Katrina Mackinnon, 11, was born and raised in California. Bounding with energy, Katrina participates in softball, cheer, track, and basketball—she loves any sport where she can run a lot. She might have said cheer or softball is her favorite sport, but that was before she witnessed a lacrosse game.
“I didn’t really know what the sport was until this year,” Katrina said. “I watched my cousin play in San Clemente.”
Katrina said she thought the game looked fun and unlike anything she had ever seen before. With the infallible persistence of a child, she told her dad that Santa Maria should have its own team.
Katrina’s brother, Jake, also caught lacrosse fever that day, picking up a stick and playing catch with natural ability. He’d quit baseball a few years back because he was bored with that game’s slow pacing.
“We found out that the San Luis YMCA was going to start a new league in spring of 2014,” said John Mackinnon, her dad. “They agreed if we could find players here in Orcutt and Santa Maria, we would be able to have our own team within their new league.”
This last spring, the San Luis YMCA played host to its first lacrosse league with players from Paso Robles all the way down to the Five Cities. Jerome Jones, sports director for San Luis YMCA, said there was a demand in the community from parents with children who played and had moved here.
“I researched for three to four months and talked to parents,” Jones said. “We contacted Mark Lea, the head coach of lacrosse at Cal Poly, and hosted clinics during spring league.”
Jones was able to get the spring league going, rounding up 80 players from ages 8 to 15, all separated into appropriate age divisions. The new leagues have even seen interest on the female side; Jones said there are 20 girls involved. Five of the female athletes play in both boys’ and girls’ lacrosse games.
With such a successful spring season, Jones helped organize a summer league with 85 players and an added team in Santa Maria.
“This is a growing sport,” he said. “Next year I expect 100 players for our spring season.”
An Arroyo Grande native, Jones never played lacrosse but has avidly watched college games for the last 10 years.
“I really enjoy how fast paced the game is, and the physical nature of the game is something kids really enjoy,” he explained.
The director said the focus now is to grab as many kids as possible and continue to promote the sport.
“This has been a big community involvement program; all the coaches are volunteers,” Jones said. “I donate a lot of my time, along with Cal Poly lacrosse players who help out with the kids.”
John said that there are also several Air Force personnel who are donating their time to coach the young players.
The ultimate goal for the youth lacrosse program is to partner with the Santa Maria YMCA and draw more players from South County. Jones said that within the next three to five years, he’d like to have 200 kids involved in the spring and summer leagues. John wants to see the sport recognized at the high school level—and so far, things are moving in the right direction.
According to John, sign ups for baseball and football have declined in recent years, while participation in lacrosse has skyrocketed.
“Lacrosse is the fastest growing youth sport in America,” John said. “In the last few years, participation has grown by 148 percent.”
The sport has seen tremendous growth in recent years on the Central Coast, evidenced by the dozens of local athletes who showed up for a free lacrosse clinic in the spring—many of whom had never heard of or played lacrosse in their lives—not to mention the dozen or so club teams in Santa Barbara that soon hope to foster teams at the high school.
John said the Internet has helped the sport, as a few of the players on his team were aware of the game after exploring it on YouTube and ESPN. Despite its success, however, lacrosse is a newcomer to the Central Coast sports arena, competing with baseball, football, softball, and soccer for players and attention. Jones said part of the battle is educating and promoting the game to build interest.
“The more people see it and understand it, the more they will want to play,” he said.
Lacrosse is one of the oldest sports, with roots in Native American culture. The sport itself is incredibly popular on the East Coast, especially at the high school and collegiate levels, with some of America’s best schools supporting men’s lacrosse programs. It received a major boost with the Big 10 conference, which added men’s lacrosse for the 2014-2015 season.
“You can see why people are excited to play,” Jones said. “Kids like running around and bumping into each other; they like the challenge.”
The sport can best be described as a cross between football and soccer with lots of running. The men’s game is much more physical, while the women’s game is still classified as a non-contact sport. While the physical game is an appeal for boys, John said they’re focusing more on technique.
“We want them to learn how to move players out of the way; the heavier contact is for collegiate play,” John said. “The sport itself is fairly easy to learn; it takes kids about two to three weeks to have the technique down.”
Lucas Vandellen, a sixth grade Orcutt Youth lacrosse player, has only been playing lacrosse for a couple of months. He said it took him “about a week or so” to learn the rules and techniques of the game.
“I like the drills and how the game is played; it’s really unique,” he said. “I like being aggressive, and it’s helped me with soccer.”
Meanwhile, the athletic Katrina has spent time playing for both the boys’ and the girls’ teams. She likes to play with the boys.
“Boys are a lot more active and rough, plus you get to wear shoulder pads,” she said.
Katrina said lacrosse games are very fast; you have to be agile and have good eye-hand coordination. With a big smile, she said she’s definitely going to stick with this sport as long as she can.
John Mackinnon and Jones are both excited for the future of lacrosse on the Central Coast and want to continue promoting the new program.
The boys’ and girls’ teams will have their next matches on July 26 in Arroyo Grande at the SOTO Sports Complex; the first game is at 11 a.m. There will also be games Aug. 2 in Santa Maria at Rotary Park. Jones and the coaches said they’d love to see support from the community.
Staff Writer Kristina Sewell loved watching her college lacrosse team play. Contact her at ksewell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 10-17, 2014.
