The Champaign County Lacrosse (CCL) organization has found success with the growth of their program this year.
For the first time since CCL was formed around 2013, there was enough youth interest to form a fifth through eighth grade boys’ team, the CCL Youth Kings. They have also fielded their first girls’ team, the CCL Griffins.
Since 2001, when CCL was Centennial Lacrosse, the organization has competed throughout Central Illinois with a varsity and junior varsity squad.
All of the CCL teams are a part of US Lacrosse organization and competes in the Central Illinois Lacrosse League (CILax).
The CCL Youth Kings won their first CILax tournament on Sunday defeating established programs such as the Bloomington Warriors, Washington, Peoria and Springfield Capital City Lacrosse.
The Bloomington Warriors beat the CCL Youth Kings three times during league play before the Youth Kings beat them in tournament play.
11 of the 14 players on the CCL Youth Kings are from Mahomet.
CCL Youth Kings assistant coach Shane Truitt said that on 2 players on the youth team had played lacrosse before this season started. The youth worked on fundamentals such as the hand and eye coordination for catching and throwing.
“It kind of started out like second grade soccer where they are all busy bees around a ball instead of using strategy to spread out,” Truitt said. “By the championship game we were passing the ball around the perimeter and setting up plays.”
Truitt’s son, Quinten, decided to try lacrosse for the first time this year after trying wrestling, football and track.
While lacrosse is intense, Truitt said he likes that the lacrosse program focuses on sportsmanship and opportunity to play.
“Any kid can play (lacrosse),” Truitt said. “If you’re small and fast, you can run through different areas. If you don’t run fast, but can throw well, then that’s all that matters. Kids that are smart about the game succeed against kids that are just out there to run people over.”
CCL president Doug Olsen said that many of the CCL players come to lacrosse because they have tried other sports, but end up watching their peers play while they sit on the bench.
“Statistics show that 70 percent of kids drop out of sports by the age of 14,” Olsen said. “That’s not a very good statistic because where do they get their exercise from then? We take all those kids who are about ready to give up on sports because they are discouraged and give them a ball and a stick, and hope that they make friends.”
Doug’s son, Kyle played for the CCL for four years during high school. Kyle started playing lacrosse because he was tired of watching his friends play while he sat on the bench.
Kyle received a scholarship to play lacrosse at Judson University in Elgin this fall.
Olson said that because lacrosse isn’t saturated with players yet, there are a lot of scholarship opportunities out there, even in Central Illinois. Illinois Wesleyan is starting a lacrosse program this fall.
The US Lacrosse organization also wants to foster girl’s in lacrosse. As part of the First Stick Grant, girls’ in the CCL program received free equipment. Rules in the girl’s league differs from the boy’s league in that they cannot make contact with each other.
The CCL Griffins wrote letter to the US Lacrosse organization to tell them that the opportunity to play lacrosse has boosted their confidence.
Olsen said 80 percent of the girls’ team is also from Mahomet.
While the CCL Kings started out with mostly players from Centennial, Mahomet players now make up about 50 percent of the team.
The CCL Kings hope to take home the CILax tournament championship title again this year. Their spring season has been plagued with rainouts.
“The team is a senior heavy team,” Olsen said. “A lot of them have been with the team for all four years. They want to come together to win again this Sunday.”
The JV and Varsity teams will compete at Ewing Park II in Bloomington this weekend. While the JV team does not get to play as many games as the varsity, Olsen believes they also have a chance to win their championship on Saturday.
To find out more about the Champaign County Lacrosse teams contact Doug Olsen at dougolsen2@yahoo.com.
