The Auburn University men's and women's lacrosse clubs have teamed up with parents in the community to start the Auburn Youth Lacrosse League.
"Last summer I was in Auburn taking a couple classes and was kind of bored," said Marshall Clark, senior in economics and member of Auburn men's lacrosse club. "So I put up on the Auburn lacrosse website anyone who is interested in lacrosse to contact me."
Clark was contacted by an Auburn mom and was soon giving lessons to a couple kids in her backyard.
"We started doing weekly lessons last fall, and it got bigger and bigger and had more and more kids," Clark said.
Then, Clark and a few other members from the lacrosse team went to schools to get local kids interested.
"When we pulled up to Dean Road Elementary one day, the men's college club team was there in their lacrosse gear," said league coach Damon Grimes. "My son broke out into a big smile, and I thought, 'We are finally gonna have lacrosse here.'"
There are 129 kids in the league, which is divided into the lightning division for kids ages 6-9, the junior division for 9-12-year-olds and the senior division for 12 and older.
There are separate teams for boys and girls.
"The boys teams have a few men that have actually played lacrosse or their sons have played in a different city," said Aimee Owens, coach in the girls division. "But me and the other two parents that are kind of coaching have no knowledge of lacrosse at all."
On each team is a parent-coach and also a player from the Auburn men's or women's team.
"If we didn't have (the Auburn players), the kids would not have half the skills they have now," Grimes said. "The support they've given has been phenomenal--taking three to four hours of their day on a Saturday to come out and teach from 6-16-year- olds--they've been fantastic, and that's our advantage."
Kids don't need to have previous knowledge of lacrosse to get involved. Owens and her 8-year-old daughter Maggie watched videos on the Internet to get an understanding of what the game was and how it was played.
"We are learning together, which makes it exciting and fun," Owens said. "There is a lot of finesse to it because we are trying to match them up according to size so the tall girls aren't taking over the little girls."
Few high schools in Alabama have lacrosse teams, whereas in Atlanta lacrosse is popular among high school athletes. Grimes and his family moved to Auburn a year ago from Marietta, Ga., just north of Atlanta.
"High schools are using lacrosse to keep their athletes conditioned," Grimes said. "(The athletes) loved it, and now that's why high schools in Atlanta have it."
Auburn High School does not have a lacrosse team, so kids in the community can come play with the youth league to learn more about the sport.
"The kids from Auburn are volunteering their time," Owens said. "They aren't getting compensated; they've just volunteered. The reason they said they wanted to help was to increase awareness and build the sport up."
The league will be playing against teams from Mobile that will be traveling to Auburn in the next two weeks, and May 14 the Auburn teams will travel to Birmingham to try out their new skills.
"I just want (my daughter) to try whatever she wants to try and learn," Owens said. "It has been a great experience for me and my daughter, and everyone has really enjoyed learning the game. It has been really fun."
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