Talks of PLL expansion could attract younger players to lacrosse

It takes a village to build support.

It takes one voice to spread the word.

It takes one viral social media post to make it big.

That sums up how lacrosse is growing in the Triangle — at least from the outside.

Lacrosse has been around in North America for more than 1,000 years, with roots in Indigenous tribal history mostly near the Great Lakes. As the sport has evolved, the collegiate brand now attracts thousands of players each year, and professional leagues continue to find ways to expand.

“It wasn’t like that 15 years ago,” UNC men’s lacrosse head coach Joe Breschi said. “It’s continuing to grow. And it’s just grown into younger and younger ages.”

In the Triangle, the expansion of the sport could get a real boost — and soon — if the region is among the new locations for the Professional Lacrosse League.

The PLL has been a touring league, playing its games at select cities across North America on a rotating basis. The league announced recently it will shift to a traditional host city format, and Raleigh is among the nominated cities to have a “permanent” team. That possibility sparked conversation in the Triangle — could this be the start of a lacrosse explosion?

“That’s what most professional sports leagues can unlock, is this aspirational quality,” PLL co-founder Paul Rabil said. “Motivation for younger kids to not only continue to pursue the discipline by which they love and care deeply for, but also to see a career after school doing that.”

Most players don’t find the sport until middle school, with the sweet spot ranging between 8 and 12 years old. As a spring sport in North Carolina high schools, lacrosse often competes with baseball or track & field during the season. And, there are not many recreational clubs in the Triangle — the majority of collegiate athletes played the sport through a private school.

University of North Carolina player Ryan Levy spent much of his life playing lacrosse. His dad played lacrosse, and his mom coaches the Tar Heels’ women’s team. But he said playing travel lacrosse with Team 91, there were kids coming from Greenville, Apex and Holly Springs because there wasn’t enough interest in Chapel Hill. High school wasn’t much better.

“I was ahead of the curve early and just kind of stuck with it,” Levy said. “And really kind of figured that, I could like playing with maybe not as skilled kids. It is what it is, but I don’t want to kind of drop down my level of play.”

Duke’s Tyler Carpenter had an opposite experience — he played with lots of Chapel Hill and Durham players as a kid, then saw the transition toward Apex and beyond as he got older. Carpenter said he’s hoping to change that, and coaches a club team at Team 91.

“It’s really fun to be able to work with those kids,” Carpenter said. “You realize that just like the love for the game is kind of the most important thing when coaching kids.”

Duke and Carolina both host college clinics throughout the year, but those aren’t necessarily built to recruit players to the sport as much as to recruit players to their schools, which puts more pressure for the sport’s expansion on recreational clubs and high schools.

There are 11 former Tar Heels and 14 former Blue Devils competing in the 2023 PLL season, one of the highest levels of participation across both programs in the young league’s history. While not all of them return to the Triangle, some that do become coaches for high schools or club programs.

“I know a lot of my coaches growing up were old UNC players who have just kind of stuck around the area,” Carpenter said. “And that helped them grow the game. So I know that I’m directly a product of that.”

The PLL’s potential addition of the Triangle as a home market can help two-fold — having a professional team call Raleigh home would likely bring fans, and it can create opportunities for fans to interact with players, creating more interest to play.

“Kids and parents would see the game being played at the highest level,” Duke men’s head coach John Danowski said. “They would see former Duke players and Carolina players, playing in the professional league and hopefully they would want to emulate their role models.”

PLL expansion will in part be decided by fans through a voting system, and Raleigh is among the locations nominated at the beginning of the summer. The future of the sport’s development in Raleigh now quite literally rests in its own residents’ hands.