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Lacrosse is hardly a new sport though. Hundreds of years before the Minnesota Swarm, our newest professional sports team, started playing the sport in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota’s Ojibway and Dakota communities were playing lacrosse on the same land. The sport started out as a game played by the Native Americans. The version of the sport played by the natives was a little different than the game that is played today. The Native Americans called lacrosse “The Creator’s Game.” It was used as a tool to develop endurance and practice skills and military strategy. One game could last for days. The field of play did not have boundaries. A game could cover miles of territory and could involve well over 100 players. The French gave lacrosse a new spin in the early 1800’s and made it the first national sport of Canada. A French-Canadian dentist who wrote rules that standardized the size of the field, the number of players, and other aspects of the game. By 1877, New York University formed the first college team in the United States. Lacrosse even made a couple of appearances at the Olympics, in 1904 and 1908.

Lacrosse has captured the interest of athletes across the country.

“It’s an exciting and fast paced sport and it takes a lot of skill and finesse,” Sweeney said.

The game has universal appeal because it combines aspects of many different sports. They play zone defenses sometimes, like basketball. The contact is similar to the amount of contact found in hockey and football. It has all the finesse of soccer but scoring is more frequent. It is an affordable sport too. “The Creator’s Game” is far cheaper than ice hockey and far less dangerous than football.

Last year, big strives were made toward the progression of womens lacrosse as an intercollegiate sport at Hamline. Heidi Rivers, a graduate of Carleton University signed on as the first coach of the womens team and HUSC chartered the womens team, giving them a budget and the ability to raise funds for themselves. The womens team at Hamline also has a more players this year than in years past. They have about 20 players this year.

Sweeney has been involved in the sports program since its initial meeting and works hard today to get lacrosse past the club level.

“This year we’re really serious about it,” she said.

This past fall, Sweeney collaborated with two other players from St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota to create a document that describes what the game is, how it is played, the progression of it on the high school level and collegiate level. Sweeney has also been working very close with Hamline Athletic Director Dan O’Brien.

“I feel if we don’t put pressure on athletic directors to think about it than it will take longer to make lacrosse an intercollegiate sport,” Sweeney said.

This isn’t a problem at Hamline. The university is well ahead of the curve as far as support for the sport is concerned. O’Brien is an immense supporter of the program’s development.

“Hamline was one of the last teams in the MIAC to pick up women’s hockey. We want to be on board with lacrosse from the beginning,” he said.

Lacrosse is getting big on the college scene but it is gigantic on the high school scene. When those athletes graduate they may want to play lacrosse on the college level. Someday, Hamline will be a viable option for lacrosse athletes. Sweeney and O’Brien are in agreement that lacrosse will be an intercollegiate sport in about five years. But in order for that to happen, the rest of the MIAC needs to replicate the support that Hamline’s students and administrators have for this sport.