OP_062217

opprairie.com Sports
the orland park prairie | June 22, 2017 | 45
Hustle hopes lacrosse will grow after IHSA sanction
Jason Maholy
Freelance Reporter
With boys’ lacrosse ready
to join the ranks of IHSAsanctioned
sports, the director
of one area youth
program is hopeful his organization
can be instrumental
in preparing players – as well
as coaches – for competition
at the high school level.
Tom Richter, a 26-year
veteran of lacrosse and
founder of Lacrosse Hustle,
has already made somewhat
of a mark on “the
fastest sport on two feet”
in the southwest suburbs.
This spring, 16 youths who
in 2016 played with Hustle,
competed as freshmen for
high school programs. Seven
of those athletes were members
of varsity squads.
“That’s really satisfying
to me, to know their knowledge
of the game and skill
level was strong enough that
their coaches brought them
up to the varsity level as
freshmen,” said Richter, of
Orland Park. “I would argue
that we may not be doing it
perfect, but we must be doing
it well enough that these
players have these opportunities
when they get to high
school.”
Despite this success,
Richter recognizes his and
other southwest suburban
youth lacrosse programs
must do more to outfit players
with the skills necessary
to compete at the highest
level. While ninth-graders
have been talented enough to
make their high schools’ varsity
teams, their elevation to
those squads may have been
necessitated, at least in part,
by an overall lack of experienced
and skilled players on
rosters.
This could prove to be
wholly evident during the
2017-18 school year, when
lacrosse will for the first
time be an IHSA-sanctioned
“So, even though all sports are moving toward more
... bigger-bodied players, it’s still a game that little
fast guys can really succeed in.”
-Tom Richter, found of Lacrosse Hustle talks about the sports inclusiveness
sport. Programs such as
those at Lockport and Providence
have been strong
among their peers in the
area, but may be challenged
next year to find the same
level of success against north
suburban schools that have
been playing the sport for far
longer. South west suburban
area schools started have
only been playing lacrosse
for the past 10 years, north
side schools such as Loyola
and New Trier established
programs in the early 1990s.
Planting the Seeds
Hustle has served at
least 75 children in second
through eight grades in each
of its four years of existence,
according to Richter. The
organization’s inaugural
season was strictly instructional,
and Hustle has for the
subsequent three years fielded
competitive teams.
“I think what is really positive
is lacrosse is definitely
here to stay,” Richter said.
“But we’re at a crossroads
where it really needs to be
taught correctly; you can’t
kind of wing it anymore and
guess at it. [Being an IHSA
sport]’s a pretty big deal, so
being able to keep up with
some of the more mature
programs on the north side
is definitely motivating the
youth programs, but even
more-so the high school programs
and the high school
coaches, to kind of step it up
so they can be competitive.”
Richter has been working
with a number of high
school programs to help
players improve their skills
and, just as importantly,
teach coaches about the
game. Some high school lacrosse
coaches have limited
experience in the sport, and
many at the youth level have
never even played. For those
in the latter group, their familiarity
with the game frequently
goes back only three
or fours years, to when their
sons started playing, Richter
said. He is grateful for the
dads who have stepped in to
help coach, and he has been
impressed by their dedication
to learning about the
game.
“We take it seriously – go
over film, go over rules – I
invite dads to come on field
to understand more what
the game is about,” Richter
said. “I have some very motivated
dads who coach other
sports, so the goal is to keep
their spirit in terms of the
coaching because being an
individual whose willing to
coach, the good news is they
already have that personality.”
In order for Hustle to expand
and serve more players,
and continue to be a viable
feeder program for area
high schools, more instructors
– and more experienced
instructors – are needed, he
acknowledged. A team of 18
to 20 players requires at least
three coaches, he said.
“Instructing players on the
correct fundamentals and
safety are the cornerstones
of the organization,” he said.
“We’ve had to turn players
away because we don’t want
to have teams that don’t have
proper coaching.”
To the Beltway and Back
Richter grew up on Chicago’s
South Side and graduated
from Marist High School.
He started playing lacrosse
as a freshman at Illinois
Wesleyan, and after four
years of the sport in college
he played one year in a Chicago-based
men’s league.
His passion for the sport carried
him east to Baltimore,
where lacrosse’s popularity
at the prep level is akin to
that of baseball and football
in the Midwest.
“I’m a nurse by trade, and
I was working at Johns Hopkins,”
he said. “I was out
there for 15 months working
to pay my bills, but I actually
moved out there to play
lacrosse, because it’s such a
hotbed.”
Richter noted youths of
any size can play lacrosse.
Larger-bodied players who
are typically relegated to
“non-skill” positions on the
football field can be central
points of offense in lacrosse.
Despite it being a contact
sport, the rules enable smaller
players to compete at a
high level.
“It’s the only [field] sport
in which you can move with
the ball in any direction
you want for as long as you
want,” he said. “So, even
though all sports are moving
toward more ... bigger-bodied
players, it’s still a game
that little fast guys can really
succeed in.
“And if you have enough
determination – it’s not
called Lacrosse Hustle by
accident – if you have the
determination and you’ve
got some speed you can still
make some hay in the sport.”
Richter believes lacrosse
is destined to grow in popularity,
in the not-to-distant
future, among youths in the
southwest suburbs.
“When high school players,
that played and went
on to play in college, return
those are the kids Hustle is
seeking out [as coaches],”
he said. “These are the guys
that have played the game
and understand the nuances,
and that’s when I believe the
game is really going to start
to explode here in the next
couple years.”
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