Several columns ago I wrote about the game of lacrosse. The Duke University incident, a travesty of justice, focused the nation’s attention to the lacrosse and brought out the abbreviation “LAX” which is apparently short for la cross.

When I wrote the earlier column a Jackson area high school, St. Andrews, was attempting to get the sport started at the high school level and several of their athletes attempted to play lacrosse at the “club” level. That early “club” team has grown into a sanctioned and coached team which has played at least two games against other high school lacrosse teams. The most recent was at home against Christian Brothers of Memphis. Though St. Andrews lost that first home game, they seemed to impress the visiting team and its coach.

The lacrosse field measures 110 yards by 60 yards, which is similar enough to an American football field that schools can play the game on their football field. The goals, which are nets much like those in soccer, are set in about 15 yards from the end of the field, allowing play to take place behind each goal. Lacrosse is a full contact sport, and players are required to wear helmets), shoulder pads, arm and hand pads, and each carries a “lacrosse” which is a stick with a small basket on one end. Players may use the stick as a weapon under many situations although it is normally used to catch, carry, throw, and shoot the hard rubber ball. Points are scored by throwing the ball into the opponent’s net.

U.S. Lacrosse is the sport’s governing body in the United States. Though college lacrosse is played by 57 men’s Division I teams, there are over 200 college lacrosse clubs, playing under the umbrella of the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association.

As I have said before, the game of lacrosse is more interesting to watch, for me, and certainly faster than soccer. Lacrosse will have a hard time gaining a foothold in the South until many more kids lose interest in baseball and other spring and summer activities.

St. Andrews had earlier traveled to Memphis and played against St. Benedict School. A two-game season might not be much of a start, but remember that college football teams only 135 years ago usually played only one or two games a season.

Lacrosse is the Canadian national summer sport. It is also played indoors, and they then call it “box lacrosse.”

The women’s game is played with 12 players on each team, and their rules call for much less contact.

Men’s lacrosse games are contested by teams of 10 players. Soccer and American football are played by 11-man teams but, for football, it was not always that way. The first American college football teams were played with 25 men on each team. That dropped to 20 in 1873, to 15 in 1876, before finally settling in at 11 in 1880. The line-up and positions of those players changed many times in the following years.

And, that’s official.

Al Graning is a former SEC official and fomer Natchez resident. He can be reached by e-mail at AlanWard39157@aol.com.