This article appears in the Pacific Northwest version of the May/June edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

Channel surfing may never have had such an impact.

That’s how Cathy Reed, current president of the Sacramento Lacrosse Association, stumbled on lacrosse several years ago. She called sons Tyler and Joe, then 11 and 9, respectively, into the living room.

“They thought it was cool,” Cathy Reed said.

Reed signed them up to play in the program nearest to their Carmichael, Calif., residence. But a 45-minute drive proved tiresome after two years, and necessity became the mother of invention.

“I said, ‘Forget it. Let’s start our own team.’ Don Aiello helped me set up the organization, and I posted flyers in every elementary school that would let me,” Reed said. “The next thing I knew, we had three teams, and that was the start of the Sacramento Lacrosse Association.”

Wrapping up its seventh season, the SLA now fields 13 teams and nearly 250 players. Reed learned on the job how to coach boys’ lacrosse while serving as president of the new organization. She also wanted to increase playing opportunities available for the kids as they grew through the program.

So Reed went to where the kids were: schools in the San Juan Unified School Disctrict, which encompassed the SLA and neighboring Fair Oaks Lacrosse.

“I had seen the physical education program that US Lacrosse offered,” Reed said. “I missed the deadline to apply for the 2015-16 school year, but decided to mimic that program with as much as I could get.”

The Northern California Chapter of US Lacrosse supplied a set of soft-stick lacrosse equipment and its physical education lacrosse curriculum. Reed enlisted former pro player and Albany standout Frank Resetarits to assist with school visits. She recruited volunteers, including husband Rich, that may have been short on lacrosse IQ but had a passion for helping kids.

And she found willing test subjects, particularly in the form of longtime elementary school physical education teacher Willie Wilson. At the time, Wilson served as the district’s department head, and she was searching for new opportunities and activities for 48 PE specialists to learn and teach.

Reed pitched her vision and plan for lacrosse in San Juan District schools. Wilson was all in.

Reed conducted an initial lacrosse clinic at a district in-service day, teaching the teachers the basic skills of the game, its history and culture.

“I ran them through as if they were children,” Reed said. “They used the soft-stick equipment and did a little scrimmage at the end. And just like kids, you’d have a couple that were a little too aggressive and a couple that wanted nothing to do with it. It was pretty hilarious to see.”

The fun resulted in 12 schools requesting the clinic, curriculum and gear for their physical education classes in the fall of 2015. 

“The kids really bought in — we’d ask them at the end what they’d learned, and they would rattle off 10-12 things,” said Resetarits, now the coach at UC Davis. “It was great to do something without a financial gain out of passion to expose the game.”

Reed estimated that about 1,950 students received formal exposure to lacrosse that fall. Wilson relayed the story of a sixth-grade boy, previously a soft-spoken, minimally active pre-teen seemingly destined to favor video games until adulthood.

“He caught the fire for lacrosse and it turned his life around,” Wilson said. “He considers himself an athlete now.”

US Lacrosse since has granted SLA 20 sets of soft-stick equipment and PE curricula. The grants’ total retail value exceeds $20,000.

Reed’s team has visited 24 more schools and exposed 5,800 students, according to her data, to lacrosse since the fall of 2016.

Locally Grown

Northern California

Three of the four lacrosse coaches chosen for the annual Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double Goal Coach awards are from Northern California:  Doug Appleton, Bill Crowley and Karen Healy-Silcott. Only 50 coaches across all sports nationwide were chosen for this honor.

Oregon

The Oregon Girls Lacrosse Association hosted the Syracuse and Oregon women’s teams, who played in front of a sellout crowd at West Linn High School on Feb. 18. More than 120 youth girls from Oregon and neighboring Washington attended clinics put on by Orange coach Gary Gait and his players the previous day.

Washington

The Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association hosts their annual End of Season Youth Jamboree at Starfire Sports in Tukwila on June 2. More than 100 teams will participate.

Idaho

The Treasure Valley Youth Lacrosse League (TVYLL) holds its annual Day of Lacrosse on May 19 at Ann Morrison Park in Boise.  More than 700 youth players will converge to celebrate the end of the spring season with lacrosse games and vendor booths.

Montana

The Montana Chapter of US Lacrosse facilitated the formation of the brand new Montana High School Lacrosse Association as well as the Montana Lacrosse Officials Association.

Picture This
Ready to Play, Coach

Students from Richmond College Prep (Calif.) proudly display the new gear that just arrived via a First Stick Program team grant from US Lacrosse. Lacrosse was introduced to the students by athletic director Eddie Augustus and physical education teacher Chris Quijano in classes with US Lacrosse’s soft-stick curriculum; the First Stick grant helped start an after-school program.  

My USL Rep
Lyn Porterfield, Pacific Northwest

Lyn Porterfield joined US Lacrosse in December 2016, after 20-plus years as a photo producer and a three-year stint as executive director of the Washington Schoolgirls Lacrosse Association.  She grew up riding horses in northern California, but was introduced to lacrosse by her kids, who played in high school and college. She has been a women’s official for seven years and tries to join her husband, Patrick, a fly-fishing guide, on the river as much as possible.

How can US Lacrosse help grow the sport in your area? Contact Lyn at lporterfield@uslacrosse.org or 410-235-6882, extension 114.