Lacrosse: Local Athletes Embrace 'Fastest Game on Two Feet'

It has been termed the fastest game on two feet.

It also can be known now as the fastest growing high school sport in the metropolitan Chicago area.

The sport is lacrosse and it has been gaining more and more popularity in Illinois both for boys and girls in the last decade.

“It is huge everywhere now,” Marian Catholic boys’ lacrosse coach Mike McCormick said.

Lacrosse currently is classified as an emerging sport by the IHSA (Illinois High School Association).

“It means that the high school has to comply by all IHSA requirements,” Homewood-Flossmoor boys’ lacrosse coach Mark Thompson said. “The one thing that is lacking between merging and sanctioned is merely a playoff program at the end of the season.”

The IHSA will consider boys and girls lacrosse a sanctioned sport once 10 percent of all the schools in the state agree to offer the sport. With approximately 700 schools in the state, 70 would be needed for lacrosse to become sanctioned. Right now, McCormick estimates the number is between 60 and 65.

“We thought last year was going to be the year, but some schools backed out for economic reasons,” McCormick said. “But we foresee it happening in the next couple of years.”

McCormick can be credited with bringing lacrosse to the Southland in 2002.

“You can say that,” he said. “We were the first southern-suburban team.”

Marian Coach Fell in Love with Lacrosse on the Island

Lacrosse long has been a popular sport on the East Coast and has been played in the northern suburbs since the 1980s. McCormick grew up on Long Island, a hot bed for lacrosse.

After moving to the area in 1980 and beginning to raise his own family, McCormick's interest in lacrosse was rekindled by his son. When his son was set to enter high school, he wanted to play the game.

“There had been some kids who put together a petition a couple of years before my son entered high school,” McCormick said. “When my son was going into his freshman year, he and lot other kids wanted to play. We went to athletic director Dave Matteo, and he was a big supporter of the idea.”

Thompson was an assistant under McCormick at Marian for two years before starting the program at H-F in 2006 in the same manner McCormick did.

“He wanted his kids to play the sport when they were in high school,” McCormick said.

The Vikings, who completed their third varsity season this past spring, have seen relative success on the field and a whole lot of support off the field.

“We have had great support of the faculty, administration and the players,” Thompson said.

The area has seen a surge of teams in the last few years with new programs being established at Oak Forest, Lockport, Marist and Brother Rice.

In just the last year, Lemont, Minooka and Lincoln-Way launched lacrosse programs and/or started playing on the varsity level. Lacrosse combines skills from a variety of other sports.

“The sport lends itself to kids who are good athletes,” McCormick said.

“It combines the best parts of football, basketball, soccer and ice hockey all into one sport,” Thompson said.

Girls programs have been growing in popularity just as fast as the boys. There are currently programs at Marian and H-F, not to mention a district co-op that involves Sandburg, Andrew and Stagg.

Though the sport hasn’t picked up in central and southern Illinois outside of a team at Champaign Centennial and downstate O’Fallon, McCormick sees lacrosse continuing to grow both in the state and in other regions of the country.

“I am somewhat surprised how fast it has grown here, but not surprised by the popularity," he said. "It is fun sport to play. I continue to see it growing all over the country.”