A player often would spend the night at the home of a competitor. It was a die-hard sport,'' Bill Wolford said. But the nice thing about it was that since it was so small, you'd really get to know the people you were playing against. It also helped the sport grow. Lacrosse, in a lot of ways, is like a big fraternity and sorority combined,'' said Mick Maier, president of the Ohio Lacrosse Foundation.
People play for the pure pleasure of the game and compete very hard against each other.
Friends with a common goal. A large number of the players on those original Ohio lacrosse teams still are involved in the sport, from coaching to promoting it to children. There's a lot of emphasis on making sure the game gets promoted and spread to other schools,'' said Jim Leake, Thomas Worthington's girls coach. The fund allows schools interested in lacrosse to obtain a no-interest loan to pay for the equipment needed to begin a program. Eight area schools have used the fund since its inception.