Youth from south Snohomish County are getting their sticks ready for the 2011 season with the Lynnwood Tigers lacrosse team, which includes both boys and girls from grades 3 to 12 who live in the Edmonds or Shoreline school districts. The regular season practice begins today for the youth programs. High school varsity and junior varsity teams have been holding captain’s practices since December in the area.

This season promises to bring high-speed action with some new challenges for the Tigers, which won the high school boys state championship for Division 2 in 2010. In 2007, Lynnwood was moved to D-1 after playing in the 2006 state championship, but was brought back to D-2 after a very difficult season. The Washington Boys High School Lacrosse organization decided to move Lynnwood back to D-1 after the following repetitive dominating seasons in D-2.

Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. There are now an estimated 228,000 high school players in the nation and NCAA level colleges have jumped to over 1000 teams and club programs. Washington state is among the fastest growing regions in the country for the sport. Edmonds banker Harry Ostrander was inducted into the Washington Lacrosse Hall Of Fame last year for his ongoing part in developing the sport in the state.

Anyone interested in learning more about lacrosse or in participating in the program should check out the Lynnwood Tigers website. Video highlights of past games can also be found on YouTube.