That’s right, lacrosse. One of the oldest games currently being played today is gaining popularity in the Gulf South, and the Pine Belt is right in the middle of the action.
The Hub City Lacrosse Club is in its fifth year of existence and is based at the Sacred Heart High School Sports Complex.
“It actually got started here through Sacred Heart,” said Dr. Andy Reese, the team’s coach. “Then when Covid hit, some rules with the diocese changed and we were able to open it up to more than just school kids, but to the community. So, this has been a community team since Covid.”
Reese, a professor of geography and geology at the University of Southern Mississippi, became familiar with the sport while attending junior high and high school in Maryland. He said the club has 25 high school aged players from all over the Pine Belt.
“I learned the game in junior high and played through high school and college,” said Reese. “I went to LSU and it was a club team there, more beer-drinking than anything.
“But I got here to Southern Miss and my two boys became old enough to see all the old equipment lying around, and asked if they could start playing.”
The sport’s origins date back to around the 12th century when a form of the game was played by various native tribes in North America.
In the traditional aboriginal Canadian version of the game, each team consisted of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 men on a field that could stretch for several miles. It was a big part of the religious and cultural life of the tribes across the continent.
The sport came to the attention of early French settlers in Canada in the 17th century.
According to Wikipedia, the French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf called the game la crosse, meaning “the stick” in French, and seemed to be originated from the French term for field hockey, le jeu de la crosse.
The game began to be popularized in Canada in the mid-19th century, and by 1860 the rules had been codified, limiting the length of games and reducing the number of player to 12 per team.
The game spread rapidly in the English-speaking world and by 1900 there were men’s clubs in Canada, the United States, England, Australia and New Zealand. The women’s version of the game was introduced in 1890 in Scotland.
During much of the 20th century, lacrosse in the U.S. was primarily a regional sport centered in the Mid-Atlantic states, particularly New York and Maryland, which remain hotbeds for the sport.
However, its popularity has grown through the latter half of the 20th century and is played across the country. In 2016, a survey conducted by US Lacrosse estimated that there are approximately 825,000 participants nationwide and is now an officially-sanctioned state championship sport for high schools in 24 states.
Field lacrosse is the men’s version of the sport and is played with 10 players per team: three attackmen, three midfielders, three defensemen and one goalie.
Each player carries one of two sizes of sticks with a net which measures about 6-8 inches wide at one end, a short stick measuring around 40 inches and a long stick, which can be anywhere from 52 to 72 inches long. Goalies use a stick with a larger head than other sticks, about 12 inches wide.
“The attackers, the ones who stay in the offensive zone and the midfielders, have the shorter sticks,” Reese said. “The longer sticks are for defense mode.”
The game is played on a field 110 yards long and 60 yards wide (101×55 meters). The goals are 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide, surrounded by a circular “crease” 18 feet in diameter, and the goals are set 80 yards apart.
A midfield line separates the field into an offensive and defensive zone and each team must keep four players, including the goalie, in the defensive zone and three in the offensive zone. A team that violates this rule is offsides and either loses possession of the ball or incurs a technical foul if it does not.
Players use the head of the stick to carry, pass, catch and shoot the ball, which measures about three inches in diameter. It’s a contact sport and all players wear protective gear: helmet, gloves, shoulder pads and elbow pads
“There are sticks and there’s contact, so it’s a way to get some aggression out,” Reese said. “But it’s not the same kind of contact you get with football. You’re armed with stick, you know? So it’s more slaps and checks. It’s challenging. It takes really good hand-eye coordination.
“It’s kind a combination of soccer and hockey, where there’s constant motion. It’s very fluid, back and forth. But you’re catching and throwing, and you’re using your net as an extension of your hand. So there’s a little bit of baseball in there as well.”
The Hub City club plays in the Gulf South Lacrosse League, with includes about a dozen teams in the southern parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
The sport is quite popular at the college level and there are currently two professional leagues in North America, the National Lacross League, which has 15 teams, and the Premier Lacross League, which plays with eight teams.
At the youth level in Mississippi, the sport is rapidly gaining popularity, and Reese said the Mississippi High School Activities Association has expressed an interest in sanctioning the sport for state championship competition.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” said Reese. “There’s teams in Oxford, Tupelo, several teams in Jackson. But we’re the only team in Hattiesburg right now, but a host of teams on the Coast, which is where it really got started in Mississippi.
“We’re trying to grow the game and spread the word, and I think eventually it will be there.”
