LACROSSE REQUIRES SKILL AND ALERTNESS

This is the ninth of a series of articles which are being published by the Crimson written by University coaches on the problems and various aspects of their respective sports.

Among the various sports supported by the College is lacrosse. Although only a minor sport, it is one of the best that exists. It holds for its players every good quality that one can desire. It provides exercise, requires skill, and develops mental alertness; it combines team play and personal contact between players.

The game provides exercise that is complete, the running and stick-work bringing every muscle into play. The skill required is of a higher degree than the stick-work in hockey, the latter primarily being work in one plane and lacrosse being in two planes. No mean skill is required to handle the crosse and ball. It is the development of this skill which makes lacrosse a game for men of all sizes.

On the mental side the attack is always busy trying to develop new conditions of play to outwit their defensive opponents, and the defense has to watch the former, and, after it acts, to readjust or devise its scheme of defense. The defensive mind, because it has to act later, must act more quickly. The team play is of the style found in basketball except that twelve men must work together instead of five. Combined with the team play is the personal contact; each man except the goal-tender has a man to play against and cover.

The general theory of the game is readily explained, especially if one understands either hockey or basketball. The prime object is to score more goals than your opponent, the means of scoring being the principal difference. Hockey has its puck and stick; lacrosse its rubber ball and crosse. In hockey they dribble, pass, and shoot the puck; in lacrosse they run, pass, and shoot the ball.

Many Colleges Take Up Game

Except for the years 1917 and 1918 the University has been represented by a lacrosse team for the last forty years, and until recently they were of championship calibre. With the spread of the game competition has become keener. In the East the game is gradually being adopted by the larger college. The Naval Academy, Yale, Syracuse, and the University of Pennsylvania being the most recent ones to take the step. These newcomers have cut wide paths. In the South the "Middies" are classed with the best. In the North, Syracuse won the championship the first year it was admitted to the league and hopes to repeat this year. To the above colleges must be added Princeton, Colgate, Rutgers, and West Point, which are beginning the game this spring.

It is of interest to note the position lacrosse holds in other colleges. In some of the colleges of the South and in one of the colleges of the North it is a major sport. At Cornell intramural games are played; a championship university team is awarded black letters. At Syracuse the progress is so rapid that there is a possibility that in the future lacrosse will be played instead of baseball at commencement. At Annapolis the football men are required to play lacrosse.

The University has been fortunate enough this year to arrange for five games at home, three of these being league games. The team makes two short trips away, one of about four days during the April recess, and the other to New Haven to play Yale.

The loss of such men as P. D. Stecle '20, E. D. Hart ocC., L. S. Merchant '20, E. P. Hirschberg '21 and Randall Thompson '20 means that the defence and attack will have to be rebuilt and reorganized. To do this, and in order that the University regsir the place it so long held as a lacrosse leader in this country. Captain Clinton Leslie must have plenty of sexed material.