photo by: Richard Gwin

LHS sophomore Curtis Wesley makes a catch during practice recently at Langston Hughes Elementary School. Members of the Lawrence lacrosse team, made up of players from both Free State and Lawrence High, say they enjoy the sport because it's something different.

Lawrence High senior Cole Strauss unlocks his car door at 7:45 a.m. and slams shut that same door in that same driveway at about 7:15 p.m., five days a week.

In between, Strauss attends classes at LHS, drives to Olathe to participate in lacrosse practice or a game, and drives back to Lawrence, where he showers, eats and hits the books in the 8 o’clock hour.

That’s a busy schedule for a teenager, but Strauss wouldn’t have it any other way. He happily would drive farther than that if necessary to play the sport he picked up as a second-grader in Logan, Utah.

Strauss said his “passion for lacrosse” makes the drive an easy one.

He was in fourth grade when the family moved from Utah.

“When we first moved here, my dad and I looked for a lacrosse team and didn’t find anything,” Strauss said. “We thought about trying to get a team started here, but it didn’t work out.”

He said his father heard about a club closer to Kansas City, so Cole played for the Blue Valley Spartans through eighth grade. He is in his fourth year playing for a team made up primarily of students from Olathe high schools. It competes in the Lacrosse Association of Kansas City.

Strauss’ academic and lacrosse scholarships will cover most of the cost of attending Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo.

Strauss doesn’t play for a Lawrence club, but his reputation is well known by those who do.

“I knew of Cole Strauss, but I never met the guy until I got burned real bad by some middie (midfielder) on defense, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s Cole Strauss right there.’ He’s good. He’s small, and he’s shifty,” Charlie Bermel said.

A sophomore at Free State High, Bermel is small and shifty as well. He plays for the Lawrence All City Lacrosse Club, which is in its third year and slowly growing in popularity.

Lacrosse is played with netted sticks and a rubber ball, eight inches in circumference and weighing five-plus ounces, fired into a goal. Ten players on each side compete on a fielder slightly larger than a football field. The goalie’s stick has the widest head, and a defender’s stick is longer than that used by midfielders, who do most of the scoring. Originally called Stickball, the sport’s roots can be traced to eastern Woodlands Native Americans. Far more popular on the East Coast, it has a way of hooking athletes who give it a try.

“The physicality of it,” Bermel said when asked what it is that draws him to the sport. “I like how you can play a sport where you can get chippy and hit people, but there’s also a lot of finesse, a lot of thinking, a lot of technique to it, catching and passing.”

Cooper Catlin, also a sophomore at Free State, said he was at Rock Chalk Park playing basketball with friends and saw his friend, Brett Carey, playing lacrosse with Britt Mitchell, coach of the club.

“I asked if I could try it,” Catlin said. “I tried it, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Catlin said he enjoys lacrosse more than he did baseball.

“It’s a fast-paced field sport, and you have to be really physical to play it,” Catlin said. “It’s very physically demanding, with not a lot of stops. It’s sub on the fly, like hockey. It’s really quick, and it doesn’t stop like baseball.”

Catlin called lacrosse, “Hockey on land.”

Ben Ozonoff, Free State High senior, plans to attend Kansas University and play for the school’s club team. You might have seen Ozonoff twirling a stick and firing a ball against a brick wall. He was neither taking out his frustrations nor mad at the wall. He simply was practicing his craft.

“I play wall ball every day,” Ozonoff said.

So does Strauss, who also fires shots into a net in the back yard. Nobody counts how many of those he makes, but he has made a team-high 32 that have counted in 14 games.

“I see kids walking around Lawrence High with sticks, and I’ve seen kids up at Holcom (Park) using the outdoor racquetball court (for practicing lacrosse),” Strauss said. “It’s bigger in Kansas City than it is here, but I think it’s getting bigger here. I see kids out playing a lot. It’s good to see.”

Mitchell grew up in Maryland, the hotbed of lacrosse. He coaches 24 players, including Free State senior Kelvin Suddith, who signed a letter of intent to play lacrosse at Maryville University in St. Louis.

“I’ve played football, soccer, baseball, basketball and track,” said Mitchell, who coaches 24 players against JV teams from the Kansas City area. “No other sport has the same camaraderie as lacrosse. These guys are all buddies. They all hang out, and most of these guys didn’t even know each other before we started.”

Mitchell said he does not envision lacrosse becoming an official high school sport any sooner than eight years from now.

“We’re way behind,” Mitchell said. “We’re just not big enough yet. One day, though.”