1. 14 1SM Tuesday January 10 2017 | the times
News
A team game once considered the pre-
serve of a handful of private schools is
becoming Scotland’s fastest growing
sport.
The modern version of lacrosse,
thought to be the inspiration for the
game of quidditch in JK Rowling’s Har-
ry Potter books, was first played in the
UK by the girls of St Leonards School,
St Andrews, in 1890.
Now it has discarded its elitist image
to become a boom sport in Scotland
with the number of registered players
doubling to more than 1,000 in the past
six years. The number of state schools
also playing lacrosse — played with
sticks with nets on the end to catch the
ball — is also rising.
Adam Szymoszowskyj, national de-
velopment officer at Lacrosse Scotland
(LS), said efforts to broaden the sport’s
appeal were now coming to fruition.
He said: “My background is in athlet-
icsandwhenIfirsttookonmyrolehere
I very much had the impression that la-
crosse was very much a private school
sport.Wearenowbreakingthosebarri-
ers and making lacrosse accessible to
teachers and students in state schools
for the first time.”
As recently as 2015 all the schools
that were registered as members of LS
were in the independent sector. “We’ve
now brought that down to 66 per cent,”
Mr Szymoszowskyj said.
“Over the next couple of years we are
looking to bring that down to 50 per
cent and make even greater progress in
future.” Only six teachers registered for
a training event last year but another
being held this week will have 42 at-
tending, he said.
Workshops and coaching classes
have helped to establish the game in
schoolswherefootballandhockeyhave
traditionally dominated. Bellahouston
Academy, in the Ibrox area of Glasgow,
nowrunsathrivinglacrosseclub.James
Hemmingsley, a teacher, has helped to
push the sport in a school famous for
producing footballers such as Andy
Roxburgh, the former national coach,
and Ian Durrant, the former Rangers
player. He said: “We started off with a
tastersessionandthenransomeclasses
to introduce lacrosse to the kids. It was
so popular that we have now intro-
duced an after-school club. The child-
ren really enjoy it and the school has
really taken it on board and invested in
nets, equipment and goals.”
The biggest rise has been in female
players and a national women’s league
was established in September. Mr Szy-
moszowskyj said: “Previously lacrosse
in Scotland was very much played on a
mixed basis. We found that girls who
had played the sport at school had
found themselves playing against big
bulky men. It put them off and many of
them dropped out altogether.”
Lacrosse has its roots in the cultural
traditions of the Native American Iro-
quois people.
It used to be the preserve of the independent sector but the number of state schools playing the sport is on the increase
Booming lacrosse sheds posh image
Marc Horne Pitched battles
The game, believed to have
originated among Native Americans,
was originally played with a skull
rather than a ball and was used to
hone the skills of the strongest
warriors to settle disputes between
rival tribes.
French missionaries named the
sport la crossier because of the
stick’s resemblance to a bishop’s
crozier. Originally games could
consist of hundreds of players on a
field more than a mile long.
The objective is to propel the ball
into an opponent’s goal using the
stick to catch, cradle and pass.
Lacrosse was an Olympic sport in
1904 and 1908 with teams from
Canada, the United States and Great
Britain. Today lacrosse has a
professional league in America with
showpiece matches attracting more
than 60,000 spectators.
In 2008, 20,116 fans attended a
Major League game at Invesco Field
in Denver, Colorado.