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Re: Lax and Meet Other Parents
Join the fun watching lacrosse, a sport older than Dartmouth
If you're a parent looking for an informal opportunity to meet other parents, one of the easiest ways is to spend an afternoon at Scully-Fahey Field on the east side of campus when the men's or women's lacrosse teams are playing. Look for the cluster of brightly dressed, foot-stamping, cow-bell ringing, full-throated fans—those would be parents. They'll happily welcome you into the fold. And you can experience firsthand a sport even older than Dartmouth.
In 1636, 133 years before Eleazar Wheelock arrived on the Hanover Plain intent on the "instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land," French missionaries preaching near the eastern shore of Lake Huron in Canada learned about a sport so old no one knew when it had originated. Some players called it simply "the Creator's game."
The French called it le jeu de la crosse ("the game of the stick"), as it was roughly similar to—though a lot rougher than—a type of field hockey game then played back home. Upwards of a thousand players from a tribe's different clans would compete. Each player fashioned his own "crosse," a curved stick with a webbed pocket on the end. He used it to swat, carry, or throw a deerskin-covered stone ball through the opponent's goal—often two tall poles set a dozen or so yards apart—while trying to avoid getting swatted, carried, or thrown to the ground. (Ojibwe in the upper Midwest called the sport baaga`adowe or "bump hips.") The playing field could be miles in length and width. Games could last for days.
The missionaries regarded the free-flowing, semi-anarchic sport as a mixed blessing. They were concerned when games were used to prepare for intertribal conflict (members of the Creek Nation in the Southeast nicknamed the sport the "little brother of war") or to drive out "demons" that had made a member of the tribe sick. On the other hand, they weren't terribly bothered when the object of a particular contest was to bring good weather at the end of a long winter.
In the 19th century lacrosse took root predominantly in urban areas such as Montreal, New York, and Baltimore. Space and players were at a premium, so the sport began evolving: the field was modified; the rules, codified; and the players, fortified.
Today in the men's college game, two goals are set 80 yards apart on a field 110 yards long by 60 yards wide. Players score by throwing a ball made of hard rubber through an opening six feet square; each goal is surrounded by a circular crease that affords the goaltender a measure of protection (opposing players must stay out). A center line where play begins—and resumes after a goal is scored—with a face-off between opposing midfield players bisects the field. Between the crease and the centerline is the restraining line, behind which attack and defense players wait until the referee signals possession after a face-off.
Defensemen are easily identified by their sticks, which at six feet are generally twice as long as those of the attackers they are opposing. No one fashions their own crosse anymore: the shafts are made of high-tech metal composites; the heads of molded plastic.
Playing time is 60 minutes, divided into four quarters. Penalties come in two basic types. Technical fouls (such as offsides, when a team fails to keep four players on the side of the field they're defending) can result in a loss of possession and in some cases suspension in the penalty box for 30 seconds. Personal fouls (such as slashing, when a player's stick viciously hits an opponent in an area other than his stick or hands) result in a loss of possession and suspension for a minute or more. Not surprisingly, helmets, gloves, and pads for arms, elbows, shoulders, and torsos are required to play.
The Dartmouth men's team began play in 1926 and quickly attracted standout athletes such as future Hall of Famers Avery "Red" Gould '30 and Dr. Joseph Wilder '42. Coincidentally, the men started the year women's lacrosse was first played in the United States.
After women were admitted to Dartmouth in 1972, two more future Hall of Famers laid the foundation for the women's team. Aggie Bixler Kurtz began the program in 1973. Jo Ann "Josie" Harper followed Kurtz as head coach in 1981, serving until 1992 when she became associate director and later the first woman director of athletics in the Ivy League (she retires this year). A fifth Dartmouth Hall of Famer, Sandy Bryan Weatherall '83, underscored the fact that the nascent women's team could attract top-caliber players, just as the men's team had after it was founded.
While the men's and women's versions of the sport were once relatively similar, the latter has remained truer to the original in many respects. In the women's college game, only the goalkeeper wears pads; the other six defenders and the five attackers generally have only eye protection. The field, 120 yards by 70 yards, has no demarcated boundaries, only visual guidelines to help the referee determine when the ball is out of play. Possession is then quickly awarded to the closest player. Play begins with a draw at midfield, in which the referee tosses the ball in the air like a basketball tip-off. One big difference: rough contact to the stick or body is prohibited.
As in the men's game, certain areas are set off to keep play from getting too congested. A restraining line 30 yards from each goal line creates an area where no more than seven offensive players and eight defensive players (including the goalkeeper) are allowed. The 12-meter fan is used by officials to position players after fouls. And an arc in front of each goal is considered the critical scoring area—defenders must stay at least within a stick's-length of their attacker to keep the lanes uncongested.
The result is an extraordinarily free-flowing game, similar in spirit to the men's but with its own character. As those long-ago French missionaries might have said, "Vive la difference!" As the parents you'll meet at Scully-Fahey would say, "Let's go, Dartmouth! Score!"