Anna Faltermeier/Sun NewsChris Edwards of Park Hill South shoots on goal Saturday, May 3, during a lacrosse game against the Northwest Arkansas Knights at New Mark Middle School in Kansas City.
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Lacrosse club gains steam
By Bill Knust
When Northland Lacrosse founder Brian Massey moved his family from Syracuse, N.Y., to Kansas City a year and a half ago, he was not looking for much. All he needed was a school where his son could play ice hockey and lacrosse.
When he realized he was going to have a tough time finding a lacrosse team for his son to play on, he created one — Northland Lacrosse. How he ended up turning away kids to play a sport most had never heard of is a wonder, but Massey has turned a popular East Coast sport into all the rage for 31 high school boys from Oak Park, Park Hill, Park Hill South and Platte County.
Massey originally founded a seventh-grade team and an eighth-grade team for Northland, but after the first season, he realized he had a problem.
“After that I had a bunch of eighth-graders who said, ‘What do we do when we get to high school?’ I told them we would see what we could do about it, and I got the OK to compile a haphazard type of team,” Massey said.
While the situation may have been haphazard, Northland’s play has been anything but. They played a 10-game schedule, with their game tomorrow night against Rockhurst’s JV team wrapping up the year. The seventh- and eighth-grade teams are still going and serve as a great feeder system, Massey said.
Whether it won or lost, Northland remained competitive in every game this season.
“I think everyone is surprised,” Massey said. “Not only did we win a few games, but we were competitive in the ones we lost. We hung with the rest of the JV teams we met up against.”
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Lacrosse is an extremely popular sport on the East Coast, and is also fairly popular on the West Coast, but it has yet to grab hold in the Heartland. Massey is doing everything he can to change that.
The field is 110 yards long by 60 yards wide — 10 yards shorter than a football field, but 6.7 yards wider — and features 10 players to a side. There is one goalie, three defenders, three midfielders — called middies — and three attackers.
“It is a similar setup to soccer, where you have your middies that transition the ball up to your attackers,” Massey said. “To start off, we were very basic in strategy. That is what I build from. Most of the kids are brand new to lacrosse, so I started with something simple and built from there. It was basically defenders denying goals and getting it to midfielders to get it to the attackmen to get up field and settle things down in the offensive end. They have built from that.”
The players each have their own stick that varies in length depending on the position they play. Defenders usually carry the longest stick, while midfielders and attackmen carry a “short stick.” Each one has a small net on it to catch and shoot a ball that is smaller than a baseball, but bigger than a golf ball, into their opponent’s goal.
Oak Park junior middie Nate Olson said the allure of banging heads with other players was one of the things that drew him to the sport.
“I have played soccer,” Olson said. “Anything without pads and a helmet I have tried. This is the first sport I have worn pads or a helmet. It was different, but I loved it. I think that is one of the reasons I love lacrosse, you get to hit people. I have always wanted to do that.”
Park Hill senior attacker Michael Kilpatrick had been playing lacrosse with a team from Shawnee Mission South before he saw a poster in a locker room promoting Northland Lacrosse. It was an easy decision for him to make the switch, and one of the more enjoyable things about this season has been watching different leaders emerge.
“It is fun seeing the team pull together,” Kilpatrick said. “At Shawnee Mission you already had the freshmen that were being led by the seniors. Here everyone is new so you really have to see who the leaders are.”
Nnn
With the sport being new to a lot of the kids, reaction from their peers has been interesting. Olson’s friends did not think he would even survive.
“A lot of my friends are tennis people and soccer people and they just said, ‘Dude, you are going to get laid out,’” Olson said. “They are jealous is what they are. They are just jealous they can’t play.”
Kilpatrick is jealous Olson has another year left to play. He said his friends were late jumping on board and plan to join the program next year.
“They are going to come out next year, but I am not going to be here because I am a senior this year,” Kilpatrick said.
One of different dynamics of the junior varsity team is the fact the team pulls its players from four separate Northland schools. Olson said one of the best things about it is meeting the players from other schools and befriending them in the process. There has yet to be an instance of school pride getting in way as well.
“When we are out on the field everyone just puts their school aside and works together as a team,” Kilpatrick said. “You’d give about anything to help your team.”
Massey has no worries of the program folding shop. He said his players have been his best recruiters and that he had to turn away kids for the junior varsity program before the season.
“When it spreads, it spreads like wildfire,” Massey said. “I think that there is a good chance next year we do two teams.”
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.
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When he realized he was going to have a tough time finding a lacrosse team for his son to play on, he created one — Northland Lacrosse. How he ended up turning away kids to play a sport most had never heard of is a wonder, but Massey has turned a popular East Coast sport into all the rage for 31 high school boys from Oak Park, Park Hill, Park Hill South and Platte County.
Massey originally founded a seventh-grade team and an eighth-grade team for Northland, but after the first season, he realized he had a problem.
“After that I had a bunch of eighth-graders who said, ‘What do we do when we get to high school?’ I told them we would see what we could do about it, and I got the OK to compile a haphazard type of team,” Massey said.
While the situation may have been haphazard, Northland’s play has been anything but. They played a 10-game schedule, with their game tomorrow night against Rockhurst’s JV team wrapping up the year. The seventh- and eighth-grade teams are still going and serve as a great feeder system, Massey said.
Whether it won or lost, Northland remained competitive in every game this season.
“I think everyone is surprised,” Massey said. “Not only did we win a few games, but we were competitive in the ones we lost. We hung with the rest of the JV teams we met up against.”
Nnn
Lacrosse is an extremely popular sport on the East Coast, and is also fairly popular on the West Coast, but it has yet to grab hold in the Heartland. Massey is doing everything he can to change that.
The field is 110 yards long by 60 yards wide — 10 yards shorter than a football field, but 6.7 yards wider — and features 10 players to a side. There is one goalie, three defenders, three midfielders — called middies — and three attackers.
“It is a similar setup to soccer, where you have your middies that transition the ball up to your attackers,” Massey said. “To start off, we were very basic in strategy. That is what I build from. Most of the kids are brand new to lacrosse, so I started with something simple and built from there. It was basically defenders denying goals and getting it to midfielders to get it to the attackmen to get up field and settle things down in the offensive end. They have built from that.”
The players each have their own stick that varies in length depending on the position they play. Defenders usually carry the longest stick, while midfielders and attackmen carry a “short stick.” Each one has a small net on it to catch and shoot a ball that is smaller than a baseball, but bigger than a golf ball, into their opponent’s goal.
Oak Park junior middie Nate Olson said the allure of banging heads with other players was one of the things that drew him to the sport.
“I have played soccer,” Olson said. “Anything without pads and a helmet I have tried. This is the first sport I have worn pads or a helmet. It was different, but I loved it. I think that is one of the reasons I love lacrosse, you get to hit people. I have always wanted to do that.”
Park Hill senior attacker Michael Kilpatrick had been playing lacrosse with a team from Shawnee Mission South before he saw a poster in a locker room promoting Northland Lacrosse. It was an easy decision for him to make the switch, and one of the more enjoyable things about this season has been watching different leaders emerge.
“It is fun seeing the team pull together,” Kilpatrick said. “At Shawnee Mission you already had the freshmen that were being led by the seniors. Here everyone is new so you really have to see who the leaders are.”
Nnn
With the sport being new to a lot of the kids, reaction from their peers has been interesting. Olson’s friends did not think he would even survive.
“A lot of my friends are tennis people and soccer people and they just said, ‘Dude, you are going to get laid out,’” Olson said. “They are jealous is what they are. They are just jealous they can’t play.”
Kilpatrick is jealous Olson has another year left to play. He said his friends were late jumping on board and plan to join the program next year.
“They are going to come out next year, but I am not going to be here because I am a senior this year,” Kilpatrick said.
One of different dynamics of the junior varsity team is the fact the team pulls its players from four separate Northland schools. Olson said one of the best things about it is meeting the players from other schools and befriending them in the process. There has yet to be an instance of school pride getting in way as well.
“When we are out on the field everyone just puts their school aside and works together as a team,” Kilpatrick said. “You’d give about anything to help your team.”
Massey has no worries of the program folding shop. He said his players have been his best recruiters and that he had to turn away kids for the junior varsity program before the season.
“When it spreads, it spreads like wildfire,” Massey said. “I think that there is a good chance next year we do two teams.”
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.