College Lacrosse 2012

Maryland Lacrosse Team: The Glory Days

 
The college lacrosse season kicked off a few weeks ago. For OTR it began yesterday with the opening game for the University of Maryland Terrapins. Though it won't be a championship season for the Terps, they got off to a good start beating Hartford 12-6 in front of a home crowd.

From all indications, lacrosse continues to be the fastest growing sport in the United States, even outpacing soccer, in OTR's opinion, a much slower, more restrictive, and far less entertaining sport. Just thirty years ago, the game was a virtually exclusive sport still heavily anchored in the Ivy League and in the prep schools that supplied them with players. Today, there are more than sixty Division I teams found on the East and West Coasts and at the flagship universities in the flyover country. Each year that number grows by one or two teams. Expansion in other college divisions and at the middle and high school levels is much greater. There is a great future in store for lacrosse.

The increasing popularity of the sport had led to expanded media coverage. In 2012, the ESPN networks will broadcast 49 college games. The new NBC Sports Network broadcast the Moe's Southwest Grill College Lacrosse Classic from Jacksonville today, but the extent of their future coverage of college lacrosse is uncertain. Nevertheless, between local and ESPN coverage this year, lacrosse fans are in for plenty of excitement.

Need more information?

For full coverage of high school, college and professional lacrosse, visit http://www.laxpower.com. This site has a 2012 schedule of televised games;

For the whos, hows, whats and whys of the game, visit USLacrosse.com, the home of the national governing body of lacrosse.