Lacrosse continues to grow in Northern Kentucky
Lacrosse is a sport that blends the rules and dynamics of a number of other sports.
But you don’t necessarily need to be a superstar athlete to be successful at it, which is one reason the sport has been growing among young athletes in Northern Kentucky.
“Hand-eye coordination,” said Jason Kuhlman, the new president of the Northern Kentucky Lacrosse Club. “You can’t do much if you can’t throw and catch the ball. You don’t have to be the best athlete in the world, but you have to be able to work the stick. Good feet, quickness in small spaces, not necessarily straight-line speed. And tenacity: Some of our best players are the scrappiest.”
The Northern Kentucky Lacrosse Club has been steadily growing in recent years as the number of high school clubs have increased.
More:Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky tennis players to watch this spring
More:Who are the top players in Northern Kentucky high school softball?
More:Who are the top players to watch in Northern Kentucky high school baseball?
As local coaches hope the Kentucky High School Athletic Association sanctions lacrosse as a full varsity sport in the near future, the number of varsity clubs in the area keep increasing.
Ryle and Walton-Verona high schools added varsity programs in both boys and girls lacrosse this season. St. Henry District High School added lacrosse last season, and Dixie Heights added a girls program after having a boys team for several years.
That is in addition to Covington Catholic High School and Notre Dame Academy, which have had teams for nearly a decade. And the Bluegrass Bulldogs is a program composed of students from schools that don’t have their own teams yet.
The local teams have eagerly added each other to their schedules, playing each other twice during the season as well as teams from Lexington, Louisville and Cincinnati.
“I think it speaks to the bright future that we have,” Kuhlman said. “Obviously lacrosse is a fringe sport around here and not yet mainstream, but it’s growing.”
The Bulldogs lost several players who attend Ryle and Walton-Verona and have their own home teams now. The Bulldogs are under the umbrella of the NKLC.
Tony Grizovic, the former president of the club, left that position to become head coach of Walton-Verona, and Kuhlman replaced him.
“Lacrosse is played at a high level around here,” Kuhlman said. “Once you see it, it’s awesome. I have no desire to play myself but I definitely love coaching. Hopefully Ryle and Walton-Verona cause a ripple effect.”
Kuhlman said he has about 167 students in the lacrosse club, up about 150 percent from last year. That number doesn’t include members of the Bluegrass Bulldogs from Ryle and Walton-Verona who left to play for their home schools.
Kuhlman said kids who may not have a lot of strength and speed to succeed in some other sports can excel in lacrosse because of the emphasis on skill and hand-eye coordination.
“Lacrosse borrows a lot from other sports,” he said. “Tactically, it’s a lot like basketball. The hand-eye coordination is more like baseball and tennis. It goes end to end like soccer. It’s more physical than soccer or basketball, but not nearly as physical as football.”
In the fall of 2019, the KHSAA Board of Control approved a recommendation to appoint a sport-specific focus group to study the sanctioning of boys and girls lacrosse.
More than 150 schools participate in the sport in Ohio, and the Ohio High School Athletic Association has sanctioned lacrosse since the 2017 spring season.
More than 30 schools in the Cincinnati area play lacrosse. Mariemont won the Division III state championships in both boys and girls lacrosse in 2021.