Many people believe that lacrosse came from France because it sounds French. In fact, it was developed by Native Americans before America was discovered. Lacrosse is technically the oldest sport in America that requires more than just a ball. Sorry Baseball fans.

This is what I did for my service project for Bellevue Christian school, I got to coach the best sport on earth!

I helped coach second- through fourth-grade lacrosse for Lake Washington Kangs (GO LW!) with another awesome guy, Jim Anderson. Together we taught these kids the basics from throwing and catching with your stick, to more advanced stuff like shooting and dodges. For those of you that don’t know lacrosse, it is a mixture of hockey and soccer. Lots of running after a ball like in soccer but with the physicality and stick handling of hockey.

I had the best time coaching these kids in the spring of 2016. Why did I choose this as my service project? I first became interested in lacrosse in the third grade when my best friend started playing. We would play in his backyard all the time. In the sixth grade, my mom finally caved in and let me play lacrosse – I have been playing ever since. Then in 11th grade, due to school work becoming overwhelmed, my mom decided that lacrosse in the spring was not going to happen. My coach Dejon Hush had different plans for me. He asked if I wanted to coach with Jim and have that count as my service project. The kids were awesome whether it was Micha’s jokes or Dane with his sick goals. Eliska, our one girl player, put boys twice her size in her dust with lightning quick speed. These kids have not just learned the game of lacrosse but have taught me some very valuable life lessons.

First, they taught me the importance of patience and not rushing things. I thought I had a lot of patience but quickly found out that coaching high school lacrosse is drastically different then coaching youth lacrosse. Learning new coaching skills was a definite challenge for me. After a while I got used to all their jokes and quirks and became very excited about going to practice and coaching them. The second thing I learned was that even the little things can be fun or important. Some of the most fun I had was hanging around with the kids, whether it was before practice or after games, we were always having fun.

We spent 12 weeks together and boy did they fly by. I couldn’t believe that it was over with these awesome kids when we had our final game. I hope I have the opportunity to coach the best sport on earth again soon.

Alex Gould, Kirkland