The Grand Valley United high school lacrosse team known as the Lightning has disbanded.
Instead, there will be two boys and two girls high school lacrosse teams in the valley this spring, an example of how the sport continues to grow in the Grand Valley.
District 51 Athletic Director Paul Cain said Tuesday that this spring, Fruita Monument and Grand Junction high schools will each field a boys and a girls lacrosse team.
Lacrosse players who attend Central or Palisade will be able to play for the Tigers.
“Both schools have big incoming freshman classes,” Cain said. “For the boys there will be enough to have a whole varsity and junior varsity for each school.”
Tod Woomer, the president of the Grand Valley Lacrosse Club, said most of the incoming freshmen have playing experience.
“As the sport has matured in the valley, the younger kids have continued to pick up the sport,” Woomer said. “So now we have freshmen that have played the sport for a number of years.”
Cain said there will most likely not be enough girls for either school to have a JV team, but there will be two girls varsity teams.
The split comes only one year after playing as a unified team. The majority of the high school program is funded by Grand Valley Lacrosse.
“The Grand Valley Lacrosse Club wants to see the sport grow,” Cain said. “But this is probably where we will max out as far as adding teams.”
The Grand Valley Lacrosse Club pushed for two teams because of the number of interested players.
When the school district added lacrosse as a varsity sport last year, the club no longer had a high school-age team, but continued to field a younger squad. The Lightning had one high school varsity and one junior varsity team for boys and girls.
“This is what we needed to do to get the numbers of kids that wanted to play to be able to play,” Woomer said. “This was the logical step.”
Cain said the school district is in the process of hiring head coaches, and hopes to have that finished before December. Practice begins in February for this spring’s season.
The Grand Valley Lacrosse Club will begin its season with a three-day camp Nov. 6-8, run by the coaches of Colorado State University’s club team.
Email PATRICK BAHR
