MIDLAND, Texas — The West Texas Lacrosse organization hosted a free clinic at the Grande turf fields along with players from the Texas Tech Lacrosse team on October 27, 2019.
The event consisted of multiple fundamental sticking drills and ball control stations taught by the Texas Tech players. After the clinic there was an exhibition game between players from the Midland High Lacrosse Club and the Red Raider team.
“It shows them where they can be in a couple years, and it also lets a lot of younger people know they are a bunch of places to play,” said Midland High Lacrosse Club coach Willy Logsdon. “There's high school teams, there's college teams, lots of opportunities to play this sport on all levels.”
A lot of opportunities to play also means a lot of scholarships to be obtained by these high school players according to board member of West Texas Lacrosse Bill Klingensmith.
“We've had kids from the Midland High School team go and get scholarships to college from Midland. We even had some kids that didn't even want to go to college, and they ended up getting into universities.”
The clinic was able to give out free helmets, sticks and balls to the participants. Their hope was to not only evolve the skills of the kids but also improve the exposure of the sport.
“It doesn't matter what your skills are, there's a place for you on the lacrosse field.” said Klingensmith. “I’ve seen people who are just fast, be amazing players, I’ve seen people who aren't fast at all but are quick with their hands, their bigger, then you see tiny guys, there's a place for everybody and that's unusual in sports.”
Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the nation according to U.S. Lacrosse, and it seems to be sticking its way into the west Texas scene.
For more information or upcoming events, you can go to https://www.westtexaslacrosse.org/