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Lacrosse Booming In The South

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By BRETT McMURPHY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 10, 2008

TAMPA - If football is the undisputed king in Florida, then women's lacrosse is making a serious bid to become the state's queen sport.

New collegiate programs are being started at the University of Florida and Jacksonville University beginning in 2010.

Once limited to mostly the northeastern section of the United States, the sport of lacrosse is quickly establishing itself in the south. Tom O'Grady, president of the Florida lacrosse camps and girls coach at Tampa Catholic, believes it is only a matter of time - a very short amount of time - before Florida's colleges start dominating the sport.

"The University of Florida is going to be good quick," O'Grady said.

The Gators begin play in the spring of 2010. The school's athletic association finance committee allocated $3.6 million to start building a lacrosse stadium.

Coach Amanda O'Leary came to UF from Yale, where she coached the past 14 seasons. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

She sees a bright future in the Sunshine State.

"The state of Florida is getting there," O'Leary said. "With all these new programs in high school and the middle-school level, there is such an increase, not only in the talent pool, but more and more players have the opportunity to go to big-time lacrosse programs."

In 2006-07, the National Federation of State High School Associations reported a 7.9 increase in lacrosse athletes and an 11.8 percent increase in high schools that fielded varsity teams from the previous season. More than 125,000 boys and girls participated in lacrosse in 3,068 high schools nationally.

"It's a popular sport because it's a really athletic game, it's fast paced," O'Leary said. "It's everything an athletic girl would want to play. There's not a lot of standing around.

"It's a natural fit for really good athletes. It's such a fun sport. There's always an opportunity to touch the ball, be a part of the play. Everyone is involved offensively and defensively."

Locally, Tampa Catholic's girls program is the only one that plays Florida High School Activities Association-sanctioned lacrosse. Last year, 67 boys teams and 64 girls teams competed in the FHSAA, an organization spokeswoman said.

Getting lacrosse started at Tampa Catholic wasn't easy, though. Adrianna Paidas, who moved to Tampa from Baltimore in 2004, had been playing lacrosse nearly every day since she was 4. However, there was no program at Tampa Catholic, so Paidas started recruiting players at the school. She convinced 24 girls to play - 21 of whom had never played the game.

Last year, Paidas led the Crusaders to a 9-3 record and the region final, where they lost to eventual state champion Vero Beach. Paidas' hard work paid off. She turned down a scholarship offer to St. Mary's (Calif.) to play at the University of Florida. Another TC graduate, Parisa Karkevandian, will play at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Like O'Leary, Mindy McCord is starting a collegiate program from scratch. McCord was named women's lacrosse coach and director of lacrosse at the University of Jacksonville. The Dolphins being play in the spring of 2010.

"I try to tell players, you're part of a legacy here," said McCord, who built the lacrosse program at St. Augustine's Nease High before taking the JU position. "We can create it how we want it to be. It's a challenge. Anytime you have an opportunity to watch it grow and build it, it's fun to have that challenge."

UF and JU are the only state Division I programs with women's lacrosse, while JU will be the state's only Division I men's lacrosse program.

The Big East Conference is forming a seven-team men's lacrosse league beginning in the spring of 2010 that will include national champion Syracuse, but the University of South Florida has no plans to begin a men's or women's lacrosse program, USF assistant AD Chris Freet said.

In Division II, Rollins has a women's program and the men's side also is seeing tremendous growth.

Of the nine-team Division II Sunshine State Conference, Saint Leo and Rollins already have men's programs competing in the Deep South Conference and Florida Southern's men's program debuts this year. There also are an additional two or three Sunshine State Conference schools considering adding the sport, O'Grady said.

Another factor in the sport's popularity is schools trying to comply with Title IX and more scholarship opportunities for high school girls.

"A lot of kids want to travel south to play," McCord said.

Added O'Leary: "It's always been a Mid-Atlantic-, New England-type sport. Whether it's because of the transplants down from the north or for other reasons, now that it's here it will be staying here."

Reporter Brett McMurphy can be reached at (813) 259-7928 or bmcmurphy@tampatrib.com

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