FLC men’s lacrosse hopes to bring kids closer to the sport – The Durango Herald

The team will compete in Holbrook, Arizona for the first time ever

When Fort Lewis College student Kyen Attakai attended high school in Arizona, he said he and his friends saw lacrosse on TV and wanted to try it, but the opportunity didn’t exist.

“We lined up on campus and Kyen came over,” said FLC head coach Tom Mudrak. “He said he’d 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 will be attending the first-ever lacrosse games in Holbrook, a small town on the outskirts of Navajo Nation, Arizona.

Fort Lewis, Northern Arizona University and Southern Utah University will go head-to-head in a Grow the Game event this weekend in Holbrook.

NAU and Southern Utah play first on Friday at 7 p.m. FLC will play Southern Utah in their conference opener on Saturday noon and then take on NAU on Sunday at 1 p.m. Participation in the games is free in order to make the sport accessible to as many people as possible. The Skyhawks will also stream their games on Instagram at FLC_lacrosse.

“We’re going to introduce them to the game, that’ll be the first step,” Mudrak said. “Maybe some of them care.”

The coach was also in a similar situation when he was in high school in the Augusta, Georgia area. He said he helped influence his school to create the first team in the area.

“Part of our team’s mission is to make the game grow,” said Mudrack. “Hopefully we can make it through (those games).”

The coach described lacrosse as “3D hockey” and said it’s much 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 the Air Force, University of Denver, Wyoming, State of Montana, State of Utah, and others.

FLC is currently 1-0 after beating New Mexico 18-7 in the season opener. With all the snow in Durango, this was the only time the team was able to play on a field this season.

The team will be away for the first half of their season but have five home games at Smith Sports Complex for fans to watch. FLC will host UC Irvine on March 28th, Metropolitan State University Denver on April 7th, Air Force on April 8th, New Mexico on April 14th and Western Colorado on April 16th.