Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Proving once again that what was once old can become new again, Forest Lake has a new sport this spring. It’s also considered by many to be America’s first sport, but after some impressive efforts put forth by junior Matt Mollet and friends, lacrosse is now on the Rangers’ athletic map.

Two years ago Mollet contacted Tim Conley, the Youth Athletic Coordinator at Community Education, to explore the possibilities of developing the sport within the Forest Lake community. About the same time he also applied for a grant from US Lacrosse, because when it comes to equipment, the price adds up as lacrosse is basically hockey on grass — helmets, pads, gloves, sticks, etc.

Mollet was hoping to land some funds in order to get the program rolling, and he ended up receiving approximately $10,000 worth of gear, which is certainly one way to announce the sport’s arrival.

“That definitely helped out a lot,” Mollet says. “In a sense we’re building from the ground up.”

With both a competitive team and a club team in 2007, it appears Mollet and the lacrosse players are building at a fairly rapid pace.

As a first-year program, the competitive team will play against other schools in the Minnesota Boys Scholastic Lacrosse Association (MBSLA), who are new to the scene: Spring Lake Park, Coon Rapids, Wayzata, Burnsville and Holy Family.

On a side note, while girls lacrosse has been sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League for several years, the MSHSL only recently added boys lacrosse as a varsity sport. For various reasons, many of the boys programs have remained with MBSLA.

Now back to the action — when Forest Lake hits the field on Wednesday, April 18 for their season opener, they will be making history as old will officially become new again.

But before that even occurs, Forest Lake will have a humdinger of a warm-up, when they play at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday, April 14, after the Minnesota Swarm’s professional lacrosse game.

Less than a month has passed since the boys began practicing for this season, but head coach Rahal Cheikh sounds like this squad is doing things the right way.

“We’re going to give everybody a chance to play,” he says.

In fact, the whole notion of having a lacrosse team is still so fresh, Cheikh is hesitant to assign positions at this point; that will have to wait until game time gets closer.

However, he is encouraged by what he sees in practice: hard work, dedication, character, and apparently some ability.

“I would say there’s about six or eight of them, that, yeah, I will be expecting to score and be good...doesn’t matter which position,” he shares. “There’s probably about nine that if I throw them in the midfield they’re just going to keep running. Those guys don’t get tired from what I saw.”

Being the new kid on the playing field, many of the athletes are trying this sport for the very first time. More than 70 students registered last year, showing that there is an obvious interest from the local pool of athletes. As Mollet stated in his thank you letter to US Lacrosse, “clearly in Forest Lake, lacrosse had found support, enthusiasm, and another home.”

From the country’s first sport, to Forest Lake’s newest, lacrosse has become part of the community’s athletic landscape.

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