Twin Cities Lacrosse is hosting two free lacrosse clinics for children in first through eighth grades on Jan. 11 and Jan. 25 at the NW Sports Hub in Centralia.
Both clinics run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and no experience or equipment are needed. Loaner sticks will be available for each kid. Boys and girls are welcome to join, and the clinic will focus on boys lacrosse rules. Fundamental skills that will be practiced include cradling, groundballs, throwing, catching and shooting.
To sign up, email Twin Cities Lacrosse founder Brad Coulter at brad@concordis.net, or text him at 206-391-1271. In the email, please include the following information: Subject: Lacrosse Clinic; parent’s or guardian’s name; phone number; participant’s name(s); and participant’s current grade.
Day-of-event signups will also be available. Please note that all participants will need a waiver signed by a parent or guardian, which will be provided upon signup or on the day of the event.
Long regarded as the fastest game on two legs, lacrosse is a high-speed sport, similar to hockey and soccer, where players run around a field with lacrosse sticks and one ball, looking to score a goal in the opposing team’s net. Sticks are made of fiberglass and are at least three feet long with a mesh basket on top, while the game ball is made from firm sponge rubber and about the same size as a tennis ball.
It may be North America’s oldest organized sport, with roots tracing back to 1636 when a Jesuit missionary observed the Huron Indians in Southern Ontario, Canada, playing the game with a curved stick and a hide-covered ball.
The game was adopted by French settlers in Canada in the 1800s. It’s seen tremendous growth over the last 20 years, regularly ranking among the fastest-growing team sports in the U.S., with a steady rise each year in youth players since U.S. Lacrosse started tracking numbers in 2001. Over 441,000 youth participated in lacrosse in 2018, according to a report by U.S. Lacrosse. Most colleges field varsity or club teams and there are three professional leagues.
Twin Cities Lacrosse is a volunteer board-led, nonprofit, youth sports club promoting lacrosse in Lewis County. The organization, which was founded by Coulter, lifelong county resident Anthony Smith, Adna teacher Ryan Brumbaugh and Riley Wood, had its first-ever clinic on Nov. 12 with 15 kids turning out.The group plans to eventually field Twin Cities youth lacrosse teams in spring 2021 in the South Sound Youth Lacrosse League, a league made up of 17 teams from the South Puget Sound area. Currently, the closest youth lacrosse programs to Lewis County are to the north in Olympia and to the south in Vancouver.
“The goal at this point is to garner enough interest to field some teams this spring,” Coulter said.
For more information on Twin Cities Lacrosse and its clinics, visit https www.tclax.org.
