanwick, and his sister, Sheehan, are two of eight siblings who grew up playing lacrosse. Shack has been playing "probably ever since I could hold a stick. I would say four or five."
Sheehan started playing at age six. Now, she has young kids of her own, "and there are leagues starting at two years old. My four-year-old daughter plays, five-year-old son, and it's fun."
Rocca asked, "Do the women in your family, when they have babies, do they register for, like, little lacrosse things at the baby shower?"
"I think the first hat's always, like, a lacrosse hat," Sheehan laughed. "Somebody's always giving, you know, a lacrosse stick. The ball becomes a chew toy, I think, before they're actually using it."
Lacrosse (or "Lax") has its own jargon. For instance, Aaron Leeds, Christian Knight and Mac Pons are known as "Lax Bros."
And having "good flow"?
"Flow has to do with the back of your hair, stuff that's coming out under or the back of your helmet," said Pons.
"Do I have good flow?" asked Rocca.
"You have pretty decent flow," said Pons.
"Not bad," said Knight. "Better than his!"
But lacrosse is no laughing matter around here. The team won its third high school national championship in 2014.
"When our kids are walking around the community wearing a Boys' Latin lacrosse jacket everybody's looking at 'em," said Shriver. "We ask them to really comport themselves as best as they can, because people are looking for bad things sometimes with lacrosse."
That may be because over the last decade lacrosse has made headlines, and not good ones. And the relative wealth of the kids who play it only draws more attention.
But in fact the sport is no more expensive to play than, well, football -- and just as exciting, as Rocca discovered mixing it up with the squad from Baltimore's Loyola University. Mo played attackman.
Of course, you may not want to play goalie!
For more info:
- Major League Lacrosse
- Follow Major League Lacrosse on Twitter and Facebook
- U.S. Lacrosse
- U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame, Baltimore
- Follow U.S. Lacrosse on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
- Boys' Latin School of Maryland, Baltimore
- Follow Boys' Latin School on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube