56 Years of Lacrosse History

[Sonny]

KBCI of Boise, Idaho catches up with 75-year old Stan Swanson, a high school coach and club player:

By Andrew Marden

BOISE - "I've been playing for 56 years. I started in 1950."

And at the age of 75, Stan Swanson doesn't care that the guys he shares a field with are less than half his age.

"I'm a lot slower, and my reflexes are a lot slower," says Swanson, who is also the lacrosse coach at Eagle High School. "As you get older and you get more experienced and you physically slow down, you learn how to cheat more and catch up."

But once upon a time, Stan didn't have to play catch up.

In 1954, at the age of 23, Stan Swanson won the Schmeisser Trophy as the nation's outstanding defenseman while playing at the Naval Academy. That was during his senior year, when he helped lead his school to a national championship over rival Army.

Click here for the rest of the article:
http://www2.kbcitv.com/x79004.xml

[Blake]

I've played with Stan for a number of years now, and he was still coaching Eagle when I played high school ball at Bishop Kelly five years ago.

The best thing about Stan is that he knows exactly what his physical limits are, and won't try to do anything he can't do, but still finds satisfaction out of just simply being out there.

I remember being at a summer league game once and a guy asked him when he was going to quit playing. His response was hysterical. "Death is the body's way of telling you to quit, and I aint dead yet."

[Hi-Line Lax]

Stan is the man, very inspiring...I hope I'm that cool at his age.

[nhoskins]

Pretty cool tv segment, awesome to see lacrosse on the news and even better, it came in on the only non-fuzzy channel I have.

[Shawn Carman]

The Story talks all about Stan and his commitment to Lacrosse. But the story cant say enough. It is one thing to read about Stan but to watch him play is another. His game is not power or speed, it is finess and it is amazing to watch.

Congrats Stan


Shawn #18