Katie Heidinger can get into a batter's head. A pitcher at Webster Groves, Heidinger relies on outthinking as much as overpowering the opposition. But it's spring, and the head games of softball can wait. She's free to run, catch, toss and score on the lacrosse field.
"I love the intensity of lacrosse," said Heidinger, who leads the Statesmen with 38 goals and 17 assists. "With softball, so much is mental, but with this, there's so much movement and something's always happening."
Heidinger is one of thousands of girls captivated by lacrosse. Locally and nationally, the sport is on the rise at the youth, high school and college levels, particularly for girls. Lacrosse attracted 9,579 new participants in 2008-09, according to US Lacrosse. Since 2002, total participation at all levels has increased to 568,021 from 288,104.
Lacrosse is the fastest-growing sport at the high school level over the last decade for girls. According to the National Federation of High Schools, girls' participation in lacrosse increased 208 percent from 1999 to 2009, reaching 90,814 girls. Lacrosse trails only bowling as a growth sport for high school boys.
St. Louis has been part of the trend. When Ursuline Academy started its lacrosse program in 1999, coach Judy Anderson said, only 10 schools fielded teams. That number has increased to 26, many with junior varsity and freshman teams as well.
The biggest growth in the last five or six years has been in girls' teams at public high schools, in districts as diverse as Hazelwood, Eureka, Riverview Gardens and O'Fallon, Ill.
"Most of the girls have never played, but when they see the game, they view it as a challenge they want to overcome," said coach Mike Vaughn of Hazelwood West, in its third year of competition.
Boys' high school teams in the area still outnumber girls' programs 30-26, and some have played at the club level for nearly 20 years. Yet the girls wasted little time getting ahead of the boys in one important area: sanctioning from the Missouri State High School Activities Association, starting in 2008.
"The girls coaches really wanted it. They have a more cohesive public and private system," said Jay Coleman, head of the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association, which organizes boys clubs. "We probably don't have the cohesion that the girls did."
Illinois sanctioned the sport for boys and girls in November, classifying it as an emerging sport, and could hold state tournaments beginning in 2011 if enough schools sponsor teams. Despite being the only school in Southern Illinois to offer the sport, O'Fallon High greeted the sanctioning with open arms.
"When sports compete at the club level, there's a loss of accountability to the school, maintaining grades and how they represent the school," O'Fallon athletics director Todd Moeller said. "We didn't want that disconnect."
For maintaining the school's academic and conduct standards, the players receive transportation to games and help with the cost of equipment. Responsibility for scheduling moved from the coach or parents' association to the athletic department. O'Fallon's teams play most of their games against St. Louis teams but schedule a couple of weekend series with teams from northern Illinois and the Chicago area.
The sport appeals to girls on several levels:
Scoring: Though the skill sets are similar, lacrosse is faster than soccer or field hockey and includes more scoring. Rather than claiming a 2-0 or 3-1 victory, the winner of a lacrosse match is likely to score in double figures.
"Some of the girls just get tired of soccer, and this is something with the same basic skills," Anderson said. "There's just more excitement."
College opportunities: More than 350 NCAA schools offer women's lacrosse as a sanctioned sport, compared to 257 for men.
Camaraderie: "I think a lot of girls like to be part of a team," said Lynn Mittler, acting head coach of five-time state champion MICDS. "In track, they're watching you as an individual, and that's not appealing to every girl. They like teammates there to work with and support."
New teams need to support each other, since the learning curve for players and coaches can be steep. Josh Palacios had never played lacrosse but got involved six years ago as an assistant coach at Webster Groves because his sister wanted to play and the club team had no coach.
"We learned together," said Palacios, now the head coach. "The majority had never touched a stick before freshman year."
Mittler noted that two years ago, MICDS defeated the Statesmen 13-1. The Rams won again this year, 13-10. Other teams also are catching up.
"I'm surprised at how the public schools can get good coaches and how well they have made the transition," Mittler said. "There was a time when the schools with established programs could walk all over them. It's nice to talk about parity."
The key to improvement at Webster (6-8), Palacios said, was "having a lot of fun. The rest comes from there. If they have fun, they want to work harder and longer. And then they improve."
Mittler, however, noted that recruiting natural athletes can accelerate the learning curve. Webster's top two scorers are Heidinger and Cassie Rizzo, starting pitcher and catcher, respectively, on Webster's softball team. Rizzo attributed their success to hand-eye coordination honed in softball.
"I tried out because some of the seniors on the softball team thought I'd be good at it," said Rizzo, who has 23 goals and 22 assists this season. "And it turned out to be really fun."
The fun has spread. This year, Webster's program attracted 30 more players than last year and expanded to three teams from two. The soccer program, however, contracted to two teams from three.
"We added lacrosse to offer more students a chance to get involved," Webster athletics director Jerry Collins said. "I can't say the rise in lacrosse and drop in soccer are entirely related, but it seems like it could be more than a coincidence."
Though the public schools here have jumped on the lacrosse bandwagon, sanctioning has hurt the sport in other parts of the state, since MSHSAA currently doesn't allow school-sponsored teams to play club teams. Students in Columbia, Springfield and Kansas City had crossed school boundaries to form club teams, but most of those teams disbanded two years ago because they had few teams to play.
This year, the 25 girls' teams in Missouri and the team from O'Fallon will hold a season-ending tournament under the MSLA banner. MSHSAA won't sponsor a tournament until 50 schools, spread over three districts, field a team. Thus, the next key is to grow the sport outside St. Louis.
"I'd like to see it get there," Mittler said. "We have room for growth in almost every other part of the state."
The sport has yet to take root for girls in St. Charles and Jefferson counties, though some schools have started club programs. Groups in Columbia, Springfield and Kansas City could get a boost soon, if athletics directors approve a change to MSHSAA's bylaws. The proposal would set up a series of rules for emerging sports — those with less than 50 participating schools — that includes competing against club-level teams.
The most room for growth locally and statewide is at the grass-roots level. The largest youth program in the area is Gateway Outdoor Amateur Lacrosse, a five-week program that attracts about 1,300 boys and girls in grades 3-8 from 10 school districts. The St. Louis Catholic Youth Council launched an instructional league this spring, which attracted 140 boys and girls in fifth through eighth grades. Anderson's players from Ursuline volunteer as coaches for the 60 girls in the fledgling CYC program.
"We need the seed programs to put players in the pipeline," Anderson said. "GOAL and the CYC are really good ways to spark interest. Those kids can be the future, and we need to help them grow."
