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Advocates of high school lacrosse might not have to wait much longer for sanctioning

Sport first took bloom in S.C. on Hilton Head Island

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COLUMBIA -- During winter of the 1999-2000 school year, a new student from Long Island, N.Y., shuffled into principal Bill Harner's office at Hilton Head Island High School and started a trend.

He asked who coached the lacrosse team.

"I suspect he already knew the answer," Harner said. There was no lacrosse team. Not at Hilton Head or any other high school in the state.

With more than two dozen signatures, the student, whose name Harner could not recall, persuaded Harner the Seahawks could field boys and girls teams. Harner enlisted the help of South Carolina's chapter of U.S. Lacrosse, and in the spring the Seahawks fielded the state's first high school lacrosse teams.

Eight years later, the sport has reached its tipping point.

More than 30 high school teams compete under the S.C. Lacrosse League, a division of U.S. Lacrosse. With 18 boys teams and 17 girls teams among S.C. High School League member schools, a league-sponsored state championship is under consideration. Commissioner Jerome Singleton will address the executive committee regarding the issue in August.

"It's like a volcano that's getting ready to erupt," said Hal Ness, one of the founding members of the SCLL.

He believes lacrosse could become one of the most popular sports in the state

Football coaches respect the sport Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown credited with perfecting his spin move. Fall and winter athletes love the sport because it keeps them in shape during the spring. And kids who never have played sports quickly can develop an affinity for lacrosse, Ness said.

"The sport is so contagious that when a kid picks up a stick, he's hooked within a few days," said the 81-year-old, who was introduced to the sport in 1934 when he watched a contest in Maryland.

Hilton Head High won several boys and girls championships in the early years, with the Seahawks winning the SCLL's first titles in 2002 and 2003. The Seahawk boys won a third consecutive title and also advanced to the championship game in 2005 before falling to a Greenville squad Harner also helped start. During that time, Hilton Head High produced much individual talent -- Mark Hodsdon was believed to be the first high school all-American from South Carolina and the first state boy to sign a college lacrosse scholarship, with Wingate College in North Carolina.

The game's spread has been evident locally in other ways. Lacrosse has been a popular sport at Bluffton High School after the split of Hilton Head High. The Bobcat girls made the SCLL finals in their first year of existence -- 2005, when Bluffton also hosted the state tournament -- and returned to the title game in 2008. Hilton Head Island's Rich Thomas was named league commissioner in 2006, and Danielle Tosky, Clay Westbrook, Anna Pepper Vaux and Billy Schilling are among the other local players to follow Hodsdon to the college ranks.

Statewide, other schools also have proved receptive to lacrosse.

Nikhil Mathur was hooked shortly after Ridge View started its boys program in 2004.

"My first reaction to it was just 'Wow!'" said Mathur, who will be a senior in the fall.

Ridge View teammates Mark and Mike Dabeck took up lacrosse last season after moving from Alaska and switching sports.

"It's like every sport put together: A lot of hitting, a lot of running, a lot of fun," said Mark Dabeck, who chose lacrosse over baseball and will be a freshman. With no hockey team at the school, older brother Mark elected to play lacrosse and has found the rush he craves.

American Indians played a game called "baggataway"-- meaning "little brother of war" --on fields that spanned miles, with male and female players numbering in the hundreds, according to U.S. Lacrosse's history. Those games often lasted two or three days.

A Jesuit missionary dubbed the sport lacrosse because of the stick's resemblance to the French bishops' staffs. Canadians formalized the rules of the game and molded it into the modern version that is spreading like kudzu through the Palmetto State.

The sport remains most popular in the Northeast. Transplants from that region have helped lacrosse take root in South Carolina.

Harner was captivated by the sport while studying at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Lacrosse is not as foreign to the South as liver pudding is to a Yankee.

Furman and The Citadel fielded club teams in the 1970s, and Clemson won the Southeastern Lacrosse Conference's inaugural championship in 1988.

Limestone formed an NCAA Division II men's team in the 1990s and since has played in five national championship games, winning two, before moving to Division I. USC is aiming to make the transition from the club level to NCAA Division I with its women's program in 2010.

"One of the reasons USC is moving to Division I with its women's lacrosse program ... is because we've got girls playing lacrosse in high school here now," Ness said.

There are several other steps to expanding lacrosse's popularity and availability, but the breakthrough will come when the High School League begins sponsoring state lacrosse championships, Ness said, and programs that have been waiting for that move to be made can jump on board.

Harner, who helped raise $70,000 to start the Greenville-area lacrosse programs, said fundraising should not be difficult.

"People want to invest; they want to do right by kids. And with lacrosse, it's a small investment, but the dividends are tremendous," he said.

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