OCR Text |
Show Fast, Physical Lacrosss-Tough Sport I . ; v ' - i. i ' 1 r 1 - 4 , J j . v . By MIKE JACOBSEN Chronicle Sports Editor Hard-hitting, fast moving, blocking, block-ing, picking, slashing. These terms describe the game of lacrosse. Aspects As-pects of football, basketball and ice hockey are incorporated in this sport, which is rapidly growing in popularity in the west. Lacrosse originated with the Canadian and American Indians. As many as 1000 Indians would hit each other with clubs until only a few remained. The sport is greatly modified today, but the sticks are still used to hit the opponent and his stick. There are ten players on a team: three defensemen, one goalie, three attackmen (they strictly play offense), of-fense), and three midfielders (they play both offense and defense) . The object is to throw a hard rubber ball, about the size of a baseball, into the opponent's goal, which is six feet hight and six feet wide. The ball is carried in the netting of a stick. A player can run with the ball or pass it, but he cannot touch it with his hands. The opponent op-ponent can use his body or stick to dislodge the ball from the netting, net-ting, but hits on the head and wild, uncontrolled swings are illegal. Description of Sport Lacrosse is played on a field 110 yards long and 65 yards wide. Four, 15 minute quarters are employed. em-ployed. Action only stops when there is a time-out or when a player is injured. Running, blocking and body contact display football characteristics; char-acteristics; picking and screening display basketball characteristics; and men sitting out for penalties, and the object of getting the ball Paul Grcgger, starting goalie, demonstrates defensive stance to pt vent score. Lacrosse team practices on Cummings Field. into a goal display ice hockey characteristics. char-acteristics. The sport Jias been at the University Uni-versity of Utah for six years. A nine to eight victory last year over Arizona was the first win a Utah team has scored. Other Western Athletic Conference schools that participate in lacrosse are the University Uni-versity of Arizona and Colorado State, a new WAC addition. Reid Russell, who played on Army's 1960 National Championship team, is the coach. Dr. Gerald Miller, professor of ceramic engineering, en-gineering, assists, and is the faculty fac-ulty advisor. Even though the popularity of lacrosse is greatest in the East, the majority of this year's squad is from Utah. This presents a problem prob-lem because none of the local players play-ers had any contact with the game until they enrolled at the U. Starting Players The starting attackmen are Mike Winston, Chuck Closterman and Kevin Brooks. After three games, Winston and Closterman lead the team in scoring with four goals each. Geof Homolya, Mike Roshek and Steve Page are the defensive starters. All are over 200 pounds and "carry a big stick." Chuck Kinney, Sterling Leiben-guth Leiben-guth and Mike Jacobsen are the starting midfielders. The goalie duties are split between Paul Grog-ger Grog-ger and Greg Leong, with- Grogger starting. Other players who see a great deal of action are: Paul Densley, Jeff Winston, Don Danysh, Bill Morby, Steve Roshek, Russ Chris-tensen, Chris-tensen, Jim Summers, Dave Shurtz and Mike Woods, at midfield; Steve Tinling at attack; and Brent Sax-ton, Sax-ton, Brian Nutting and Walt Schor-er, Schor-er, at defense. The team practices on Cummings Field (north of the Fieldhouse) Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 3:30 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m. Saturdays are usually reserved reserv-ed for scrimages. Utah has compiled an 0-3 record thus far. Close losses were at the hands of San Francisco Lacrosse Club and the University of California Cali-fornia at Berkeley, while Stanford shutout the Utes. The team travels to Colorado May 3 for games with Colorado State, Colorado College, and the Air Force. 4 t r vy r:-.::.:i $K v I - K " 0 i i fJh ' " -1 Starting attackmen (L to R) Chuck Closterman, Mike Winston and Kevin Brooks. Team will travel to Colorado for next contests. |