Lacrosse clubs launch summer programs

Evidence of the growing interest in lacrosse can be seen this summer in the activities of two clubs — The La Jolla Riptide Lacrosse Club and Cougars Lacrosse.

Both teams have summer programs designed to expand lacrosse locally and to help the players stay ahead of the competition. The Riptide, for boys, and the Cougars, for girls, are both under the guidance of area high school coaches and are holding practices at Doyle Elementary School.

The Riptide philosophy “is to teach lacrosse in a manner that sets a positive example of good sportsmanship and friendly competition,” said Garrett Stanwick of the Riptide staff, who is associate head coach for the La Jolla High lacrosse team.

The other staff members are Rory Hyland, head lacrosse coach and program director at La Jolla Country Day School, and John Cummings, who coaches at Patrick Henry High and also works at the La Jolla YMCA.

The Cougars, with teams including players from La Jolla and Torrey Pines High, are coached by Lauren Dachille, Torrey Pines High School junior varsity head coach; Erin Fitzmartin, TPHS varsity assistant coach, and Jenn Tapscott: La Jolla High’s varsity head coach, and Kevin Flynn, who also coaches at TPHS.

Currently the Cougars club, which already has formed a high school summer team, is looking for middle school girls to fill out that team. They’ll be playing in summer jamborees and one tournament.

The Riptide is fielding summer teams for high school boys, U15 Boys and U13 Boys. The teams, which started practice this week, will be playing in two Southern California tournaments this summer.

Players in both clubs will be learning and polishing top-notch offensive and defensive principles of the game. Instruction includes basic and advanced stick work development, stick protection, dodging, shooting, footwork, offensive and defensive game philosophy, stick and body checking, transition play and more.

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