By Joshua Austin
It tooks more than 100-degree heat and long hours in the sun to keep young lacrosse players off the field, as more than 240 campers gathered for the BYU lacrosse camp last week.
This summer marks the 11th year BYU has hosted lacrosse camps, and more than 900 players are projected to attend this year”s camps within a five-week span, making this the highest-attended camp in BYU lacrosse history.
“We started back in 1997 with 27 kids,” BYU coach Jason Lamb said. “It”s come a long way.”
BYU assistant coach Pete Stevenson has worked with Lamb for several years, developing and expanding the camps.
“Its incredible to watch as the sport becomes more and more popular,” Stevenson said. “And it”s fun to be a part of it.”
When BYU added lacrosse to its list of athletic camps, the numbers were few and interest in the sport had not yet sparked as it has in recent years, but now BYU holds five separate weeks of camps for all age groups, and even features a girls” lacrosse camp.
Lamb said the camp has grown to draw and attract players from not only Utah, but from all over the country, making it among the biggest, if not the biggest lacrosse camp in the West.
“This camp is unique,” Lamb said. “It”s unique in that it”s first a BYU experience, and incorporated within that experience is a lacrosse experience.”
Lamb said players who attend these camps get to experience the life and atmosphere of BYU firsthand. They get to meet and associate with other members and players from all over the country, and no other lacrosse camp can offer that type of experience.
Lamb credits much of this to the staff. Although they don”t bring in professional lacrosse players like other camps do, the staff is made up primarily of former and current BYU players, many of whom played on the 2007 national championship team. The campers have the opportunity to learn lacrosse from some very talented and experienced players, while in an atmosphere unique to BYU.
“It”s a lot of fun to coach and get to know each player,” Elliot Grow, a BYU lacrosse player and camp staff member, said. “It”s fun to teach the sport we love.”
Lamb and his staff not only operate this camp, but have also helped create and develop lacrosse teams all over Utah County.
In 2001, Lamb created a junior high league, consisting of six teams. Since 2001, interest in the sport has exploded all over Utah County. There are currently 21 teams competing in the junior high league, and Lamb now hopes to start a new division for third and fourth graders.
