One day in the spring of 2018, JR Wright was having pizza with his uncle Richard, director of the Sheridan Recreation District, which oversees youth sports in the Northern Wyoming community of 18,000 people. Richard was lamenting the drop-off in youth sports participation when JR casually suggested the strategy of introducing some new programs, like lacrosse.
As a former club lacrosse player at the University of Wyoming, JR still had a strong affinity for the game, even if it was relatively non-existent in Sheridan. Richard quickly jumped on the idea and enlisted his nephew to start the process.
“My uncle immediately scheduled a clinic, sponsored by the Rec District, for the following month and all of a sudden, I had to figure it out,” said Wright, who was working full-time as a commercial loans officer at the time. “I don’t know if anyone in town had even heard of the game.”
Charged with the task of organizing a youth clinic in a matter of just a few weeks, Wright reached out to those he knew in the lacrosse community. He recruited a former Wyoming teammate who was now a college coach to serve as lead clinician. He reached out to his former high school coach in Colorado to get input. And he contacted USA Lacrosse’s regional director Lyn Porterfield about the possibly of providing equipment assistance.
“Lyn helped us acquire sticks and balls through a USA Lacrosse First Stick grant,” Wright said. “We could not have done it without you guys.”
With 35 kids enthusiastically giving the new game a try, the clinic proved to be a big success. But all of a sudden, Wright had a new challenge. “We knew we had to start a league to keep these kids involved.”
Working with his uncle, by the following spring the Rec District launched an in-house league.
“It was a six-week league with about 40 kids involved in two age divisions,” Wright said. “It was very grass roots and pretty low maintenance.”
From that initial experience, Wright began to look to the future. After all, today’s youth would become tomorrow’s high schoolers.
“We loved the idea of eventually having a thriving high school program, but of course, establishing a youth program was the key,” Wright said.
He also knew that the youth program couldn’t succeed without lowering the cost of entry, mainly for equipment. Wright reached out to suppliers and potential donors, eventually raising $13,000 to acquire almost 40 sets of gear to supplement the original equipment that USA Lacrosse had provided.
“This is rural America and families aren’t going to spend hundreds of dollars to equip their kids,” Wright said. “We had to create opportunity by having a turn key program.”
Despite the challenges of Covid, the Rec District’s youth program continued to grow, with Wright coaching the 14U team and working to attract additional volunteers to help as coaches. In 2022, Wright knew it was time for the next step, and formally launched the Sheridan Lacrosse Club with a boys’ high school team, which he coached.
In 2023, the club added a girls’ high school team and a 14U co-rec travel team. It also continues to work in partnership with the Rec District to provide ongoing support for the youth program, which remains a house league.
“We had 80 kids in the youth program this year,” Wright said. “And we have 27 incoming high school freshmen next year. We’re growing as fast as we can fund our gear needs.”
No one who needs equipment to participate is denied by the Sheridan Lacrosse Club, now a registered non-profit organization. Community involvement has also provided valuable support.
“We have had a lot of great people come on board to help us out,” Wright said. “Every time I think there’s another obstacle, it just works itself out. I eventually stopped worrying about it.”
As an example, the Maverick teams now play their high school games at the former Normative Services Academy, a local prep school that closed its doors and left behind a vacant football stadium. The foundation that owns the facility allows the club free use of the field in exchange for doing some maintenance.
“We’ve been making improvements and sprucing it up, but it’s really a great facility for us,” Wright said. “It helps to legitimize our program.”
This past April, Wright organized a full blown lacrosse weekend at the venue, with two days of games of varying levels, from an opening match-up of college club teams from Montana State and the University of Wyoming, to games for his Sheridan club against high school rivals from Cheyenne and Cody.
“It was the unofficial Wyoming state championship tournament,” Wright said. “The kids loved it.”
The rare home games were well received. Due to a lack of local opponents, the Mavericks’ boys’ and girls’ teams compete primarily in Montana against more established teams in the Montana High School Lacrosse Association. Trips of five to six hours, or more, for games in Helena, Bozeman, or Great Falls, are the norm in the Rocky Mountain region. With an eye towards weather, the eight-week season launches in April and concludes by Memorial Day.
“Travelling through the Rockies can be a huge obstacle during that time of year,” Wright said. “Four hundred mile trips are nothing for us. We love the game.”
Wright’s tireless efforts to establish lacrosse as a presence in the Sheridan community has not gone unnoticed.
“What he, and others, have done is quite remarkable,” said Shawn Maloney, USA Lacrosse’s regional manager for the Mountain Region. “This really is a success story of growing lacrosse in a place where there was nothing.”
From the initial clinic in 2018 to now having full-fledged high school programs actively supported by the community and managed by a well-organized club board, Wright has been the sport’s visionary catalyst in Northern Wyoming.
“Seeing it all come together has been better than anything I could have expected,” Wright said. “It’s been really rewarding.”
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USA Lacrosse grants are intended to support community partners that create participation opportunities and breakdown the barriers to participation. USA Lacrosse grants are typically provided in three categories: equipment grants, player clinic grants, and financial support. The grant application cycle is now open and accepting online submissions through July 31. Click here to learn more about the application process.
