Why no HS lacrosse in Duluth?

by **LaxRef** on Wed Jun 15, 2005 10:16 am

I was just wondering why there isn't a Duluth HS lacrosse team in Duluth (although there is one in nearby Superior). I would have thought that a team would have sprouted there by now, especially with the size of the city, the success of the UMD team, and the number of HS hockey players there.

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by **Dulax31** on Wed Jun 15, 2005 10:18 am

The duluth kids play for the superior team

by **souptownlax40** on Wed Jun 15, 2005 12:01 pm

There just arent enough players up here. We struggle to find 30 players and we have kids from 5 different highschools in Duluth Superior and Two Harbors. Though we are attempting to separate I doubt we will have the numbers to get two teams for a few years now.

by **LaxRef** on Wed Jun 15, 2005 12:46 pm

souptownlax40 wrote:There just arent enough players up here. We struggle to find 30 players and we have kids from 5 different highschools in Duluth Superior and Two Harbors. Though we are attempting to separate I doubt we will have the numbers to get two teams for a few years now.

Huh. I just thought there would be more interest in a town that size. Are other spring sports really popular, or do people just keep playing hockey or basketball or whatever year round?

by **souptownlax40** on Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:55 am

I think a large part is that it isn't a varsity sport. Many of the kids dont want to quit their varsity baseball teams to join a club lacrosse team, especially when they still don't know too much about the sport. But I definitly think it is getting better because this past season we had I think 17 new kids that have never touched a stick before come out and join. The biggest part is getting the kids involved young and our team is talking about trying to get some of the young kids in gradeschool involved in the sport with trying to get a youth league going.

by **LaxRef** on Thu Jun 16, 2005 4:49 pm

souptownlax40 wrote:I think a large part is that it isn't a varsity sport. Many of the kids dont want to quit their varsity baseball teams to join a club lacrosse team, especially when they still don't know too much about the sport. But I definitly think it is getting better because this past season we had I think 17 new kids that have never touched a stick before come out and join. The biggest part is getting the kids involved young and our team is talking about trying to get some of the young kids in gradeschool involved in the sport with trying to get a youth league going.

I'm sure that would help. The geographical isolation has to hurt you, since there aren't established youth leagues that interested kids can join long before there is a club team at their school.

Dulax31 stated that the Duluth kids play for the Superior team. What are the league rules about players from a school without a team playing for a team from another school?

by **Npaulseth** on Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:54 pm

Nick and Kris Paulseth (two of my cousins whom I tought how to play) helped start up the Superior team, which in now an ok team.

by **souptownlax40** on Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:40 pm

LaxRef wrote:
souptownlax40 wrote:I think a large part is that it isn't a varsity sport. Many of the kids dont want to quit their varsity baseball teams to join a club lacrosse team, especially when they still don't know too much about the sport. But I definitly think it is getting better because this past season we had I think 17 new kids that have never touched a stick before come out and join. The biggest part is getting the kids involved young and our team is talking about trying to get some of the young kids in gradeschool involved in the sport with trying to get a youth league going.

I'm sure that would help. The geographical isolation has to hurt you, since there aren't established youth leagues that interested kids can join long before there is a club team at their school.

Dulax31 stated that the Duluth kids play for the Superior team. What are the league rules about players from a school without a team playing for a team from another school?

They don't really apply to us because we are in no way affiliated with any of the local high schools. Our nickname "Chargers" was actually the nickname of our former coach's highschool in Chicago. We are merely a club team from the area and I'm not sure how the other teams in the MBSLA do it but we have to provide the money for everything. The only reason we are the Superior Chargers is because the people that started it were from Superior.

by **LaxRef** on Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:55 pm

souptownlax40 wrote:They don't really apply to us because we are in no way affiliated with any of the local high schools. Our nickname "Chargers" was actually the nickname of our former coach's highschool in Chicago. We are merely a club team from the area and I'm not sure how the other teams in the MBSLA do it but we have to provide the money for everything. The only reason we are the Superior Chargers is because the people that started it were from Superior.

I'm sure there's some rule to keep a club from loading up with ringers and to keep teams from combining too many schools, since they did break up the RAVE team, but I don't know what the rule is.

I did see the team play a few times this year and recall asking the opposing coach if he was worried about the game because he'd be facing a team of Superior athletes.

by **henrij4** on Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:20 pm

I was under the assumption that in high school if your school doesn't have a team you are allowed to play for the nearest team. I know that with mankato's high school team they draw from three schools west,east and loyola. And talking to trevan mankato's head coach and a fellow attackman at msu, he said once the graduating classes hit don't qoute me on this but I think 500 at each school he would have to break the team up as did RAVE which had four high schools with grad class's at or above 500 students.

by **TexOle** on Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:47 pm

Mankato lacrosse is growing. They have some big kids in on that team and some kids with a great amount of talent. The parent support is growing. As the team continues to improve the popularity will continue to grow. This will increase the number of kids wanting to play. The number of teams in the South is growing. The current teams are improving, and they are the future of Minnesota lacrosse. Inver Grove Heights had a provisional team. I hear from friends that Farmington, Faribault, and Northfield are all trying to start teams. Burnsville nearly got a team started. The Twin Cities are growing in the South and so will the number of kids.