Eight years ago, two-dozen kids gathered inside an empty ice rink in Whitefish and grabbed an unfamiliar object: a lacrosse stick.
While popular in the Northeast and on the West Coast, lacrosse is still relatively foreign to kids in Montana, or at least it was when Matt Lawrence and a few friends helped organize the Flathead Lacrosse Club. However, since those early pick-up games in Whitefish, the club has grown by leaps and bounds and today has a roster of more than 240 kids from elementary, middle and high schools across the valley.
And this weekend, the club’s varsity high school team is heading to Bozeman for the state championship tournament. The boy’s team is going into the tournament with a 7-3 record that places it among the best in the western conference.
Lacrosse’s roots date back centuries to stick games played by indigenous tribes in the Great Lakes region. The game is played much like field hockey except each stick is outfitted with a net so that the ball can be thrown and caught.
Lawrence, the president of the Flathead club, grew up in New England and played lacrosse in middle and high school. He helped establish the Flathead club in the late 2000s as a way for kids to enjoy a springtime alternative to track or baseball. While growth was slow at first, it has become more popular among local kids, and varsity coach Matt Rizzolo said it has a lot to do with the game itself.
“It’s really growing like wildfire. The kids go out there, love the game and then they bring their friends,” he said, adding it’s becoming popular in the rest of Montana as well. “Four years ago there were only a few high school level teams, now there are more than a dozen, including two from out-of-state who play in our division … There’s a dedicated group of people at each club who want to see the game grow here.”
Currently, there are 10 different teams under the umbrella of the Flathead Lacrosse Club, including youth and high school girls’ teams, six youth boys’ teams and junior varsity and varsity high school boys’ teams.
Rizzolo said that the high school boys’ teams are only getting better as more players rise through the ranks of the youth program. In fact, this year a veteran of the Flathead Lacrosse Club became the first athlete from the valley to play the game at the collegiate level. David Rizzolo, who is also Matt Rizzolo’s cousin, first played the game his freshman year of high school and this spring was playing for Montana State University Men’s Lacrosse Club.
The club had a 6-6 record for the 2015 season and a 3-1 record in their division. MSU fell to Fort Lewis, 9-8, in a double overtime game in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference Division 1 playoffs on May 1.
Despite the sour end to the season, David Rizzolo said the team is only getting better as more Montanans pick up the sport.
“I had always watched lacrosse on television when I was a kid and it looked like a lot of fun so when I had a chance to try it out in high school I did,” he said. “I was hooked on the first day.”
Lawrence coached David Rizzolo when he was in high school and said the fact that a kid from the Flathead Valley is now playing at the college level shows how the club is growing.
The Flathead Lacrosse Club will be arriving in Rizzolo’s adopted hometown this weekend when it travels to Bozeman for the state championship tournament, put on by the Montana Lacrosse Association.
Varsity coach Charlie Deese, who played the game in high school and college, said he is confident that his team will put up a solid performance in the tournament, especially after shaking its early-season cobwebs.
“Our offense really understands the game better this year and they’re making things happen on the field,” he said. “If we come together as a team these are winnable games.”
While the club’s players come from schools across the valley, the teams are not sponsored and have to raise money to pay for equipment. On May 14, Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Kalispell is having a lacrosse club fundraiser and 15 percent of all sales between 5 and 7 p.m. will go to the club.
For more information on the Flathead Lacrosse Club, visit www.flatheadlacrosse.com.