Dunbar lacrosse team wins state title
without school sponsorship

A group of Paul Laurence Dunbar student athletes last week won a state championship, but you won’t find their picture in the school’s yearbook alongside the basketball, football or baseball teams.

The Dunbar boys’ lacrosse team defeated Ballard High School 9-7 Friday at Trinity High School in Louisville to clinch the Kentucky Lacrosse Association Division II state championship.

“I thought they were going to be competitive for a championship,” said head coach Dave Kaetzel, who is also a professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology. “We’ve come close in the past. We’ve had the best public school record in the state before.”

The majority of Kentucky high schools do not offer lacrosse, meaning it is not a Kentucky High School Athletic Association sponsored sport. The Dunbar team does not have a faculty sponsor, so it technically has no affiliation with the school.

Lacrosse is similar to hockey without the ice — one version of the game is played on hockey rinks with artificial turf. Each team plays 10 athletes — one goalie, three defenders, three midfielders and three attackers – on the field at a time. The state lacrosse association divides its 24 teams across three divisions. Dunbar, which has 38 players on its varsity and junior varsity roster, competes in Division II with 12 other schools, including eight public schools.

Kaetzel said the program has produced around five NCAA lacrosse players, and several of the current team members have a chance to play collegiately.

Attackman Ryan Kelly, midfielder Cha’Sed Miller, long stick midfielder Dillon Vance and defenseman David Simms were named to the Division II all-state team.

Kelly had two goals and one assist in the championship game, and Nick Godley had four goals. Goalie Clay Larmour recorded a season-high 13 saves in the final.

While the lacrosse team can share in the state championship glory of other teams at Dunbar, it won’t be mentioned alongside the KHSAA sponsored teams.

The Dunbar athletic department is restricted to sports that are officially recognized by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, said athletic director Andy Sirginnis. Lacrosse, as well as sports like hockey and bowling, fall outside of that jurisdiction.

A KHSAA rule change earlier this year may make it easier for Dunbar and the state’s other lacrosse teams to gain sponsorship in the future. In April, KHSAA Board of Control changed the percentage of member schools offering a sport from 20 percent to 10 percent for it to meet the basic requirements for sponsorship.

KHSAA surveys member schools every three years to measure interest in increasing or decreasing the number of sports offered. Kaetzel hopes lacrosse could be included in a resizing in the next few years.

Until it gains official recognition, the Dunbar lacrosse team is not included in the Dunbar yearbook and cannot use any school facilities for practice. Kaetzel holds a limited number of team meetings in his living room.

In lieu of a school field, the team practices on a piece of land at Shilito Park that Kaetzel says is becoming a safety hazard due to numerous rocks.

“It’s a sprained ankle waiting to happen,” he said.

After the championship, Dunbar recognized the team with an announcement over the school public address system and a congratulatory message to the team on the front page of its website.

Most of the Kentucky Lacrosse Association teams already enjoy recognition from their schools, especially the private schools, and Kaetzel says he hopes Dunbar can experience that recognition in the future.

“We do things our way right now,” he said. “If we get recognized, things would become more complicated, but I would prefer it to move in that direction for the boys to get some recognition.”

While lacrosse remains a non-recognized sport, the Dunbar team is likely to continue to face facility and recognition problems. But now, it can face those issues under a new banner: state champion.

By Jon Hale

jon@kyforward.com

(Photos from http://pldlax.smugmug.com used with permission)