The Early Years
Northwest Suburban Lacrosse was born in 2006 in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Karlene Swearingen (Prairie Ridge parent) and Rick Rowe (Cary Grove parent) formed the Cary Crystal Lake Lacrosse Club so their high school aged sons could play the sport they really loved and exceled at.
What started out as 1 lacrosse team, CGPR, with combined players from Prairie Ridge and Cary Grove high schools has grown in 3 years time to be the Northwest Suburban Lacrosse league, owned and operated by Karlene and Scott Swearingen.
Why We Exist
Searching for a league or team to join in the McHenry County area was a fruitless endeavour. The Illinois High School Lacrosse Association, a bridge organization for lacrosse as an emerging sport in the IHSA, did not allow their teams to compete with any emerging club teams unless the club team was formally a school sanctioned club with the athletic director or school district's endorsement.
Lacrosse was so new to the area that boys carrying lacrosse sticks down the street nearly caused traffic accidents due to rubber necking. The newness of the sport was one reason why District 155 would not sanction the sport in McHenry County.
Karl Mondloch (sophomore son of Karlene) and Nate Rowe (son of Rick Rowe) were lacrosse players with a team but no competition. In 2006 competition was limited to a handful of club teams around the state. With the assistance of lacrosse families promotional materials were circulated and meetings were held at area schools.
Not to be detered, Karlene and Scott Swearingen made it their personal mission to spread the news to area schools that lacrosse is here and it is here to stay. Along with the help of lacrosse players and their families, they proceeded to promote the sport in the McHenry County area with lawn signs that said "Wanna Play Lacrosse?" and printed out thousands of flyers for the boys to hand out to friends. They also and held numerous meetings at the schools for those interested in this new sport. This resulted in 11 high school teams that were directly created or helped by these efforts including:
Prairie Ridge
Cary Grove
McHenry
Johnsburg
Crystal Lake Central
Crystal Lake South
Jacobs
Huntley
South Elgin
Marion Central
Arlington Heights
Northwest Suburban Lacrosse had arrived!
The addition of these 11 teams was directly responsible for the Illinois High School Associations move to sanction lacrosse in the high schools for the Spring 2011 season!
Although none of the schools that are in the NWS LAX league have officially brought the sport into their respective schools, we do expect it to happen in the next couple of years.
In the fall of 2008 NWS LAX started to create teams at the Junior High level so that a feeder program would be established to help the high school teams stay competitive. This level is growing by leaps and bounds just like the high school level did!
At this same time the Knights travel teams were started for the high school and junior high levels so that those players that excelled could have a path to follow to further their development.
In 2009 our high school Knights Elite team took second place at the Brewtown Showdown in Milwaukee Wi. This was a fantastic accomplishment because the majority of teams that participate in these tournaments are created from the best players in a huge metropolitan area (1 million plus in populations) whereas our Knights teams are drawn from only the McHenry County area (90 thousand population). Fantastic may be an understatement for what these boys accomplished.
We believe that the spirit of our league is what drives these players to play with heart and an unparalleled drive to win with "Skill not Kill".
"Skill not Kill" is the official motto of our league. We want the players to learn sportsmanship and be taught the nuances of the sport so they can win by superior skills and not with the Kill, Kill, Kill mentality that many teams are taught by coaches that don't understand the game.
NWS LAX also promotes the Positive Coaching Method. This type of coaching frowns upon the yelling and berating of players type of coaching and promotes the positive reinforcement type of coaching. We teach players life lessons on how to win and how to lose with pride and dignity. We are a competitive league and work towards the goal of winning the championship trophy, but not at the cost of a players self esteem.
We believe in this sport because so many types of players can play this game from the big football player to the smaller player that has the speed and dexterity to juke the defenders and score!
If you believe in your community and want to be invovled with a league that cares about every single player, parent and fan then you have found the right place to learn and play lacrosse:
Northwest Suburban Lacrosse
"The fastest sport on two feet"
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