By Zach Zook
BLOOMINGTON – Ready or not, lacrosse is coming to Bloomington-Normal.
Bloomington-Normal Warriors Lacrosse Club president Jeff Scheck is fairly sure of that. A newer program compared to most youth sports programs locally, the Warriors have seen growth each and every year since their inception. Along with Scheck, his coaching staffs are a large part of that.
“Our coaches do a great job of balancing out playing time and trying to give every kid the opportunity to grow,” said Scheck. “At the end of the day our mission is really for the kids to develop, have a good time, love lacrosse, and just grow the game.”
The Warriors are a non-profit organization, so every coach involved in the program is volunteering their time purely for the love of the game. Popularity has increased locally to the point there’s been buzz about lacrosse potentially becoming a part of the IHSA.
Scheck confirmed that his program had reached out to the IHSA about becoming an officially sanctioned sport for 2018. In addition, Scheck has spoken to a number of local high schools as well.
“We’ve reached out to some of the schools about trying to start a lacrosse program,” Scheck said. “Unfortunately now with budget constraints and things like that it’s just something that the schools aren’t ready to embrace.”
Normal West athletic director Stan Lewis said representatives from Normal Community and Normal West met with the local lacrosse club last year.
Lewis said he believes the sport will be added locally at some point, but cost the and local of available sites to play remain a problem.
“Turf football fields would solve half of the problem, but that is another cost issue,” Lewis said in an email.
Illinois Wesleyan University added lacrosse as a men’s sport in 2014 and as a women’s sport in 2015. The teams play at Tucci Stadium, which has artificial turf.
Bloomington High School’s Fred Carlton Field will be converted to field turf for the 2018-19 school year.
The Warriors president went on to describe some of the difficulties on both the school’s and the IHSA’s end. Participation and popularity isn’t an issue as much as the business side is. Starting up a new sport would mean fewer teams, which also means more travel and money to play.
Scheck however, remains confident that with lacrosse’s continued growth, the domino effect of programs starting up will eventually fall into place.There are already clubs like Scheck’s in other areas of Illinois too, such as Peoria. When asked about his program’s involvement at a higher level in the future, Scheck described his vision.
“As a club, our main goal is that local from the ground up foundation,” said Scheck. “What I see as our future is really becoming the feeding program to all the high schools.”
In the years to come, this could very much become a reality. However, at least for now, Scheck will continue to quietly work away to help bring an entire sport to Bloomington-Normal.
Zach Zook can be reached at [email protected].
