In the last 20 or so years, you could be guaranteed to find the absolute best girls’ high school lacrosse on a corridor in west suburban Baltimore, as teams like Ellicott City Mount Hebron (Md.), Owings Mills McDonogh (Md.), and Brooklandville St. Paul’s (Md.) have dominated their leagues and sent numerous players to championship-level teams.
But yesterday afternoon, Washington Georgetown Visitation (D.C.) edged out McDonogh 12-11 in overtime. The reverse fixture last year saw McDonogh winning the game by 16-4.
It’s only one data point. But it’s a different lacrosse landscape now as opposed to before the pandemic. There are hundreds more schools playing the sport, and tremendous growth in non-traditional areas which have now become fertile recruiting grounds, such as Florida, Washington, and Arizona.
But what I also think is that there is a new generation of club player, with skills and physicality which were unheard of ten years ago. A lot of these athletes are playing lacrosse exclusively and are training themselves with sport-specific exercise programs to accentuate wrist strength for the draw and explosive first steps for the 8-meter free position.
One such player can transform a team; some teams have several of them. And some are concentrating themselves in smaller schools such as Visitation, Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.), and Charlottesville St. Anne’s Belfield (Va.).
I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more from these schools very soon.
