Lacrosse

TREND A boom in the centuries-old game, stretching far beyond its Native American roots in the Northeast U.S. and lower Canada

WHY NOW Kids who are burnt out by slow-moving games like soccer and baseball love the high energy and scoring

JUDGMENT CALL If viewers tune into the broadcast of the first-ever pro league this summer, the sport should attract even more young athletes

Little girls used to dress up like soccer star Mia Hamm. But they have a new athlete role model. She’s Jen Adams, star of the University of Maryland’s women’s lacrosse team, which is favored to win its seventh straight NCAA championship on May 20. Adams is spearheading the fast-rising popularity of lacrosse, especially among girls and young women. Since 1995, more than 40 new varsity women’s programs have been established at U.S. colleges and universities. The sport is growing in high schools as well: more than two-thirds of the nation’s several hundred thousand lacrosse players are under age 17. “I’ve been playing soccer since I was six, and I needed a change,” says Kara Takesuye, a junior at the Bullis High School in Potomac, Md.

Reputedly America’s oldest athletic game, “lax” is played by a team of 10 players, each using a long stick with a webbed pouch to maneuver a ball into the opponents’ goal. Male players wear helmets and pads, and they are allowed hard body checks, but in the women’s game, players are not allowed to strike one another. The sport will get a boost on June 7, when the Fox Sports Net begins televising the inaugural season of Major League Lacrosse. It’s made up of six teams in the Northeast, which will play games through August. It’s men only–for now.

–By Sally B. Donnelly