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Georgia High School Lacrosse History
While
still a relatively new sport to most in Georgia, traces of high school lacrosse can be found as far back as the early 1970's when several area schools organized club teams to begin interscholastic play. No school
adopted lacrosse formally until October 15, 1990, when the Darlington School in Rome, GA, announced its decision to start their program. In the spring of 1991, Darlington played their first game against Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) of Nashville. Because there were no other teams in Georgia for the Tigers to play in the early 1990's, their early competition came primarily from Tennessee - MBA,
McCallie, and Baylor.
It was not until 1991 that Darlington notched its first victory en route to its first winning season. Darlington beat McCallie that year and swept the series with Baylor. The team also competed in a tournament in Nashville and picked up an upset win over Parkway Central of St. Louis, MO, a well-established program. In 1993, Brandon Hall, a small private school in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, added a program which provided Darlington with some in-state competition. Darlington completed the 1993 season with a 10-3 record and a win over Brandon Hall gave the Tigers the claim to the first unofficial boys "state championship". Darlington did continue to play Baylor,
McCallie, and MBA as well as an Atlanta club team coached by Doug Horn. Horn played an instrumental role in helping establish lacrosse in Georgia as a referee and later as a coach. The team at Brandon Hall disbanded after the 1994 season, but remnants of their program lived on as Westminster purchased much of their used equipment in 1996 to help get their program off the ground.
Around the first half of the decade, a group of lacrosse enthusiasts in Atlanta began promoting the sport through the local chapter of US Lacrosse. Mike
Butkus, Geoff Berlin, Eric Rudolph, J. D. Humphries, Mike Flanagan and others fostered the growth of the sport at the youth as well as the club level. Meetings were held in the basement of Butkus's house and ideas began to spread about how to get lacrosse in the local Atlanta schools. Flanagan and Butkus were instrumental in the growth of a youth program at Murphy-Candler Park that would later send players on to play in area high school programs. Rudolph still works the high school scene as an official for both boys and girls games. Humphries
would later become the president of the Georgia Lacrosse Foundation
(GALF), the formal name of the local US Lacrosse chapter.
In 1995, the Westminster School began playing boys lacrosse, albeit with an abbreviated schedule. Led by Damian
Kavanagh, who was a regular attendee at the Butkus basement meetings, the Wildcats held their first and only game of that year against an Atlanta Youth club team. By 1996, lacrosse was finally catching on in Atlanta. Westminster, Woodward Academy, and Lovett sponsored boys teams that year. Kavanagh was the
high school league president in charge of scheduling, team rules and regulations, and post-season tournaments. Even though he no longer coaches the sport, Kavanagh stays active in the game today as an official for boys lacrosse.
In 1999, Centennial and Roswell were the first public schools in Georgia to field boys lacrosse teams. At Centennial, Che Barbour, who played lacrosse at Princeton, and some parents from the school approached the principal about getting a program started at the
North Fulton school. At first, the school sponsored lacrosse as a "club sport". Coach Barbour was able to get a commitment from a feeder middle school, Holcomb Bridge Middle School, to use their field for practice and games. There were no fields available at Centennial for lacrosse at that time. Like at many of the other schools, funding for
lacrosse at Centennial was not easy, but with the help of many active parents and support from various fundraisers, the sport was able to take roots.
Also in
that same year, boys lacrosse clubs began forming at Pope High School and Chattahoochee. Pope's first coach was Dan O'Neil. Chattahoochee was coached by Joe
Losurdo. Chattahoochee's first season was played on a pasture off of Rodgers Circle Road in Alpharetta.
Another milestone for Georgia Lacrosse was reached in 1999 when the first high school lacrosse game was televised locally in Atlanta. The Westminster boys played Lovett on Media One/ TV 33. Lacrosse was televised again in 2000 and 2001. The 2001 game featured Lovett versus Pace Academy in the boys league finals.
Girls lacrosse officially began in 1999 when six schools started school-sponsored programs and formed the Georgia Girls Lacrosse League (GGLL). A few schools experimented with intramural or club programs the year before, but in 1999, Centennial, Lovett, Roswell, Westminster and Woodward started the season with full varsity teams. Chattahoochee started later in the spring of that same year and played two games that April. The first scholastic girls game in Georgia was played on March 20, 1999 between Westminster and Centennial. Westminster won the game 3-2. The coaches for that game, Jay Watts from Westminster and Veronica Hewgley from Centennial, are still active in lacrosse today. Watts still coaches at the Westminster Schools and is the state lacrosse coordinator with the state high school association. Hewgley is involved with the local US Lacrosse chapter and serves as a local high school umpire.
Girls lacrosse in Georgia could not have gotten off the ground when it did without the help of many members of the Atlanta Women's Lacrosse Club (AWLC). Members of the AWLC served as coaches and officials. Many of those that were involved then are still supporting the league today. Julie Noyes LaFramboise, a standout player at Swarthmore during her college career, helped start the program at Roswell High School. She coached there for one year before moving to North Springs to start their program. Hewgley, who was instrumental in starting the program at Centennial, was also an AWLC member. Many of the girls' coaches as officials as well, working long hours during the week and weekends. Rena Whitehouse served as the head the girls officials association and was instrumental in supporting the growth and development of the sport. Both LaFramboise and Whitehouse were both inducted into the Georgia Lacrosse Hall of Fame in January of 2005.
Since its inception, girls lacrosse has grown rapidly in the state and become extremely competitive within the Southeast. Going into the 2012 season, girls team from Georgia had a 181-93-8 record against teams from outside the state. This includes games against teams from Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Both Milton and Westminster have been mentioned in several national high school rankings in the past decade.
In 2002, the Georgia High School Association (GHSA), recognizing the growth and organization of the high school leagues, officially sanctioned lacrosse for both boys and girls. Even though the GHSA did not yet designate lacrosse as a "championship" sport, teams competed in an end of season tournament for a tournament championship. The GHSA named Jay Watts as the coordinator for both boys and girls lacrosse. The host of the first high school championship tournament was Roswell High School in May of 2002. Chattahoochee hosted the event in 2003 while Lassiter High School served at the host in 2004.
In 2005, the GHSA recognized lacrosse as a full fledged championship sport. By the spring of 2008, there will be approximately 50 high schools participating in the GHSA lacrosse league with an additional 8 to 10 participating at the club level. Club teams made up of local high school players compete around the US in tournaments in Vail, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. Georgia is also a strong part of the Southeast team at the annual US Lacrosse National Tournament in May.
Players from Georgia now decorate the rosters of several Division I, II, and III colleges. Many more play at the club level in college. Diana Zakem of Westminster was the first high school player from Georgia to play on a Division I National Championship team when her Princeton Tigers won the NCAA crown in 2003. Lindsay Deighton of North Springs was the first female athlete to receive an athletic scholarship for lacrosse in 2004 when she signed with Marist College. Numerous players from Georgia can be found scattered around the rosters of Division I, II, and III programs like Limestone College (Kristina Miles, Woodstock '04), Robert Morris (Nicole Runfola and Lauren Hartsfield, South Forsyth '04), Mary Washington (Sarah Finney, Centennial '04), Presbyterian (Shannon Strodel, Chattahoochee '04; Alyson Whitley, Harrison '05; Jordan Newberry, North Springs '06), and Washington and Lee (Laura Henson, Westminster '04; Natalie Herndon, Westminster '06). The spring of 2007 was a bumper crop for recruits from Georgia. Chattahoochee's Haley Marvine signed with Cincinnati, Harrison's Caitlin Sullivan signed with James Madison, and Reeves Henritze from Westminster signed with Northwestern. In addition, North Springs' Emily Evans committed to Swarthmore, Lovett goalie Mary Mattia committed to Wellesley, Westminster's Fielding Kidd committed to Yale, and Kell's Ana Trujillo committed to Stevens Institute of Technology.
For more information about lacrosse in Georgia, please visit the web site of the local US Lacrosse chapter - www.lacrossegeorgia.com.
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