So Dak Lax

Hello friends,

It’s been a long time coming, but South Dakota Lacrosse is gearing up, and we’re hoping to hit the ground running. It’s no easy task to bring a new sport into a state that has had little experience with it, but with hard work and some help from a few dedicated friends of the sport, we’ll have the basis for a strong lacrosse community before the year is over.

The University of South Dakota had a very respectable lacrosse team for several years, but sadly that has passed into the mists of time, leaving those of us with a desire to be involved in this game with little hope of seeing it come back. When I moved back to the Vermillion area, I found that the Coyote team had gone, and the only person around with an interest in lacrosse was a high school senior about to head off to Dordt college’s lacrosse club, and a few scattered individuals around southeast South Dakota.

It became clear from my conversations with them that South Dakota is ripe for a sport like lacrosse, with its easy watchability for spectators, gameplay that emphasizes skill and quick thinking above pure physicality, and a nationwide culture which emphasizes being more than just an athlete. The demand was especially clear at the high school level, which fit with my own ideas of how the sport of lacrosse would best grow into new areas.

So, in the coming weeks, I will be personally contacting high school Athletics Directors, community summer program coordinators, and booster club presidents throughout the state of South Dakota, and talking to them about forming the teams that will make up South Dakota Lacrosse and compete for the first ever South Dakota High School Lacrosse State Championship.

Our goal is to have between 8 and 16 programs ready to start competition in both boys’ and girls’ lacrosse in May of 2013, almost immediately following the State Track Meet, for a season culminating in a State Lacrosse Tournament at the end of July.

To make this happen, we’ll need your help. We need volunteers and donations of all stripes. We need officials, preferably those willing to volunteer their time. We need members for a board of directors for South Dakota Lacrosse. Most of all, though, we need players. We need high-school-aged boys and girls to sign up to play and to compete. This is your chance to make history. Will you be on the first State Lacrosse Champion team?

Yours,

Evan Brodersen
Executive Director
South Dakota Lacrosse