Lacrosse the Greatest Sport Know to Man
Uncategorized May 3rd, 2010Lacrosse is becoming a bigger and bigger sport everyday. Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport not only in our country, but the entire world. For those of you who do not know what lacrosse is, it is a team sport where the objective is to score on the other teams goal. You use a stick, which has a plastic head and a metal shaft to cradle, pass, check, and shoot the ball. Lacrosse began hundreds of years ago with the Native Americans tribes in the United States and Canada. The Natives called it Baggataway which was a much more violent sport than today’s version of lacrosse.
Lacrosse has been known to be the “fastest game on two feet” and just like the game, it is spreading fast throughout the world. In United States, lacrosse has been known to be most popular in New England, New York, and Maryland, but now it has been expanding to the entire country. In 2000, there were 1,273 high school programs throughout the country. Only 7 years later, in 2007, there were 2,612 boys lacrosse programs across the country. Click here for map. That is more than double the amount in such a short period of time. No sport has grown faster at the high school level over the last 10 years and there are now an estimated 169,000 high school players. Everywhere you look lacrosse is becoming more and more popular. It is amazing the amount of people who are starting lacrosse and love the sport. It all starts with the increase in of youth players picking up lacrosse. The amount of US Lacrosse players 15 and under has tripled since 1999 to 100,000 players. More and more youth are playing lacrosse, which is the stem of all the growth.
Not only has lacrosse dramatically increased in the US but also internationally. There are now over 30 countries that are part of the International Lacrosse Federation and many more emerging countries set on joining. The most competitive countries are Canada, Germany, Japan, and Australia. The International Lacrosse Federation has conducted a men’s world championship tournament since 1967. More and more countries worldwide are beginning to start lacrosse and make it one of their countries main sports.
With the increase in the amount of people playing I think that it is necessary that lacrosse becomes an Olympic sport. As of right now there still aren’t enough countries that play lacrosse but with its huge popularity there will soon be enough countries. It is a very lengthy process for a sport to join the Olympics but I think that it will eventually happen. There is no way for a sport this big not to be able to participate in the Olympics. There are also many sports in the Olympics that don’t deserve to be there over lacrosse like Archery, Badminton, and mountain biking. “I’m quite optimistic lacrosse will be in the Olympics, it’s just a matter of when,” said Hayes, a member of the ILF. Overall, lacrosse is a great sport that is rapidly growing worldwide. CLick here for LAX VID
May 8th, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Josh I completely agree with your article. Lacrosse is a very wide spreading sport and many of people really enjoy it. It is pretty fun to watch and fun to play. Although I was not a huge fan of the sport I know that many people are and it deserved to be an Olympic sport! Lacrosse interests me more then volleyball or figure skating. It is intense and interesting to watch. In fact I think that our country would excel in Olympic lacrosse. The Olympics are an event for the most talented athletes to come and compete I know that lacrosse has some great athletes. The poor lacrosse players must feel extremely left out that their sport isn’t included. There is no reason that figure skating is allowed in the Olympics and lacrosse is not. It’s only fair for them to be honored in the Olympic games! Lets make this happen!
May 9th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Although lacrosse is a very entertaining sport to watch and play it does not compare to the big four in any way. The big four is Basketball, Baseball, Football and hockey. On the professional level (and even collegiate and high school) there are far more programs and lacrosse will have to do major work to reach the level of those sports. On the maps that you gave the amount of the country that the regions take up do not and will not compare to a sport like baseball or basketball. Of you look at the map of Division 1 basketball(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/Cbd1.PNG), it is not even comparable to that of lacrosse and arguing that lacrosse is on the same level or anywhere near is irrational. That map doesn’t even include Division 2 or 3. I do agree that lacrosse is growing rapidly in the U.S but it is not near the level that the big four is on and won’t be for a while. Also there is no evidence in your blog or the map for that matter that lacrosse is growing around the world because around the world soccer it the most popular sport and will not even be touched by the big four here in the states.
May 9th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
As a lacrosse player myself I agree that lacrosse is the best sport known to man. The competitive nature of lacrosse is almost untouchable. A lacrosse player must be on the edge reckless and smart in order to be good. With this combo the nature of the game is extremely competitive and fun. My mother, who is a complete sports nut, never watched lacrosse until I picked up the stick. Now she is obsessed with it, she will travel to watch games and watch random ones on the T.V. When I asked her why she loved the game so much she responded ” It is truly the most competitive sport I have ever watched, when players reach the college level they have so much skill it just becomes a pleasure to watch”. The one problem that will hold lacrosse becoming a better spectator sport is all the rules that seem odd to people. Here is a link that explains the rules of lacrosse.http://www.laxrules.com/. After reading these rules people will become confused. So when watching the games they may not be as interested if they do not get. I hope lacrosse reaches the olympics because I love it so much.
May 16th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
It’s way better than ski cross or ice dancing. This post shows some progress because it supports an opinion at the end. Next post should put the opinion at the beginning so we know what you’re driving at from the start.