Contributed
Newcastle resident Bradley Strode stands for the national anthem alongside his Eastside Catholic High School lacrosse team.

Newcastle resident Bradley Strode was named to U.S. Lacrosse’s Academic All-American team for his 3.98 grade point average.

Strode, a defenseman on the Eastside Catholic lacrosse team, was a salutatorian and served as a leadership officer all four years, including in the roles of junior and senior class president.

A two-sport student athlete for the Crusaders, Strode lettered all four years in wrestling, advanced to the state wrestling tournament as a sophomore and was a state-tournament alternate as a senior. In lacrosse, the defender suited up for 14 games this spring, helping the Crusaders to an undefeated season.

Passionate about giving back, Strode volunteers for Athletes for Kids, a community-based service group that pairs prep student-athletes with special-needs children in the state. Strode will attend the University of Southern California in the fall as a Trustee Scholar. He is the third generation of his family to “fight on” at USC.

Contributed
Lindsey Anderson (left), of Newcastle, US Lacrosse National Girls Youth Coach of the Year, sits with 14-year-old Quick Styx player Haily Santorsola, the one who nominated her for the honor, at Seattle’s Kerry Park.

Newcastle resident and youth lacrosse coach Lindsey Anderson has been named by US Lacrosse as its 2013 National Girls Youth Coach of the Year.

Anderson, a middle school girls coach and youth coach mentor with the Quick Styx youth lacrosse program on Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill, was nominated for the honor by a 14-year-old player on her middle school team.

“Lindsey has a love for the game that I cannot explain. She has put her heart and all of her efforts into making this season a productive, fun and amazing time,” wrote Haily Santorsola, one of three eighth-graders from Seattle’s St. Anne School that play for Anderson, in her nomination letter to US Lacrosse.

Anderson was selected as the nation’s top girls youth coach for her ability to connect with her players and demonstrate a deep understanding of the importance of sportsmanship in molding young lives.

The honor came as a complete surprise for Anderson, who got her start in lacrosse as a Bellevue High School senior winning the 2003 state championship in just her first year in the sport.

“I was stunned and excited,” said Anderson, one of 12 coaches with the Quick Styx youth program. “I didn’t ever expect to be recognized for something at this level. I don’t really see myself as any different than any of our coaches. It just happens. It’s all natural.”

Anderson has an innate ability to teach and connect. Those skills have allowed her to build a lifetime of trust among the young people who learn the game of lacrosse from her and the parent leaders of the local program.

“Lindsey is a role model. When my own daughter started playing, we were getting beat pretty bad. Lindsey stood out as someone that we really wanted in our program,” Quick Styx volunteer director George Bergeron said. “She always kept a positive approach with the kids and the parents and put a lot of effort into making sure that we have practice plans, drills and a model for future coaches that come into the program.”

Anderson was a gymnast long before she found lacrosse. She was a four-year letter winner in the sport at Bellevue High School, where she earned a senior-year berth to the KingCo Conference gymnastics meet.

It was the burgeoning sport of lacrosse, though, that ultimately piqued Anderson’s interest as a senior in high school and beyond.

“I had friends that played lacrosse. I didn’t know that they played other sports — but they played lacrosse,” Anderson said. “That was important. Being on a team where you are surrounded by girls and boys your age helps you be accepted.”

That connection bonded her to a sport that was struggling for acceptance and unleashed her dedication.

“Whenever I find passion for something, I want everyone else to experience it,” she said. “The friendships, the bonding, and the responsibility and learning are all what teamwork means.”

As an undergraduate at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Anderson gravitated to the school’s club lacrosse team, playing D-wing and midfield before taking on player-coach responsibilities as an upperclassman.

Anderson is working toward a master’s degree in education at Seattle Pacific University. Once she finishes that, she plans to extend her mentoring from the pitch to the classroom, where she hopes to teach math and science.

The grant will help local families seeking assistance to provide protective equipment for their children, such as helmets for boys and eye-gear for girls, along with sticks, gloves and pads.

“Regardless of financial circumstances, it’s important that we open doors for young people and families to participate in youth sports and get in the game,” Dave Low, president of the Washington State Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse, said in a news release. “We’re excited to help local clubs and youth sports organizations jump-start lacrosse in their communities.”

Learn more about the Liberty Lacrosse Club at www.libertylacrosseclub.com.

By Greg Farrar
Max Batali (20), Liberty freshman defender, and Wyatt Johnson (14), junior defender, go after the ball against Tahoma attacker Blake Lucky (left) and midfielder Dakoda Barger in a lacrosse match April 24 at Maywood Middle School.

The Liberty Lacrosse Club has garnered enough interest to expand its program to include players younger than high school on the Eastside.

The expansion includes young players from the east side of Issaquah, Renton Highlands and Newcastle. Previously, young Eastside players have played in Issaquah Youth Lacrosse.

The club is part of the Greater Eastside Lacrosse League, which organizes and governs lacrosse on the Eastside from as far north as Woodinville and Bothell all the way down to Tahoma in Maple Valley.

“Every community on the Eastside has a program these days,” Brian Rinkenberger, youth director for the Liberty Club, said.

The Liberty Club started four years ago as a high school club, but this is the first year for a youth program.

“We got to the point where we had enough kids for the sport in our area, and enough parents who would be willing to take on a volunteer role and help us launch a youth program, so we have done it this spring,” he said. “For our youth program, we draw from the Liberty, and Hazen school communities and all the way into Newcastle, because Newcastle area does not have a club until you get down to Factoria.”

Nearly 100 players now

Rinkenberger said the program started as a Liberty High School club four years ago, and now has four teams and is pushing 100 players.

Janna Johnson, club president, said the high school club has grown so that it now has a JV club.

“Our club goes from fifth grade through high school,” Johnson said. “Next year, we hope to expand to what is called the Lightning League, which is younger kids, second- through fourth-graders.”

Lacrosse is not a sanctioned public school sport and operates through a club structure. When the practice season starts in March, finding practice space is a scramble, Johnson said.

“The tough part is getting fields that are lit as the season starts before Daylight Savings, and we compete with everyone else for practice space,” he said.

Originally an East Coast sport

When asked about the history of the sport, Rinkenberger and Johnson agreed it has its beginnings with American Indians. Rinkenberger said lacrosse has historically been an East Coast institution found in prep schools. He said as these prep-school kids graduated from college and came here seeking their fortunes, they brought the sport with them, and it is gaining momentum here.

“When I graduated from high school in Mercer Island in 1994, we had to travel far and wide to find teams to play,” he said. “Nowadays, every high school has a club affiliated with it.”

He said the thing that brings kids to the sport is that it is fun to play.

“We are not taking aim at any other sport, but if you ask a kid, ‘Do you want to go stand around on a baseball diamond for nine innings, or do you want to come out here where you are moving nonstop, and you have a stick in your hands, you get to throw, pass and run into other kids?’ most kids say, ‘That’s what I want to do,’” he said.

The honor of the game

“It is the fastest game on two feet, and it is the fastest growing sport in America,” Johnson said. “It is so fast paced, the kids have sticks and they wear pads, almost like football. It is an honorable sport, and one of the main things we talk about in lacrosse is the honor of the game. You honor the refs, you honor the players, you honor the other team.

“We try to keep it so that the fans, the players, everybody stays in control, and that really is what we are striving to do, so that there is not nastiness on the sidelines.

“We have field managers at every game, and they go around to spectators who are yelling at the players, coaches or refs and ask them to stop,” Johnson added. “If a spectator gets out of hand, it can cause their team to get a penalty, or the ref can ask the spectator to leave the game.”

For those not yet familiar with the sport, Rinkenberger said it is a contact sport played on a field about the size of a soccer field. It is similar to hockey in terms of the amount of contact allowed and the flow of play. There is a goal at each end of the field. The players have a stick with a net on the end. With this net, they catch and pass a ball to move it down the field.

“The first skill a player has to master is how to catch and throw the ball with the stick,” Rinkenberger said. The ball is about the size of a baseball only heavier and denser. “It is go, go, go all the time.”

“I had heard about lacrosse, but I had never seen a game,” Johnson said. Her son started with baseball, “but, then he played lacrosse, and we have never looked back at baseball, because it is so much fun.”

If you go

All teams of the Greater Eastside Lacrosse League will be playing May 4 at Liberth High School starting at 1 p.m.

The win was the third of the season for Liberty, which sits in last place of the Division II Evergreen Conference, trailing conference leader Overlake by four games. Overlake remains undefeated in the season.

Ross’ four goals gave the sophomore attackman a total of 13 in the season. South Kitsap led the first quarter, 2-1, but Liberty maintained a steady scoring pace throughout the game with three, two and four points scored in the following three quarters, respectively.

South Kitsap scored an additional three goals in the third quarter.

Kellen Kennedy had three goals for South Kitsap, which sits in fourth place of the Division II Olympic Conference, three and a half games behind conference leader Gig Harbor.

On April 17, Liberty dropped a close game against Edmonds after Jordan Tindall scored his only goal of the night just 25 seconds into sudden-death overtime, giving Edmonds a 7-6 win against Liberty at Maywood Middle School in Renton. The win was the sixth of the year for the first-year Edmonds program.

Tindall’s goal came after Liberty’s Ross evened the game at 6-6 with 53 seconds remaining in overtime.  The goal was the 12th of the season for the Meadowdale High School sophomore.

Edmonds opened scoring, taking a 3-0 lead in the first and then matched Liberty’s solo goal in the second for a 4-1 half-time lead. In the third, Liberty added three goals, but Edmonds’ two goals kept the margin at 6-4 in favor of Edmonds.

Ross’ fourth-quarter goal was the second for Liberty in the final stanza.

The Liberty team, in its third season as a club, is home to four Newcastle residents — junior goalkeeper Roland Deex, sophomore Peter Disney, freshman Ash Herrild and sophomore Shane Maio.

Deex, along with sophomore Sam Dodt and senior Jeff Arnevick, are the team’s co-captains.

Amy Deex, Roland Deex’s mother and treasurer of the club, said the team is looking to expand, including encouraging student athletes from Hazen High School to participate.

“We really want to see more boys come out from that part of the area,” she said. “Many of them play Five Star sports, such as the youth football program, together. We really want a club that feeds from Hazen and Liberty.”

With more students, the club aims to field varsity and junior varsity teams every year in the future, she said. She also hopes to increase membership with the Liberty-associated lacrosse teams geared toward elementary and middle school-aged children.

Learn more about how to get involved with the Liberty Lacrosse Club at www.libertylacrosseclub.com.

Overlake advanced to its eighth win of the season with a 17 – 2 boys high school lacrosse defeat of Liberty on April 27 at Liberty High School in Renton.  With the win, the Owls maintained the pace they’ve set for the season, two games ahead of second-place Mt. Si for the Division II Evergreen Conference.

Barrett Jenness had six goals and Eric Risa had four goals, four assists and 12 ground balls in the win.

Anthony Mantz scored both Liberty goals, while Sam Dodt, Wyatt Johnson and Jeffrey Arnevick combined for 17 ground balls on defense.

Liberty (3-6-0) next faces Mt. Si (8-2-0) May 2 in a 7 p.m. start at Liberty High School in Renton.

Scoring

Overlake 17, Liberty 2 ( Barrett Jenness, OV, 6 goals; Eric Risa, OV, 4 goals, 4 assists, 12 ground balls; Curtis Yokoyama, OV, 3 goals, 1 assist, 2 ground balls; Anthony Mantz, L, 2 goals, 2 ground balls; Sam Dodt, L, 6 ground balls; Wyatt Johnson, L, 6 ground balls; Jeffrey Arnevick, L, 5 ground balls; Roland Deex, L, 8 saves)

Nate Jarvis completed a hat-trick to lead Liberty to its first boys high school lacrosse win of the season with an 11 – 5 defeat of Klahowya on Saturday at Maywood Middle School in Renton.

Sam Dodt, Colin Ross and Colin Larson all netted a pair of goals and Roland Deex had eight saves and six ground balls for Liberty in the win.

Liberty (1-2-0) next faces Redmond (0-1-0) at 7 p.m. March 21 at Liberty High School.

Klahowya (0-1-0) next faces Gig Harbor (2-1-0), Tuesday, March 20, in a 5 p.m. start at Central Kitsap Junior High.

Scoring

Liberty 11, Klahoywa 5 (Nate Jarvis, L, 3 goals and 2 ground balls; Sam Dodt, L, 2 goals 3 assists 8 ground balls; Colin Ross, L, 2 goals, 3 assists, 4 ground balls; Colin Larson, L, 2 goals and 5 ground balls; Jeff Arnevick, L, 1 goal and 4 ground balls; Peter Disney, L, 1 goal and 2 ground balls; Wyatt Johnson, L, 1 assist and 7 ground balls; Roland Deex, L,  8 saves, 6 ground balls)