ROCKFORD—Boylan Central Catholic High School students will have a new sports choice when they return to school for the 2023-2024 academic year with the introduction of an IHSA lacrosse team.

 

“Having a lacrosse team at Boylan has been discussed over the past two to three years, and we felt that this school year there was enough interest from our students to implement a team,” said Boylan athletic director Paul Heitkamp. “The new Boylan lacrosse team is the first of its kind among Rockford area high schools and will be primarily comprised of students who were members of the Rockford Razorbacks Club Lacrosse team.” 

 

Lacrosse players wear helmets, mouth guards and pads similar to football and soccer. According to ducksters.com, “Lacrosse is a team sport where players try to get a rubber ball into a net or goal. Players use a long stick with a net on the end of it called a lacrosse stick. They can run, carry, catch, shoot, and pass the ball with the net of the stick. The lacrosse team with the most points or goals at the end of the time period wins the game…The sport’s nickname is “The fastest game on two feet.”

 

Heitkamp said the team is open to all Boylan students and will start in the spring of 2024. “Right now, we have about 17 boys who played for the Razorbacks and are interested in being on the team; however, the team is open to female Boylan students, and no experience is necessary to play.”

 

“This first year, the Boylan lacrosse team will be a JV (junior varsity) level team coached by Robert White, who was a coach for the Razorbacks,” Heitkamp said. “We think the continuity of having Bob coach at Boylan will help grow and sustain the team.”

 

Coach White brings a long list of lacrosse experience with him to Boylan and explained that “although lacrosse may be new to most players, it is a game which is easy to learn for athletes with good hand eye coordination. We have had a number of players not begin playing until middle school or high school who have gone on to play college lacrosse.

 

“Lacrosse is still the fastest-growing collegiate sport, so the fact that we will be giving an entire new group of high school athletes the chance to become college athletes is exciting,” White said.

 

White added that lacrosse is a very popular crossover sport for hockey and football players because of its fast pace, high scoring and physical contact.

 

White said he began playing club lacrosse while in college at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

 

“After school, when I moved back to Rockford there was no lacrosse until Belvidere started a high school program in 2008. I was the first head coach of that team and left in 2012 to found the Rockford Razorbacks Lacrosse Club. I currently run the Razorback Lacrosse program and have been the varsity high school coach there for 11 years. The Razorbacks field youth and high school teams with players from all over the greater Rockford area,” White said.

 

Though there aren’t any other school-sponsored lacrosse teams in the Rockford area, Heitkamp said that Boylan is scheduled to play against other teams in the region. “We’ve got a few games on the schedule already and are looking 

 

into matches with Huntley, Hampshire and Crystal Lake,” he said. The Boylan lacrosse team is 

set to start practices in late February 2024.

 

Any athletes who may be interested in playing lacrosse next spring or eventually on the Boylan lacrosse team are encouraged to reach out to Coach White at boylantitanlax@gmail.com or 815-298-4491.