Pupils warm to the 'fastest game on two feet'

Assistant Sports Editor

Friday 7 September 2012

ATTEMPTING to communicate anything during a school assembly is an unenviable task given that, more often than not, the only kids who are not yawning or gawping out of the windows are those intent on wreaking havoc.

Stefan Wyroslawski with the students of Mearns Castle High who formed the core of the national under-19 lacrosse side.

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Richard Winton

Capturing the attention of an audience is difficult amid such sporadic outbreaks of internecine violence but what if the promotion of such violence is a key part of the message?

It was with that notion in mind that Stefan Wyroslawski took the stage in front of the pupils of Mearns Castle High School three years ago and requested that they watch a brief YouTube clip. Grumbles and groans ensued. What nonsense was Mr Wyroslawski, the religious, moral and philosophical studies teacher, going to bore them with this time? "Then they saw two guys laying each other out and another couple whacking each other with sticks and suddenly they were interested in lacrosse," he says, smiling.

In the intervening few years, the progress made at the school has been nothing short of remarkable. Of the initial core of 10 players, half represented the national under-19 team as they won four of their five matches in the recent world championships in Finland, while a further group of 15 are expected to provide the foundations for the age-group side in four years' time.However, there is no danger of confusing Mearns Castle with Malory Towers. The genteel, public schoolgirl pastime of the Enid Blyton novels is as distinct from men's lacrosse as netball is from basketball. Beyond the basic concept of catching the ball in a net attached to the top of a stick and trying to throw it into a goal, the disciplines have little in common. The men's version is played among 20 players and is accepted as "the fastest game on two feet" because of the speed with which the ball is shuttled around a football-sized pitch, with the goalposts inset in the same way as in ice hockey.While most players are armed – that, it seems, is the correct term – with a four-foot stick, the three defenders each brandish a six-foot pole reminiscent of a medieval pike. Given that this trio tend to be taller than their weapon and weighing in at around 18 stone, the ferocity of the contest becomes clear. "There's lot of misconceptions about it but if you go to North America it's very much a blue-collar sport picked up in rough towns and cities," explains Wyroslawski. "Basically, you're on the pitch rattling each other with sticks, making full body checks and all the while there is a hard rubber ball flying around. Once I showed the boys a clip of it they were interested but it's just getting that exposure in the first place to dispel the myths."As if to enhance his contention, the Bathgate native's first experience of the sport was entirely by chance. Having tried basketball and kickboxing while at Glasgow University a decade ago, he accompanied a friend to a lacrosse meeting and found himself thrust in goal and told to get on with it. Upon graduating, he moved to Lochgilphead to take up his first teaching position but returned to the city after meeting his wife, and found work at Mearns Castle.In the interim, a chance encounter with a former university team-mate led to the formation of the Glasgow Lions three years ago and his subsequent efforts to use his role in academia to entice his pupils to get involved. "I decided I wanted the national team not to have to rely on overseas-based guys and wanted young Scottish kids to learn how to play the sport," he explains. "I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I could and it's gone really well so far."Gradually, lacrosse has muscled its way on the Scottish sporting spectrum thanks, mainly, to its preponderance among the country's universities. Of the eight sides that comprise the national league, five are composed of students – with the Glasgow Lions joining clubs in Aberdeen and Edinburgh as the exceptions – but the transient nature of those teams has hampered the development of a sport that is among the fastest growing in the world. Indeed, recent studies show lacrosse to be the third most popular participation sport in the USA behind American football and basketball.With that in mind, Wyroslawski – a former national team goalkeeper - recently joined Keith Robertson, Scotland's elite performance director, and John Kenney, the national coach, to devise a rigorous coaching qualification that will enable more Scottish kids to be exposed to lacrosse. With 24 attendees at their first session, the 30-year-old is quietly confident that their hard work will be rewarded."Most of the players in Scotland only started playing when they were at university but it takes three years to learn the stick skills and understand the game so we really need to start much earlier," he says. "I think I'm right in saying we are currently seventh in the world – punching way above our weight – and it's frustrating when you see money getting pumped into sports that aren't doing as well. We've got a big opportunity here but it needs quality coaching and facilities and from a younger age."Having overcome the inertia of his pupils, Wyroslawski will now turn his efforts to persuading the authorities about the promise of lacrosse.

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Pupils warm to the 'fastest game on two feet'

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