Lacrosse: CV Has No League Of Its Own

Taking up lacrosse requires a stick, a ball and a wall. Oh, and a team. And for Castro Valley kids, therein lies the rub.

Lacrosse clubs and high school teams have popped up around the East Bay for the past decade. Yet Castro Valley and its surrounds are still devoid of the nation’s oldest and fastest-growing sport.

 Castro Valley kids -- and their parents -- must travel to Pleasanton, Danville, Alameda or west across the bay to find a team.  

Even that eventually proves problematic, as those far-flung leagues typically stop at the eighth-grade level when players transition to their high school teams.

Lacrosse is not offered at Castro Valley High School, however, so CV kids are again in the lurch.

But thanks to one local, lacrosse-loving dad, the playing field has widened for high school boys who want to play what’s dubbed “the fastest game on two feet.”

Team Lightning, for boys in grades nine, 10 and 11, is a new junior-varsity level team added to the existing Pleasanton Lacrosse Club.

With 24 players, including five from Castro Valley, Lightning just finished its first season headed by coach, founder and Castro Valley resident Dave Adams.

And while it was not the “winningest” of seasons, Adams said that was OK and expected as Lightning was a novice team going up against more experienced contenders.

“They all loved it,” he said of his players, who hailed from not only Castro Valley but Pleasanton, San Ramon, Danville and Orinda.

“The team is for kids who, for whatever reason, can’t or don’t play with a high school,” Adams said, including his son, Michael, who played club lacrosse in Pleasanton as a seventh and eighth grader.

Entering CVHS as freshmen, Michael and his lacrosse-playing pals were out of playing options, until Adams stepped up.

“I knew he’d do something about it,” said CVHS freshman Patrick Lavin, 15, a Lightning defender. "He’s a can-do kind of guy.”

Lavin plays football for his high school, but is thrilled he can continue with lacrosse, as well.

“It’s an amazing sport,” said Lavin, whose father, Shawn, also from Castro Valley, is Lightning's assistant coach.

PLC board member Rory Manley, a founding father of Pleasanton lacrosse and a high school coach, said tapping Adams to launch the new PLC team was a no-brainer.

“David has the insight, the passion, and the wisdom,” plus years of experience, said Manley.

Adams grew up playing in his home state of Maryland and for his alma mater Stanford University.

 Adams coached his son’s and daughter’s Castro Valley Soccer Club teams until three years ago, when he discovered, by happenstance, that his favorite sport was flourishing one town away.

“One weekend, I headed over the hill, probably to get something at Home Depot or get a shake at In-and-Out Burger or something, and I stumbled upon a Pleasanton lacrosse league registration sign,” Adams said.

Adams debated whether to invest in a sport for his son that meant purchasing equipment, trekking to distant practices and games, and then facing zero playing options for his son past eighth grade.

Nevertheless, Adams jumped in, bought lacrosse sticks for his son and a friend, and coached their Pleasanton league teams for two years while the boys were in seventh and eighth grades.

Lacrosse ranks as the nation’s fastest-growing sport, with high school participants more than doubling in a decade, from 74,000 in 2000 to 160,000 in 2010, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Going back two decades, that growth is more than 500 percent, according to the NFHS.

While it sometimes seems “new” to Californians, lacrosse is actually the national summer sport of Canada, practically an East Coast tradition, and has roots dating back to Native Americans, who played with sticks made of leather and a rock for a ball.

In California, the sport has shown serious growth, with high school participation tripling since 2002 when 4,000 boys and girls played on school teams, to more than 12,000 statewide in 2010, NFHS data shows.

But while lacrosse may be exploding elsewhere, it is not in this area.

A wide swath, where no lacrosse exists, runs from San Leandro south to Union City, including Hayward, San Lorenzo and Castro Valley, according to the National California Junior Lacrosse Association, the regional umbrella group.  An NCJLA map of leagues and teams shows the void.

Even south of Castro Valley in Fremont, a new league sprang up last year.

The Fremont Spartans Lacrosse Club is tapping youth from Fremont, Newark and Union City. Organizers hope to have a high school-level club team in place next year, and are offering summer clinics with the city’s parks and recreation department for boys and girls ages 5 through 18 years old.

Numerous East Bay high schools offer men’s and women’s lacrosse as spring sports. 

Adams said he would be keen on setting up or coaching a CVHS team, but given public education’s slashed budget, the likelihood of that is slim.

 “We would love to add water polo and lacrosse, but I do not see it happening next school year,” said CVHS athletic director Andy Popper. "I do not foresee the addition of any sports while we may be forced to make cuts next fall.”

High school administrators this year, in fact, had to cut funding to sports programs. Athletics at CVHS now rely on booster-club fundraising and student-athlete fees of roughly $200 to $300 per kid per sport.

For now, the nearest lacrosse for CV youth is in Pleasanton.

Girls have playing options there, as well, with the Pleasanton Girls Lacrosse Club, for players up to 14 years old.

The game is basically the same for both sexes: Players try to score using lacrosse sticks to shoot a ball into a goal.

But the rules and equipment for boys’ and girls’ play differs.

Girls wear protective eye goggles, gloves and their games have no body contact.

Boys wear helmets, gloves, elbow and shoulder pads, and physical play is allowed.

Prowess required is similar to what is needed in basketball, hockey and soccer, but  speed and stamina are more valued than player size.

It’s a relatively easy game to pick up and learn, but can be tough to master, Adams said.

“Year one is always a bit ugly to watch,” he said.  “But by year two, the game develops ‘flow.’”

Adams teaches new recruits what he calls a skill-set, six-pack:

 (1) catch;

(2) throw;

(3) throw right-handed;

(4) throw left-handed;

(5) throw standing still;

and (6) throw on the run.

“Once you get that,” Adams explained, “which can be mastered with a stick, ball, a wall and ideally a friend or two, you are set.”

Registration for summer league play is underway at the PLC web site at www.pleasantonlacrosse.com