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PHOTO BY ROCKY ROSS

HOLDING. The Stadium lacrosse team is in its second year of existence as a club sport. The team split off from what used to be the Tacoma Dragons to form its own squad in order to help foster growth of lacrosse in Tacoma.

Lacrosse grows at Stadium High School

By Ben Miller

Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, and it doesn’t take a lot of effort to figure out why. Just watch a game and you’ll see. It is a sport that features hard-hitting action and sneaker-burning speed while combining elements of other popular sports into one neat and exciting package.

While it started as mostly an east coast game, lacrosse has made its way over to the west and it continues to grow at a fast rate. You need to look no further than Stadium High School to see an example of that.

In its second season of existence, Stadium has a full-fledged club lacrosse team. Supported by parents and a nonprofit organization called the Tacoma Youth Lacrosse Association (TYLA), it is the second such team in the city of Tacoma.

Originally, there was just one team in the city, named the Tacoma Dragons. It was made up of players from high schools all around the area, but most of the players were students from Bellarmine and Stadium. As the team grew, TYLA decided to split it up into two different squads, to foster even more growth.

So last year, the Stadium team was born, while the Dragons affiliated themselves with Bellarmine and changed the name to the Lions. However, most of the players who went to the newly formed Stadium team were from the junior varsity squad of the Dragons.

“(Last year) it was kind of like playing on a middle school team,” said senior captain Isaiah Stanley. “It was playing with kids who didn’t know too much about the sport, and some of the kids didn’t care, they just wanted to play.”

It was quite a change from playing on the Dragons, Stanley said, because that original team was very competitive in the league. In its final season before the split, the Dragons made it to the finals of the state tournament. Then last year, the newly formed Lions actually went on to win State.

Stanley said it was disappointing to change teams at a point when the original team was on the brink of so much success. “We were key players on the varsity team and we had to go to a team that wasn’t as good,” he said. “There was nothing we could do.”

But Stanley said he and his veteran teammates embraced the new team and tried to make the most out of the situation.

“A lot of the upper classmen were a little upset that they got split in this point of their career,” coach T.J. Serrianne said. “But the bitterness that they had went away really quick when they realized they were on this team now.”

As lacrosse is still growing in this part of the state, the Tigers are not made up of just players who attend Stadium. Students from the School of the Arts, Steilacoom High School and even as far away as Olympia are members of the squad because such a team is not available to them at their home school.

“We’ve talked about doing an exhibition game down south in Olympia to get more exposure,” Serrianne said. “I think the word is getting out there.”

One of the most important things that the team is trying to do is foster a good relationship with the school. Right now, the team plays at the Professional Development Center at what is the old Truman Middle School, but last year they got to play three games in the Stadium Bowl.

“They’re pretty supportive,” said junior Alex Lineweaver. “I know we got a little bit of money from them for goals and uniforms.”

Serrianne said that at the team’s first game Mar. 14, against the Tacoma Lions, Stadium principal Jon Kellett came to support the team.

“I think they’re trying to work with us more when they can,” Serrianne said about the school. “I think in years to come, they will be giving us more and more support in our sport.”

So far this season, the Tigers have played two games, with a win and a loss on their record. And after finishing 6-8 last season, the coach and players are positive about this season and future of the team.

“We seem like we have a pretty strong team this year,” Lineweaver said. “We have a lot of new players, but with time and a little bit of hard work I think we’ll do pretty well this season.”

And if the team can find success and the sport can continue to grow, Stadium may be just one of many schools in the city of Tacoma to field a lacrosse team.

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