STEELE SPORTS

Over the past weekend, I had a new sports experience in the form of watching my first-ever live lacrosse game when I traveled to watch Owatonna face the Minnetonka Skippers in Minnetonka.
My whole life growing up the game of lacrosse has been somewhat close to my heart. My father played in college at UCLA, and I grew up going to lacrosse camps in the summer. However, I had never actually spectated a live, organized game.
From my little over two weeks of knowledge of the game, I knew that it would be fast-paced and potentially high-scoring, but what I witnessed was something way different from what I had envisioned in my head.
First of all, the speed at which the ball – which is by no means soft – travels through the air is absolutely impressive.
My initial thoughts while watching the game were immediately steered toward wondering how anyone could willingly play the goalie position without fear of being injured.
As a former football player and someone used to physical contact, the violence of the players checking, hitting one another and firing the ball around the field all still gave me an anxious feeling for everyone involved while watching.
However, aside from feeling anxious the game also filled me with an incredible sense of adrenaline watching the level of competition that goes into taking the ball from the opponent and working it toward the opposing net.
Players leaping, diving, and throwing themselves at one another in such a chaotic yet harmonious way were impressive to watch.
Components of other sports were also featured in the game as well, which only added to the allure of the game.
Players setting screens much like in basketball and substituting on and off the field on the fly like in hockey kept the game moving fast and brought about more of a tactical battle than I had already assumed would come with the game.
If you are a fan of fast-paced, non-stop action then the sport of lacrosse may be for you.
In my opinion, these factors play perfectly into the best part of the sport— the scoring.
Those who enjoy high-scoring, offensive games will relish in the fact that many lacrosse games can feature teams breaking double-digit goals in a single contest.
In my very first game alone, there were eight goals spread across a whopping 68 shots, keeping the game action-packed from start to finish.
It is needless to say that after my first experience with live lacrosse, I will be back out to many local games over the course of the next few months.