Eastern import catching on

By Mike Trask

Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The most impressive thing about last weekend’s Las Vegas Lacrosse League playoffs was not the players’ skill or the game’s speed.

Instead, it’s that the games happened at all in a city 2,500 miles from the East Coast, in a place where only a few years ago the sport was all but nonexistent.

When you think of lacrosse, you think of Johns Hopkins vs. Cornell, Syracuse vs. Ithaca — and not at all of Las Vegas. So if nothing else, the growing popularity of lacrosse here is proof that transplanted Easterners are bringing more than a taste for bagels and Dunkin’ Donuts with them.

Seven years ago high school lacrosse made its debut in the valley in a game meant mostly to give some new kids in town a chance to play.

Now there aren’t enough lacrosse fields to easily accommodate all the teams.

North Las Vegas intends to include two lacrosse fields at its planned 132-acre Craig Ranch Park, adding to those in Las Vegas, Summerlin, Henderson and elsewhere in North Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Lacrosse League, which began in 2000 with a game between Palo Verde and Centennial — at the time the region’s only two teams — now has 49 teams, men’s and women’s, ranging from middle to high school. Participation is up 20 percent since last year, from 699 players to 844.

“Vegas is ripe to be a big hotbed for lacrosse on the West Coast,” said Michael Jack, president of the Palo Verde Lacrosse Club.

The league finals for all divisions were held Saturday at Faith Lutheran High School. Bonanza High won the men’s and women’s varsity championships. Centennial won the men’s junior varsity championship.

Dan Coronel moved to Las Vegas six years ago with a background steeped in lacrosse — as a player, coach and referee. He grew up in Maryland, where the game is a way of life, played Division I lacrosse in college and went on to become a high-level referee. He even served as a lacrosse consultant on the movie “American Pie.”

Now he coaches the kids on the Legacy High School team.

“I think guys like me who played the game wanted to see it grow and get these guys to levels that could get them college scholarships,” Coronel said while overseeing his junior varsity team’s warm-up drills before a semifinal game Wednesday.

Legacy High’s team is not limited to Legacy students. Lacrosse is a club sport, meaning the School District does not financially support the teams, but rather simply allows them to use schools’ names and fields. It also means students from schools without a program can play for a nearby school.

Most in the Las Vegas lacrosse community admit the sport is still evolving in the region. Many players picked up a stick for the first time a few months ago. And many parents in the stands have no clue about the game’s rules.

“It’s wild and woolly,” said Terry Allen, league secretary. “It’s not something your mom and dad did, so Dad can’t tell you what did wrong.”

The numbers show there hasn’t been a problem drawing kids. Instead, the challenge has been drawing adults.

“We don’t have a shortage of kids who want to play,” said Don Krueger, league vice chairman. “We have a shortage of knowledgeable adults who want to coach or ref.”

The same challenges are seen in California, Utah, Arizona and Texas, where the sport also is experiencing huge growth rates. Devotees like to brag there are more college lacrosse players than football players, if you count the innumerable club teams across the country.

“The bottom line is, the game sells itself,” Allen said. “The kids love it. You don’t have to be 6-foot-7 like basketball and you don’t have to be 250 pounds like football.”

There are no signs of the growth slowing in Las Vegas, and not simply because players are drawn to a game that emphasizes style and creativity. Ryan Hanners, a junior on the Legacy team, said there’s another facet to lacrosse that teens find just as appealing.

“You get to hit people.”