By RHOS B. DYKE Special to the Palisadian-Post One of the fastest growing sports across the nation, lacrosse is becoming a popular sport among youth in Southern California. Though not yet an interscholastic sport, lacrosse has been played in the Palisades for some time by local kids attending Los Angeles-area private schools. This spring, however, the game arrived at Palisades High and could be here to stay. What began with a blank piece of paper at the end of last summer is now the Palisades Lacrosse Club of the Pacific Coast Lacrosse Association (PCLA). The league includes 13 high school varsity level teams, 15 junior varsity squads (including Palisades) and nine middle school clubs, including the Westside Warriors who play at Paul Revere. Palisades’ franchise is off to a 6-2-1 start in it’s inaugural campaign’impressive seeing as only a few of the 20 kids on the team had ever picked up a stick before the season started. Managed by Andrea Dyke and Lori Mendez-Packer and coached by Jeff Hirshberg and Scott Hylen, Palisades upset previously undefeated Malibu, 12-8, Saturday at Stadium by the Sea. The Pali JV club team is led by sophomore attacker Nick Sherman, who scored 33 goals and passed for 11 assists’a total of 44 points’in the team’s first eight games. Sherman, who lives in Mandeville Canyon, leads the league in scoring. Junior midfielder Joe Luckett had 17 goals going into the Malibu game while freshman midfielders Josh Packer and Sutherland Dyke added 15 and 12 points, respectively. Freshman goalie Nico Roe recorded 85 saves in his first six games. Rounding out the squad are midfielders Andre Harris, Colin Vining, Ramsay Potts and Nick Kappeyne; attackers Peter Foster, Max Gross, Max Rosenzweig, Eugene Karachun, Yoni Shoshani and Travis De Zarn; and defenders Josh Sharp, Simon Lewis, Nick Savas, Paul Rago and Rob Seaward. Because lacrosse is not yet a sanctioned CIF sport, kids from any school that doesn’t have a team may play for any club they like, meaning this year’s Pali squad consists mostly of Palisadian boys from St. Monica, Encino Crespi, L.A. Hamilton and Palisades Highs. Pali’s first season began with a 5-3 victory over Beverly Hills on March 3. After nine games, the team’s only losses have come at the hands of league-leading Palos Verdes and an experienced varsity squad from Brentwood School. A 12-4 victory over Harvard-Westlake and Saturday’s win over Malibu have been the standout performances for Pali, which plays its final three games of the season on the road at Chaminade of West Hills, San Gabriel and finally a rematch with Brentwood. Pali hopes to field both a varsity and a junior varsity team in 2005. High school boys interested in playing on the club should contact Andrea Dyke at 230-3298 or Lori Mendez-Packer at 454-0361. For more information, visit the PCLA Web site: www.pacificcoastlacrosse.com.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
