During lunch last week I mentioned to a friend that I had just seen “Friday Night Lights,” the film about high school football fanaticism, Texas style.
He quickly remarked that if I wanted to really learn about fanaticism I ought to acquaint myself with Garden City lacrosse. And that’s just what I did.
I remembered that Major League Lacrosse’s New York Lizards were playing their seasons first home game at Hofstra University’s James M. Shuart Stadium later that day so off I drove to get a little taste of home grown lacrosse fandom.
As a sport psychologist I have worked with a number of elite lacrosse players already but building confidence, focus and aggression in the office is far different than watching it all unfold in real time.
Walking into the Shuart Stadium I could see right away the MLL has arrived and has all the look of any major league sport.
There were about 5,000 fans consisting of excited kids and their parents. And like in all big league sports they had everything you could ever want to buy including booths selling yearbooks, clothing, lax gear and even those cute little cards with the photos of each player and his stats.
Lacrosse has come a long way from its beginnings back in 1100 AD. It was called the Creators Game by Native American Indians in Canada and was used to toughen young warriors, resolve Iroquois Indian conflicts and also played for pleasure.
Medicine men prepared the players and the games consisted of as much as 1,000 warriors on each side played in wide open fields ranging up to six-miles wide.
The games went from sunup to sundown and held spiritual meaning for the tribe and the players.
Wagering on the outcome included items such as horses, wives and children.
By the 1700s the games were modified by European settlers and became less violent and by the 20th century the modern game of lacrosse was adopted by high schools and colleges in Canada and the Northeast United States.
One can only appreciate a sport by seeing it live.
By watching them you can see just how fast they are, how brave they are and how talented they are.
The roster of the New York Lizards reveals a very educated bunch of players. They have been at schools like Yale, Cornell, Colgate, Duke, Lehigh, Loyola, Virginia and Hopkins.
To me this sport is an interesting admixture of high I.Q., high education and sheer courage.
The game was used for centuries to prepare young warriors for battle and over the years it has been domesticated and has found a home in Ivy league schools as well as elite high schools like Garden City, Jericho, Manhasset and Rockville Centre.
The game has spread throughout the United States and now the Northeast must face powerhouse teams from Texas, California and Florida.
When you see a sport grow it does so because it is fun to play and compelling to watch.
Long Island may not be as fanatic about lacrosse as Texas is about football but judging from the crowd I saw at Shuart Stadium at Hofstra I can see that lacrosse has arrived as a major sport.
Move over baseball, move over football.
It’s time to make room for lacrosse, a game that was created by the Canadian Iroquois, domesticated by European settlers and now dominated by the American elite.
