When Fort Lewis College student Kyen Attakai attended high school in Arizona, he said his friends and he had watched lacrosse on television and wanted to try it out, but the opportunity wasn’t available.
“We were tabling on campus and Kyen walked by,” FLC head coach Tom Mudrak said. “He said he always wanted to play, but they didn't have it as his school.”
Attakai joined the club team at Fort Lewis and is now a senior on the roster. This weekend, he’ll get to compete in the first-ever lacrosse games played in Holbrook, which is a small town on the edge of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
Fort Lewis, Northern Arizona University and Southern Utah University will compete in a “grow the game” event this weekend in Holbrook.
NAU and Southern Utah play first at 7 p.m. Friday. FLC will play Southern Utah at noon Saturday in its conference opener, then take on NAU at 1 p.m. Sunday. The games will be free to attend in an effort to expose the sport to as many people as possible. The Skyhawks will also stream their games on Instagram at FLC_lacrosse.
“We’ll introduce them to the game, that will be the first step,” Mudrak said. “Maybe some of them will take an interest.”
The coach was also in a similar situation when he was in high school in the Augusta, Georgia area. He said he helped lobby his school to start the first team in the area.
“Part of our team’s mission is to grow the game,” Mudrack said. “Hopefully, we can do that through (these games).”
The coach described lacrosse as “3D hockey,” and said it’s a lot faster than most other sports.
FLC competes in the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association, which has about 200 teams in Division I and Division II. FLC is part of the 12-team Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference in Division II, which includes Air Force, the University of Denver, Wyoming, Montana State, Utah State and others.
FLC is currently 1-0 after beating New Mexico in its season opener, 18-7. With all of the snow in Durango, that was the only time the team has been able to play on a field this season.
The team will be on the road for the first part of its season, but will have five home games at the Smith Sports Complex for fans to check out. FLC will host UC Irvine on March 28, Metropolitan State University Denver on April 7, Air Force on April 8, New Mexico on April 14 and Western Colorado on April 16.
