By Nic Maksud
From July 10-12, CPS 5th-12th graders took the field at Lane Stadium, the home of the Lacrosse City Championship, for the CPS Lacrosse Summer Sports Skills Camps, looking to develop or refine their skills.
What started off as just a conversation is now going into its second year of camp.
For the second consecutive year, CPS and USA Lacrosse have teamed up to make this camp possible and get the campers what they need in order to get going in the sport of lacrosse in terms of equipment and instruction.
Longtime CPS coach, current head coach for Northside College Prep, and camp director, Lynn Gerbec, talked about how important this partnership is for the game and the campers.
“We really need partners like USA Lacrosse who give us support by sending coaches and they supply a lot of the equipment,” she said.
The student-athletes use this camp to not only help the athletes get better, but they use it to try to grow the sport in the district. Currently, the Chicago Public League (CPL) runs a boys and girls high school lacrosse program, featuring about 15 teams across both leagues, culminating in a boys and girls Chicago Public League Lacrosse Championships.
The CPL, in partnership with the lacrosse summer camp directors, hope to use this camp to give kids the opportunity to come try out the sport and hopefully enjoy it then keep playing after the camp. They want to use this camp for development and expansion in hopes to begin an official CPS SCORE! Elementary Lacrosse program.
“We are still trying to grow the sport in the district right now, it’s not one of the most popular sports yet… so we love giving opportunities for kids to come out and try a new sport,” Gerbec said. “Hopefully they will enjoy it… and eventually we would hope that CPS would offer it at the elementary level…”
While they look to grow the sport in the district, their main focus stays on the kids who are attending these camps. USA Lacrosse representative Matt Burke, who was at the camp, talks about the importance of the camp for the kids.
“For the kids especially over the summer, it just gives them something to do and lacrosse is a new sport for many kids so it gives them a chance to do something different,” Burke said, “It gives them a chance to try the oldest sport in North America which is pretty cool.”
Lacrosse camp has wrapped up for the summer of 2023 season but CPS looks to continue its partnership with USA Lacrosse next year, to keep growing this game and getting proper equipment for all the athletes to use to enjoy the game.
The defending girls champion is Lane Tech and for the boys Whitney Young. Who will be this year’s champions? The next season of lacrosse will start off in the spring of 2024.
