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Sports

Duluth Youth Lacrosse Registration Underway

Competition begins Sept. 17. Registration for players and coaches continues through Sept. 1.

Registration for the Gwinnett Youth Lacrosse Association's fall league is underway.

Association Director Jerrie Consie says the first game is scheduled for Sept. 17, and he hopes to have everyone registered by Sept. 1, but will accept players through Sept. 15.

The cost is $125 and includes 8 to 10 games and uniforms. Players must provide their own sticks, pads, gloves and helmets. Players and anyone interested in serving as a volunteer coach can register on line at youth.duluthlax.com.

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Teams practice one or two days a week at Duluth Middle School with all games played on Saturdays at various parks around Newtown Park as well as Shorty Howell Park.

Consie said the league is part of the Duluth Parks and Recreation program and serves as a feeder system for the Duluth High School lacrosse teams.

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"But we don't turn anyone away who wants to learn how to play the sport," Consie said.

Lacrosse is a game first played by Native Americans that has quickly growing in popularity throughout the United States.

"Last spring, we had only 12 players,, seven of which were girls, and we put a team together and taught them how to play," Consie said. This year, we had 60 kids and three teams, two boys and one girls teams.

Consie credits Jeff Eckard, president of the Duluth High School Boosters Club, with helping to get the association started at the request of Griffin Spotz, the school's lacrosse coach.

The sport is available year-round with an instructional league in the fall and a competetion league in the the spring.

Consie said he was a natural choice to head up the program, having grown up on an Indian reservation where the sport has its roots.

"It's a combo of various disciplines, contact and running, and it requires good hand-eye coordination, which is one reason baseball players usually make good lacrosse players," he said.

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