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UCSB Community Outreach Youth Lacrosse League Starts Tuesday

Feb. 21, 2012

Santa Barbara, CA - The UCSB Lacrosse Programs and the Santa Barbara Lacrosse Association, in conjunction with UCSB Recreational Sports, are offering a Community Outreach Youth Lacrosse League at UCSB. The inaugural UCSB location practices start on Tuesday, February 29th. Just under one hundred youth lacrosse hopefuls from different parts of  Santa Barbara County have signed up to participate. UCSB and SBCC players will be coaching and officiating. Practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 5:30pm. Games are on Saturday mornings.

Practices and games will alternate between UCSB Storke Field and Elings Park so that south county residents have a shorter drive on occassion. The opening week of February 29th and March 1st will see girls at UCSB Storke Field and boys at Elings Park. The next week the genders will switch locations.

One of the many missions of any higher education institution is to provide community service. Youth and their families coming on campus and having a good experience is positive for UCSB. Getting regular interaction with good role models such as the UCSB student-athletes and coaching staffs will be good for the 1st - 8th graders in the program. 

"This league is an idea that has been a long time coming to fruition," said UCSB head women's lacrosse coach Paul Ramsey when asked about it.

The concept isn't new to UCSB Lacrosse, having been in the planning stages for more than two years, with an initial attempt at running programs after school at elementary schools getting it off the ground. A problem was many small groups of players spread out and no critical mass at any one location for this sport growing on the west coast in leaps and bounds.

"It took a while to organize everything and it would not be happening without the huge help of the SBLA and UCSB Recreational Sports," added Ramsey.  "This is truly a big cooperative effort."

"We also have to admit we are all doing it because we are lacrosse coaches, players and fans. We all want to develop lacrosse in Santa Barbara," said Ramsey.

SBLA representatives have taken the lead in the recruitment effort by conducting P.E. lessons at elementary schools all over town and spreading the word about the league to all interested youth and parents. The SBLA is also responsible for all the player registrations with their League Athletics website platform. The SBLA is a non-profit in town dedicated to building youth lacrosse all over Santa Barbara County. More support has come from Brine Lacrosse, Inc. Brine has donated a pair of lacrosse goals and nets to help the league get started.

There's still time for parents to sign up their children. Go to the Santa Barbara Lacrosse Association (SBLA) website. A number of Saturday morning game days will end about mid day as UCSB lacrosse games get started. The youth players can finish up their games and walk over to the UCSB Lacrosse Field with their parents to watch UCSB play. 

"The synergy is going to be fantastic," concluded Ramsey.