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Lacrosse making strides toward IHSA goal

May 2, 2007

Last spring we wrote about the latest "emerging" Illinois High School Association sport, lacrosse.

The column featured a conversation with one of its biggest fans, the coach of the District 230 Eagles girls team, Tom Paulius. He gave the lowdown on which Southland schools had teams, and was excited the sport was making its presence known among IHSA officials.

One of those officials, Beth Sauser, put lacrosse at the top of her list of emerging sports and was optimistic about its future chances of being made a sanctioned IHSA sport.

In the meantime, the Illinois High School Lacrosse Association (for boys) and the Illinois High School Women's Lacrosse Association (for girls) operate under IHSA bylaws, in order to be ready when the time to officially join the IHSA comes.

Anyway, a year after our previous report, let's check back in with Paulius, and let IHSA executive director Marty Hickman pinch-hit for Sauser, who wasn't available Monday.

Is the baby out yet?

"No, it's still emerging," Hickman said. "But it's closer to being a full-fledged IHSA sport than it was a year ago. I think it's much closer, actually."

Let's look at the numbers.

If you haven't seen it, lacrosse is close to a combination of hockey and soccer. Players brandishing sticks with ball-catchers on the end