Hartland Lacrosse Hosts Free Clinic and Alumni Game

By Aaron Skomial

The women’s high school lacrosse team had a great season this past year. They finished second in the state and had a 20 win season. The majority of these girls all started playing together in the seventh and eighth grade. 

What does this mean? 

It means that starting the girls in this sport early was critical in their success this season. We would like to continue that success every year and continue to grow the women’s program. 

The Hartland women’s lacrosse team will be holding a FREE clinic for K-8 players at Old Hartland High School on July 31. The clinic will run from 6:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. 

If you are interested in attending the clinic please e-mail Aaron Skomial  hartgmslax@yahoo.com.  

Current players and Alumni players will be assisting at the clinic.  Instruction will be provided by Deanna Radcliffe. Coach Radcliffe played at Temple University and currently coaches South Lyon and has a summer travel team, the Michigan Cyclones.  Hartland has a lot girls playing for Coach Radcliffe in the summer. They travel to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, and various tournaments in Michigan.

The clinic will introduce new players to the sport of lacrosse and some of the skills needed to compete in this great sport.  They will be introduced to equipment and information concerning the elementary and middle school program.  Hartland currently has girl’s teams that consist of third and fourth grade, fifth and sixth grade, and a seventh and eighth grade team. 

Volunteer coaches have made this a fun sport to play and the player’s continue to get better. New players may use sticks from high school and alumni players that will assist on the day. After the clinic, the current high school players will be playing against Hartland Alumni players from 8:30 p.m. -9:30 p.m. to show new players how the game is played. 

What kind of opportunities will lacrosse provide at the collegiate level?  The high school program will be followed more closely moving forward due to the success the girls had this past season. We currently have girls that have been recruited and playing on scholarship in college. Grand Valley State University, Adrian, Sienna Heights, Albion, Oklahoma Baptist, Central Michigan, Aquinas, and Eastern Michigan have had girls playing from Hartland.  Some of them are club teams, but it speaks well of the game that players would like to continue playing beyond high school.

Since 2006, high schools sponsoring women’s lacrosse has grown by 48.2 percent.  1,349 schools had women’s lacrosse in 2006. In a five year span, the sport grew to 1,999 high schools sponsoring the sport.  The collegiate sport has grown rapidly as well.  In 2006, there were 271 universities supporting a women’s team.  The sport grew by 31 percent in a five year span, and in 2011, there were 357 collegiate teams. That growth has provided scholarship opportunities for women and new programs continue to be introduced every year.

The sport continues to grow on the international level as well. There are currently 67 nations that are active, associate or emerging nations as part of the Federation of International Lacrosse. With this kind of growth around the globe, the Olympics will be an option in the near future. The world championships will be held next year in Oshawa, Canada on July 11-20.  

As you can see, lacrosse is growing and the opportunities are there to be had.  If you have a daughter that is interested in playing, please come and see what lacrosse is all about. If she has a friend that would like to play, bring her too. 

Lacrosse is a wonderful sport. It’s fast paced and it has elements of basketball, soccer, and hockey all rolled into one sport.