Lacrosse Is Finally Taking Off in Detroit
Cass Tech is the only public high school in the city to offer the sport, but players and advocates hope to see it grow.
By Ydaly Jimenez
Four years ago, the athletes who now make up the Cass Tech lacrosse team knew nothing about the sport. Now, they prepare for long car rides to their games. Together they step on the fields ready to play against students who don’t look like them. Together they work to learn and grow the game in Detroit.
Over the past four years, Cass Tech, the largest Detroit public high school, has pushed to diversify the predominantly white sport of lacrosse by forming a men’s and women’s team, but this took a lot of education and outreach.
“I barely knew anything about it. I thought it was just those sports you see rich people play in movies,” says Miranda Serratos, a 16-year-old junior who plays on the Cass Tech women’s lacrosse team. She came across the Instagram page for the women’s team and liked how empowering it was, which led her to join what she describes as a family. “I've never seen anything like it, especially in Detroit. So I wanted to be a part of something new,” she says.
Cass Tech Women’s lacrosse team. Courtesy Summer Aldred
The only other lacrosse teams at Detroit-based high schools are at private schools, making them inaccessible for most kids in the city. Since lacrosse started at Cass in 2019, there has been some talk of the sport coming to other schools for Detroit students. This past school year, a men’s team was formed at Detroit Edison, a charter school, where they got to play their first game. However, starting a sport is difficult to do, especially lacrosse.
“There just isn't as much knowledge of what the sport is,” says Liam McIlroy, head coach for the Cass Tech men’s lacrosse team,. “So we don't have enough coaches in the area to help, but also run a program because it's not just coaching the game, you're essentially doing administrative work.”
Outside of schools, there has been an effort to grow the game in Detroit since 2009. The first lacrosse events in the city began as camps and since then picked up pace through programs that have been created in the past few years. The first group was Sports Strings which turned into the nonprofit Detroit City Lacrosse. There are four active lacrosse programs in the city which include Detroit Youth Lacrosse, Detroit United Lacrosse, Detroit Box Lacrosse Association and the Motown Lacrosse Club.
Detroit United Panthers summer practice. Courtesy Lauren Karmo
Christianne Malone is the president and co-founder of Detroit United Lacrosse. When asked about ways she influenced the start and current state of lacrosse in Detroit, she says, “My goal is just to keep it going and really making connections and sharing my love of the sport, especially when people are surprised when I'm a woman, and a Black woman who plays lacrosse, and definitely don't fit the mold of what a lacrosse player looks like.”
Detroit United uses a grassroots marketing strategy which includes partnering with others so that lacrosse is brought to them, rather than always thinking partners are going to come to the program. Malone also works alongside the head coach for the Cass Tech women’s lacrosse team, which shows how connected the people who influence the growth of lacrosse in the city are.
Malone has always seen lacrosse as an opportunity that kids should have access to. “We really want to continue to help empower the students in our program and give the tools, but also help to fill gaps that may exist,” she says.
When asked if she knew of any efforts to get lacrosse in other DPSCD high schools, Malone says, “I could just say Detroit United is working with DPSCD to continue to grow lacrosse in the schools.”
Detroit Box Lacrosse Association at Clark Park. Photo by Ydaly Jimenez
Although much was not able to be said about what exactly is being done about other Detroit schools having lacrosse, the sport is growing. So much so that even a form of lacrosse, box lacrosse, is starting to appear in the city.
“Detroit doesn't need to be behind if we don't have to be,” McIlroy says. “So if we have the resources, we have the facility and we have the interest in coaching and buy in from the community, then let's invest.”
Box lacrosse is played in a hockey rink, and McIlroy is making use of that space during the summer to grow a youth program based around box lacrosse in the Southwest Detroit community. “There is no really good reason why youth in Detroit haven't had access to lacrosse. And so thankfully, now you have multiple programs that are active in the city,” he says.
These opportunities popping up around the city are creating a gateway for the game to be more diverse.
“I've never fallen in love with a sport like this, like ever. Oh my gosh, I love it so much,” Serratos says about her experience playing so far.
The people actively helping with the growth of the game are making it possible for youth around the city to look at lacrosse and see it as a game that isn’t just something they see rich people play in movies.
