Sometimes to grow the game you have to take matters into your own hands and overcome obstacles. That's what Josh Warren, a high school shop teacher in the Tooele County (Utah) School District, is doing to help spread his passion for lacrosse.
Despite the sport being sanctioned by the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) since 2021, each school district must decide independently whether to implement it.
“Unfortunately, since we’re not sanctioned, we cannot play against other sanctioned teams...And most schools, if they have lacrosse at their school, they’re sanctioned, so we scrimmage [against] ourselves."
Warren and his team of high schoolers have faced obstacles, such as a lack of opponents and limited resources. Still, they’ve shown dedication by crafting their own lacrosse shafts and welding their own goals in the school shop, and holding informal games behind Tooele Junior High.
While lacrosse is a growing sport in Utah, Warren remains hopeful that with official support, the program could thrive quickly.
“We’ve grown pretty organically. We haven’t really made a big push advertising to the whole school, I just put up flyers around school. If it were to be sanctioned, I think it would blow up really, really fast.”
For now, the team continues in a “sandlot” style setting, driven by passion, persistence, and the hope of future recognition.
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