Ready to stick

Scholastic, youth lacrosse taking hold in county

By Guy Cipriano

Two evenings a week at Tudek Park, a Ferguson Township greenspace known for frequent canine sightings, a woman who has been introducing a different sport to Centre County girls has received curious looks.

CDT/Michelle Bixby

State College lacrosse players get motivated at the end of a huddle during the Lewisburg at State College boys varsity lacrosse game Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

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“What’s that?” men and women taking leisurely strolls ask Mary Ann Harvey. “What are you doing?”

In Bellefonte, Tom Scordato drives around the borough, searching for teenagers to play a sport he works tirelessly to expand.

On a dreary Tuesday night at Memorial Field, a group of aggressive State College teenagers engage in a physical, entertaining game with athletic boys from Lewisburg. As the teams compete under the lights, a group of middle-schoolers aspiring to compete on the same turf play catch with sticks beyond the north end zone.

Youth and high school lacrosse has reached the county, and if you listen to those involved with the rapidly growing sport, the game represents much more than a fad.

“When we first started, you couldn’t find a place to buy a lacrosse stick,” said David Jackson, a co-founder of Centre Lacrosse, a youth program in its second full year. “The Dick’s (sporting good store) in State College now has a lacrosse section while the Dick’s in Altoona doesn’t. Rapid Transit Sports also sells lacrosse equipment. It’s really changed.”

Using data collected from more than a dozen interviews with local coaches, parents and players, more than 200 boys and girls in grades 5-12 are playing organized lacrosse in the county.

State College High School now fields PIAA-sanctioned boys and girls varsity teams, and Bellefonte has boys and girls club teams planning to pursue varsity status. The Centre Lacrosse youth program is working as a feeder system for State College and Bellefonte, and its organizers hope to see the day when all five county high schools field varsity teams.

The sport is growing elsewhere.

The number of players in the United States has increased from 253,931 in 2001 to 524,230 in 2008, according to US Lacrosse, the sport’s national governing body. At the youth and high school levels, the sport grew at 9.8 and 8.7 percent, respectively, during 2008. “Most sports are not attracting the numbers like they used to,” said Penn State men’s coach Glenn Thiele, who started playing the sport in the late-1950s. “This is different.”

Developing interest

State College senior Nina Bingham remembers boys and girls in her neighborhood discussing a new game, one that needed more players to field a team. Courtney Kolsear, one of those excited neighbors, eventually approached Bingham about trying lacrosse.

“She played on the team the first year and she said, ‘You have to play this sport, you have to do this” Bingham said.

Bingham relented.

“All I knew was what a stick looked like,” she said.

Bingham started lacrosse in 2006. She’s now part of the first senior class to play lacrosse as a school-sanctioned sport.

“I might have done thespians if it weren’t for lacrosse,” said Bingham, who participated in dance classes as a child, “or I might have not done anything.”

The structure of State College girls’ lacrosse has changed since Bingham entered the program.

Practices were once held at the Assembly of God football field and they weren’t mandatory. The schedule consisted of less than six games. Still, the program progressed, obtaining club status in 2007. The roster featured a mix of players looking to try something new or shunned by other sports.

“It caught on pretty quick,” said Wendy Gill, one of the club’s founders.

The same thing can be said for boys’ lacrosse. The sport’s roots at State College can be traced to 2002, when a group of 13 players piled into cars and played games against teams from the Susquehanna Valley. The club expanded to more than 50 athletes by 2006.

The club’s founders — Jeff King, Mark Griffin and Rick Johnson — constructed lofty goals. King said becoming a school-sanctioned varsity sport always rested “in the back” of his mind, and the team started receiving a diverse collection of athletes whose reason for playing varied. “I played baseball, but it wasn’t really going for me,” said junior goalie Dan Jordan, who also plays football and wrestles. “There were politics involved. I was always intrigued with lacrosse.”

A varsity sport

Desires to turn lacrosse into a varsity sport entered public discourse in 2007. State College athletic director Ron Pavlechko said three factors — a viable interest in the sport, a solid coaching base and the opportunity to secure reasonable schedules — convinced him to send a proposal to make lacrosse a varsity sport to the citizens advisory committee.

The proposal then reached the State College Area School Board. The board approved lacrosse for varsity status last May.

King, Griffin and Johnson were logical choices for boys’ coaches. King, who grew up in the lacrosse hotbed of Syracuse, N.Y., serves as the head coach. The district hired Melissa Aukerman, who attended high school in Washington, D.C., also an area with long traditions in the sport, to coach the girls team.

The club programs donated equipment to the varsity teams while the district purchased uniforms for both teams, nets, goggles for the girls, and shoulder pads and helmets for the boys. The teams use Memorial Field for practices and games. Practices are also held on the grass field behind Welch Pool.

State College’s addition of lacrosse coincides with the first year of boys’ lacrosse as a PIAA-recognized sport. The PIAA sanctioned girls’ lacrosse in 2004. The PIAA, which has 156 girls and 154 boys varsity programs, will conduct championships on June 6 at HersheyPark Stadium.

“The bottom line is that this is all about opportunity,” Pavlechko said.

Both State College teams have respectable records. The boys were 8-8 entering Saturday’s games in Erie while the girls were 5-7. The PIAA limits varsity teams to 18 regular-season games, and State College plays full schedules and operates like other competitive varsity programs.

“It’s been very much a transitional year,” Aukerman said. “You’re getting kids acclimated to varsity and there are benefits to being varsity. But it takes a huge sacrifice on a personal level. The most effective athletes start and play. It’s been an adjustment.”

Bingham, one of six seniors on Aukerman’s team, said the sport has a future at her school.

“State College is a major player in a lot of sports,” she said. “It’s like any sports team. Girls want to be successful with what they do.”

Next in line

Scordato grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., a community where lacrosse sightings are common.

He quickly discovered perceptions were different in Bellefonte.

“It was a big shocker when we started playing,” he said. “There’s no lacrosse culture. It’s like we were trying to start bobsled or water polo.”

Scordato, a co-founder of Centre Lacrosse, coaches Bellefonte’s boys’ club team, which started competing this spring with 21 boys. The season has produced deceiving on-field results.

“We’re losing some games 14-0, 15-0, but that’s how it goes,” Scordato said. “These boys are pioneers. The whole foundation of the program is being built on what they are doing and there’s been no belly-aching.”

Some of Scordato’s players had never grabbed a stick before this season, and equipment was donated from other programs or purchased by players.

Field space proved scarce, but the boys practice on grass beside Rogers Stadium and the girls train where the junior varsity baseball team practices. Both teams receive access to Rogers Stadium for games.

The girls team, which is coached by B.J. Seyler, has 14 players, including seven seniors. Scordato and Seyler both want lacrosse to become a school-sanctioned sport at Bellefonte. Seyler said the process will likely take “three to four years.”

“We are hoping the community supports it,” Seyler said.

Bellefonte has 380 boys and 413 girls in the PIAA’s three enrollment-counting grades. Scordato said the school has enough athletes to field varsity teams, and the boys program has received cooperation from football coach Zac Wynkoop. Bellefonte plays schools of comparable sizes, such as Lewisburg, Danville, Mifflinburg and Selinsgrove. Bellefonte and State College are the only District 6 schools with lacrosse teams.

“If all the other districts are any indication, then we’re in good shape, unless human nature is different in Bellefonte,” Scordato said.

League schools with established programs, including State College and Lewisburg, are helping Scordato and Seyler build Bellefonte’s programs. Comparisons between the two county schools are difficult to make because State College includes 1,028 boys and 986 girls in the enrollment-counting grades.

But Lewisburg, a District 4 school located along the Susquehanna River, has 228 boys and 243 girls. Chuck Knisely, a Bucknell University professor, introduced lacrosse to the community in 1999. The school’s programs became school-sanctioned in 2007, and Knisely, whose wife, Karen, coaches the girls’ team, said the district is supporting lacrosse without compromising other spring activities.

“I don’t know if I would call it jealousy, but there are concerns that we are taking people from other sports,” Chuck Knisely said. “The last three years we have been varsity, and it’s pretty clear that other sports haven’t lost anybody.

“The concerns people had at the beginning were: ‘You’re going to steal kids from track, you’re going to steal kids from baseball.’ If anything, the baseball team in Lewisburg has gotten better and is winning. The girls’ track team hasn’t lost a dual meet in I don’t know how many years. I don’t know of lacrosse taking away from any other sports.”

The feeder system

Harvey has been through this process before, having introduced girls’ youth lacrosse to the Maryland communities of Laurel, Burtonsville and Olney earlier this decade.

Harvey envisions speedy growth in Centre County, but she said differences exists between lacrosse in Maryland and central Pennsylvania. Harvey called lacrosse the “game girls play during the spring,” in Maryland and the majority of the state’s communities support programs.

Maryland’s youth teams travel short distances to play games. The lack of lacrosse in neighboring counties forced Centre Lacrosse’s girls’ team to schedule games at Wyoming Seminary, Cumberland Valley and Lower Macungie, near Allentown, this spring. All three trips take at least two hours.

Harvey’s roster includes 28 girls in grades 5-8. She said every player who participated in 2008 either returned to Centre Lacrosse or plays at State College or Bellefonte.

“It’s new, it’s fresh and it’s something different,” Harvey said. “People are attracted to that.”

Centre Lacrosse’s boys’ program includes more than 50 players split into two teams. The team plays five home games and practices on land at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg.

“Most kids love it,” Jackson said. “It’s absolutely astounding to see how excited kids are to play. They can’t wait for the next game.”

Every player in Centre Lacrosse hails from Bellefonte or State College, and the programs are working to supply the county’s varsity teams with trained players. Jackson, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and attended college at NCAA Division I power Syracuse, said there’s abundant potential for growth.

“We are in a great area,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, this is a sports capital. This is not only another opportunity to play a sport, but it’s another way for kids to interact with each other.”