“A contact team sport in which a ball is thrown, caught, and carried in a long-handled stick having a curved L-shaped or triangular frame at one end with a piece of shallow netting in the angle.” If you are wondering what that first sentence was describing, it was the sport of lacrosse. Now you might be wondering “what is lacrosse?” To that, I would ask if your vision is impaired because I just stated the Google definition in the first sentence in the paragraph. 

Now you must be wondering, “why is this relevant?” I shall tell you. I’m Tristan Woods. I’m a junior, journalist for The Central Times, and a lacrosse player. Now as a lacrosse player, I would have a lot of respect for the sport, so when I hear people talk badly about lacrosse, it could offend me just a bit. However, I tend to just brush it off. Now whenever people mention the sport, they always talk about how they don’t understand lacrosse, which is perfectly fine. On the other hand, people no longer just talk about how they don’t understand the sport, but also negatively talk about people who play lacrosse. I believe it is unfair to assume that because someone plays a certain sport, they therefore act a certain way. Similarly, some make fun of a sport since they never played it and think it’s easy. That is why I am using my position as a journalist. This level of judgment is not deserved.

No one should ever reprimand someone for playing lacrosse, or any sports at all. The amount of times I’ve heard  someone make fun of somebody and related them to a lacrosse player leaves me flabbergasted. Whether it’s at school or on social media, people seem to give the sport a bad light. Some say lacrosse players are a bunch of “druggies” who didn’t make the football or baseball team. Others say that lacrosse is “a weak man’s football,” which is just not true. But it doesn’t stop there. Just the other day, I was sitting in a class and something shocking happened during lunch. A male student here called a foreign exchange student a rude term and people were talking about it in class. As the conversation went on, a girl said something about the boy’s looks, saying that he has the same icky behavior and looks as a basic lacrosse player. I didn’t say anything at the time so that is why I am writing this article.

My lacrosse team is my family. I care for every single player on that field, regardless of skill or experience. We work together tirelessly and forged friendships on and off the field. I have seen people broken on the field, left in the dust, and taken to urgent care. Lacrosse is a sport that many people ridicule, so that is why I cannot just stand idly by.  With all that being said, before you judge a sport, try to find the beauty within and understand why people have a passion for it; you might even enjoy it yourself.