Author’s Note:  This article appeared in the latest US Lacrosse Magazine and we had to wait for it to post online before we could link to it.  It’s a great read!

 

Why Pensacola Could Become A Lacrosse Hotbed

by Matt Hamilton   Excerpt: Football and baseball reign supreme on Florida’s Gulf Coast, especially in and around the Pensacola area. But starting about six years ago, Cassandra Waller, who oversees the physical education curriculum for Escambia County Public Schools, started to hear rumblings of another sport in her community — lacrosse. More and more youth programs, like the Pensacola Knights and Gulf Breeze, popped up and children were increasingly becoming interested in the stick-and-ball game. “I started to notice an upward trend in lacrosse in our community,” Waller said. “Not in our school district, but our community. I was like ‘Wow, this is really picking up a lot of headway.” By 2013, Escambia County had up to four Florida High School Athletic Association-participating teams, but Waller saw even more potential in the sport. Why couldn’t middle and elementary schools have lacrosse included in the curriculum?   Read the rest HERE