The community of Kanawha Valley high school lacrosse players is growing stronger every year.
Still, it's a sport in its infancy in West Virginia. In St. Albans' 15-6 win over Capital Wednesday, the first-half time was kept with the scorekeepers' cell phones and wristwatches, and the score was projected on two white dry-erase boards at midfield.
A crowd of only about 40 was on hand at the soccer field in Shawnee Park in Institute. To beat the heat, one of the co-head coaches for St. Albans, Joshua Pickney, coached barefoot.
Lacrosse is unsanctioned by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, but the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association organizes 12 state high school teams and one associate member. As a club sport, the teams receive no funding from the schools.
"It can be difficult, lacrosse is an expensive sport," St. Albans co-coach Jack Lyon said. "But it's all worthwhile."
"My friends told me how fun it was, and I really got into it," said St. Albans senior Seth Lilly, who scored three goals against Capital Wednesday.
"We're sort of like the Bruce Springsteen of lacrosse teams," Lyon said. "We're a workingman's team, we've got more toughness than anything."
"It's hard to beat a team that's stronger and faster than you are," Capital coach Phil Wright said.
Many of the local teams have a connection with Wright. In 2006, St. Albans was the first Kanawha Valley school to field a lacrosse team, and Wright got involved. He then helped George Washington begin its program in 2008, and this season he started Capital's team, where he coaches his son Joe, a freshman.
Wright got into lacrosse as a freshman in high school in Massachusetts.
"I started playing in high school gym class," he said. "My teacher had played at UMass, and really got a bunch of us into it. I went to the Naval Academy and played there, and we ended up here. I got my son into the game, started taking him to them and watching them together. He started getting into it."
In 2005, Wright helped begin a middle-school program for lacrosse at the Charleston YMCA.
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Lacrosse: a sport gaining steam
SA, Capital, GW among 12 state schools playing lacrosse
The community of Kanawha Valley high school lacrosse players is growing stronger every year.
Still, it's a sport in its infancy in West Virginia. In St. Albans' 15-6 win over Capital Wednesday, the first-half time was kept with the scorekeepers' cell phones and wristwatches, and the score was projected on two white dry-erase boards at midfield.
A crowd of only about 40 was on hand at the soccer field in Shawnee Park in Institute. To beat the heat, one of the co-head coaches for St. Albans, Joshua Pickney, coached barefoot.
Lacrosse is unsanctioned by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, but the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association organizes 12 state high school teams and one associate member. As a club sport, the teams receive no funding from the schools.
"It can be difficult, lacrosse is an expensive sport," St. Albans co-coach Jack Lyon said. "But it's all worthwhile."
"My friends told me how fun it was, and I really got into it," said St. Albans senior Seth Lilly, who scored three goals against Capital Wednesday.
"We're sort of like the Bruce Springsteen of lacrosse teams," Lyon said. "We're a workingman's team, we've got more toughness than anything."
"It's hard to beat a team that's stronger and faster than you are," Capital coach Phil Wright said.
Many of the local teams have a connection with Wright. In 2006, St. Albans was the first Kanawha Valley school to field a lacrosse team, and Wright got involved. He then helped George Washington begin its program in 2008, and this season he started Capital's team, where he coaches his son Joe, a freshman.
Wright got into lacrosse as a freshman in high school in Massachusetts.
"I started playing in high school gym class," he said. "My teacher had played at UMass, and really got a bunch of us into it. I went to the Naval Academy and played there, and we ended up here. I got my son into the game, started taking him to them and watching them together. He started getting into it."
In 2005, Wright helped begin a middle-school program for lacrosse at the Charleston YMCA.
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The community of Kanawha Valley high school lacrosse players is growing stronger every year.
Still, it's a sport in its infancy in West Virginia. In St. Albans' 15-6 win over Capital Wednesday, the first-half time was kept with the scorekeepers' cell phones and wristwatches, and the score was projected on two white dry-erase boards at midfield.
A crowd of only about 40 was on hand at the soccer field in Shawnee Park in Institute. To beat the heat, one of the co-head coaches for St. Albans, Joshua Pickney, coached barefoot.
Lacrosse is unsanctioned by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, but the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association organizes 12 state high school teams and one associate member. As a club sport, the teams receive no funding from the schools.
"It can be difficult, lacrosse is an expensive sport," St. Albans co-coach Jack Lyon said. "But it's all worthwhile."
"My friends told me how fun it was, and I really got into it," said St. Albans senior Seth Lilly, who scored three goals against Capital Wednesday.
"We're sort of like the Bruce Springsteen of lacrosse teams," Lyon said. "We're a workingman's team, we've got more toughness than anything."
"It's hard to beat a team that's stronger and faster than you are," Capital coach Phil Wright said.
Many of the local teams have a connection with Wright. In 2006, St. Albans was the first Kanawha Valley school to field a lacrosse team, and Wright got involved. He then helped George Washington begin its program in 2008, and this season he started Capital's team, where he coaches his son Joe, a freshman.
Wright got into lacrosse as a freshman in high school in Massachusetts.
"I started playing in high school gym class," he said. "My teacher had played at UMass, and really got a bunch of us into it. I went to the Naval Academy and played there, and we ended up here. I got my son into the game, started taking him to them and watching them together. He started getting into it."
In 2005, Wright helped begin a middle-school program for lacrosse at the Charleston YMCA.
"We applied and got a grant from U.S. Lacrosse to start running a program at the Y," he said. "A lot of kids in our program were from JA [John Adams Middle School] and wanted to keep playing through high school, so we started looking into starting a team at GW."
Wright and George Washington coach Steve Odekirk helped start things in 2008.
Odekirk credits his son, Connor, with getting him into the game.
"It's all through him," Odekirk said. "I knew nothing about it until he started playing. They needed someone to coach, though, and I guess I kind of volunteered - or was volunteered."
This season, more than 50 kids came out for lacrosse at George Washington. On April 3, in their second game of the season, the Patriots upset defending WVSLA champion Fairmont Senior 8-5 in Fairmont.
"The boys played very well in that game," Odekirk said. "They executed, they were physical, everything we asked of them, they did."
Since the WVSLA began in 1999, Morgantown and University have dominated. One of the two schools has won the title in boys and girls lacrosse in every season except three. Fairmont Senior has two girls titles and one boys title.
"We'd love to see the southern and central part of the state keep growing," Odekirk said. "Get these kids into it, and get the teams better and start challenging those guys."
"In the beginning, we had to get referees to come down from Pittsburgh and Ohio. We're really dedicated to growing the sport and let the state know what it's all about."
This article is available only to our premium digital content subscribers.
Lacrosse: a sport gaining steam
SA, Capital, GW among 12 state schools playing lacrosse
The community of Kanawha Valley high school lacrosse players is growing stronger every year.
Still, it's a sport in its infancy in West Virginia. In St. Albans' 15-6 win over Capital Wednesday, the first-half time was kept with the scorekeepers' cell phones and wristwatches, and the score was projected on two white dry-erase boards at midfield.
A crowd of only about 40 was on hand at the soccer field in Shawnee Park in Institute. To beat the heat, one of the co-head coaches for St. Albans, Joshua Pickney, coached barefoot.
Lacrosse is unsanctioned by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, but the West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association organizes 12 state high school teams and one associate member. As a club sport, the teams receive no funding from the schools.
"It can be difficult, lacrosse is an expensive sport," St. Albans co-coach Jack Lyon said. "But it's all worthwhile."
"My friends told me how fun it was, and I really got into it," said St. Albans senior Seth Lilly, who scored three goals against Capital Wednesday.
"We're sort of like the Bruce Springsteen of lacrosse teams," Lyon said. "We're a workingman's team, we've got more toughness than anything."
"It's hard to beat a team that's stronger and faster than you are," Capital coach Phil Wright said.
Many of the local teams have a connection with Wright. In 2006, St. Albans was the first Kanawha Valley school to field a lacrosse team, and Wright got involved. He then helped George Washington begin its program in 2008, and this season he started Capital's team, where he coaches his son Joe, a freshman.
Wright got into lacrosse as a freshman in high school in Massachusetts.
"I started playing in high school gym class," he said. "My teacher had played at UMass, and really got a bunch of us into it. I went to the Naval Academy and played there, and we ended up here. I got my son into the game, started taking him to them and watching them together. He started getting into it."
In 2005, Wright helped begin a middle-school program for lacrosse at the Charleston YMCA.
