Lacrosse in pop culture

                Mean Girls. Teen Wolf. Modern Family. American Pie. What do these shows and movies have in common? Coming of age tales and ridiculously embarrassing parents, sure…but did you notice that lacrosse was played by at least one important character in each of the shows/movies? According to a US Lacrosse survey, lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the United States at the youth, high school, and college levels. Like I mentioned in my first post, even Target is trying to tap into this market with their Champion athletic wear posters:

Unfortunately that is a men’s lacrosse stick and not a women’s stick, but I give them an A for effort. Same goes to this episode of NCIS:

            The male high school lacrosse star character (and murder suspect) is carrying a women’s stick, but this was a valiant effort by the NCIS team to incorporate lacrosse. The show even spent a few minutes explaining the components of a stick in analyzing it as a potential murder weapon (the stick was later cleared). However, seeing as the show is set in Washington D.C. in close proximity to Johns Hopkins University, which is home to a men’s lacrosse team that has won the national championship an impressive 44 times, the prop buyers probably should have done more research.

                Statistics show that NCIS is the most popular TV show in most US demographics, especially with Gen X and Baby Boomer women. So between Target and NCIS, the “soccer mom” or family decision-maker population, my own mother included, has a higher chance of encountering the sport of lacrosse.  Parents may then be more likely to investigate youth lacrosse as an activity for their own children after being exposed to it. As for the teenaged target audiences of Mean Girls, Teen Wolf, and American Pie, they may be encouraged to try lacrosse as well after seeing it on TV every week, or they may even watch a couple lacrosse games at their high school or on TV. 

Teen Wolf is all about the Lax life.

Well, at least teenage girls might.

              But hey, there’s something for everyone, as Victoria’s Secret decided to bedazzle a lacrosse stick and walk it down the runway during their annual fashion show. No, I’m not kidding.

               So as you can see, lacrosse is slowly making its way into all aspects of pop culture. Unfortunately, current depictions in the popular media are skewed toward the aggressive (and some may say “douchebag”; see American Pie and Blue Mountain State for reference) nature of lacrosse. News stories about murder and rape cases involving college lacrosse players certainly don’t improve this image. Modern Family’s depiction of lacrosse is subtle but less focused on the violent element, as Alex Dunphy, the family “nerd”, is the one who plays lacrosse. The family comedy‘s positive depiction of lacrosse as an active extracurricular is much more accurate for youth lacrosse programs. Like in any of the major sports in the United States, there is an element of intense competition to lacrosse, but hopefully as the sport continues to grow, the media will shift toward this more family-friendly image and focus more on the athleticism and strategy of lacrosse. Take that, Steve Stifler!

My friends who have worked in public relations could probably debate the "no publicity is bad publicity" argument all day regarding these negative lacrosse representations, but the important point is that lacrosse is getting more exposure in the media because it is growing so quickly across the United States. In turn, the added exposure generates even more interest. Lacrosse has gone from a funny side note in Mean Girls to a crucial element in the Teen Wolf story line. Better yet? The original Teen Wolf  movie featured Michael J. Fox as a basketball star turned teen wolf. MTV evidently decided that lacrosse was more relevant and made the main character in their revamped version a lacrosse star instead. It's what's hip these days- werewolves and lacrosse.Even Superman is getting in on it; former Clark Kent Brandon Routh recently starred in a movie entirely about a Native American lacrosse team, entitled Crooked Arrows. If Superman approves, then it must be awesome.

Brace yourselves. Lacrosse is spreading.

Illegal contact in women's lacrosse? That is so NOT fetch.

Lax and basketball

Now that you know a little bit more about my interests in lacrosse, I will try my best to explain the basics of the game. Although it is similar to both hockey and soccer and even water polo, I usually explain it in terms of basketball.

I know this seems sort of odd as basketball is neither a stick sport nor a field sport, but I actually believe the basketball comparison makes lacrosse easier to understand. Pretend that instead of a basketball hoop, there is a lacrosse goal on the ground and a goalie standing in front of it. The goal looks sort of like an ice hockey goal, but instead of being rectangular, the back ends meet at a point, creating more of a conical shape.  A lacrosse field has a half-field line and a center circle, just like a basketball court has its own half-court line and center circle, However, the lacrosse circle is much larger. There are then two semi-circles that are drawn around each lacrosse goal- one with an 8 meter radius, and one with a 12 meter radius. Think of the 8-meter as the lacrosse version of a key and think of the 12-meter as the 3 point line. One significant difference is that players can go behind the goal, as long as they do not violate the crease (or “the goalie’s circle” as I liked to call it when I first started lacrosse), like in ice hockey.

Comparisons to basketball can be drawn with the actual play as well. Although the players’ positions are more like those of soccer, such as goalie, defense, midfield, and attack (the lacrosse version of forwards/strikers), the plays are set up much like those of basketball and hockey. Just like two centers would face off for a jump ball in the center circle of a basketball court, two lacrosse centers face off for the ball in the center circle. Men begin play with a face off similar to that of ice hockey and women begin their game with what is called a draw, which involves the two centers using each other’s sticks to toss the ball into the air; a sort of self-serve jump ball if you will. Just like basketball players will typically set up plays with players stationed in the area outside of the key, lacrosse players typically set up outside of the 8-meter. From there, the plays that are run are very similar. Like in basketball, offensive plays in lacrosse usually involve passing back and forth in motion offense, pick and rolls/screens, catch and shoots, and isolations. On the defensive side, players box out in a way that basketball players would, except with a stick. Lacrosse defenses are more typically man-to-man, but players defend plays the same way basketball players would. As you can see, most of the footwork is actually pretty similar.

What about the lacrosse stick; how is the stick related to basketball? Well, as many lacrosse coaches, hockey coaches, and even drummers might say, the stick is an extension of the body. Players catch, throw, and feel the weight of the lacrosse ball using their sticks as an extension of their arms. While young basketball players learn to dribble, young lacrosse players learn to cradle. The concepts behind both are similar. They are both required elements of their respective sports for players to run up and down the playing area with the ball. Dribbling is rhythmic and so is cradling. Speaking from personal experience-running while doing either is not easy, although falling on your face is more likely while dribbling than while cradling.

So basically, if you know what’s going on when you’re watching the Lakers or the Knicks or even the Golden State Warriors, you should be able to understand lacrosse as a spectator. Hopefully, you will be able to put all your new knowledge of lacrosse to use soon. Make sure to casually state that “lacrosse is essentially basketball”, and you will sound like the ultimate sports guru. Next time, I’ll look at the prominence of lacrosse in national media and let you know where you can watch a game!

LAX on LAX on LAX

“Oh so you hit people and it’s like hockey and stuff right?” is usually the response I get when I tell people that I play lacrosse. Most of my friends and family had never seen a lacrosse game when I started playing. Just so we get this out of the way- hockey on a field is field hockey and not lacrosse. More on what lacrosse as a game is like later.

I’m relatively new to the world of lacrosse. I’ve only been playing for about 4 years, first on my high school team, and now on a club travel team. No schools had men’s or women’s lacrosse programs where I grew up in California. I didn’t have any idea what it was; I probably knew more about curling at that point. Eventually, a group of local high schools decided that they were going to start both men’s and women’s lacrosse teams at the same time so that teams in our league could play each other so I decided to join the team my senior year and had absolutely no idea what I was doing half the time. I had been a competitive swimmer since age 6, and had also done track and field, water polo, and volleyball, but no field sports. The programs in that league are now almost 5 years old and expanding so quickly that my high school team had over 50 girls try out for 32 spots. When I tried out, anyone who wanted to be on the team made the team! In fact, I made the varsity team with the instructions: “run fast and chase after whoever has the ball” going into my first few games.

Although I’m still learning as I go, I’ve discovered that the typical perception of lacrosse is that it is a predominantly East Coast/ Midwest Prep School sport. My Californian friends know as much about lacrosse as my New York friends know about water polo (my New York friends after I explained water polo to them: “oh yeah, we don’t do that in New York”). But, in the very short amount of time I’ve played lacrosse, that’s begun to change. More and more West Coast high schools and universities are adding lacrosse programs, such as USC, and schools like Johns Hopkins and Northwestern are gaining national prominence as lacrosse powerhouses. Lacrosse is now the fastest growing sport in the United States and more and more people are at least able to recognize what a lacrosse stick looks like, even if they don’t understand the game.

The amount of media attention lacrosse is now getting is impressive; I even saw a poster for athletic clothing at Target featuring a woman carrying a lacrosse stick. She was holding a men’s stick so the picture was inaccurate, but that’s another blog post entirely. At the very least, Target ads reach tons of households nationwide. Considering the largest Target-shopping contingency is that of families, perhaps this will encourage more parents to enroll their children in a local lacrosse program. 

Lacrosse is a sport that is older than basketball, but it’s only now starting to really spread across the country. Hopefully I can continue to track the growth of lacrosse and how it can increase its prominence, especially on the West Coast. Oh and another fact no one seems to know: lacrosse is the national sport of Canada. Hockey was added later. I’m a huge hockey fan as well- I might even post about it sometime- but I promise I’m not Canadian.