Littleton – One weekend road trip and one rivetingly lopsided lacrosse game changed Steve Bailey’s life.
Raised in Pennsylvania with a football tucked under his arm like every other kid, Bailey did 30 years ago what athletes across the state have been doing in massive numbers recently – he set the pigskin aside for a few months and picked up a crosse.
As coach of the undefeated Columbine boys lacrosse team, Bailey, a self-described “football guy,” is simultaneously building a competitive program while exposing more teenagers to the sport.
“I always tell my guys that I played my last football game in 1972,” Bailey said during a recent practice. “I played my last lacrosse game last summer. Football is a grind. Your body won’t let you play for- ever.”
Nearly a year after the “Summer of Love,” in April 1968, Bailey and a football teammate at Uniontown (Pa.) High School took the advice of a coach and hit the road to catch a lacrosse game between collegiate powerhouse Ohio State and tiny Denison University.
The weather was perfect, the coeds provided the proper aesthetic and the Big Red absolutely crushed the mighty Buckeyes 25-1. It was a jaw-dropping, eye-opening experience for Bailey, who was all but ready to put on the football pads for the University of Virginia.
“It was the first time I had watched a lacrosse game, and I was in awe,” Bailey said. “Coming from a football mentality, it’s pretty impressive when you see anyone thrash Ohio State, especially this tiny little school. Holy cow, I thought that was pretty outstanding.”
That game prompted Bailey’s decision to play lacrosse, for the first time, and football in college. He competed in both sports during his four years at Division III Denison, located in Granville, Ohio. Bailey was a role player in the midfield, and he enjoyed the ride as the team went 45-9 from 1969 to 1972.
And then something funny happened after graduation: Bailey couldn’t shake the lacrosse fever. He continued to play lacrosse after college, and he still plays four games a summer as part of Denison’s alumni squad. More important, he’s infecting a new group of young athletes with the fever every spring.
“I love it. I even like coming to practice every day,” said Steffen Kent, a sophomore defensive end for Bear Creek’s football team who is playing his first season of lacrosse on Columbine’s seven-school co- op team. “I ran track last spring and you go do your event and then sit around. Lacrosse is way more fun because you’re always moving, always playing.”
Like Kent, more and more young people are trading in their track cleats and baseball mitts for pads, a stick and some bruises. Male and female prep participation has nearly doubled since the Colorado High School Activities Association sanctioned lacrosse in 1999, from 2,141 athletes to 3,945 in 2006, by far the largest growth in any sport except for cheerleading.
Andy Carstensen, a senior at Chatfield and Columbine’s second-leading scorer this season behind Matt Jui, was mastering his stick-handling skills after getting bored with baseball in middle school. But that was before the popularity boom hit, and Carstensen didn’t have anyone to practice with.
“I picked up lacrosse around seventh grade,” Carstensen said. “I was the first one to do it out of anyone I knew. Actually, I saw a girl at school one day with a stick and I thought I wanted to try it. And then I talked my friends into it.”
Carstensen was a freshman on Columbine’s varsity lacrosse team when Bailey took over the fledgling program in 2004. The Rebels went 6-8 that season before everything changed.
Bailey combined his lacrosse knowledge with football regiment, brought in some experienced assistants, and guided Columbine to a 12-6 record and the program’s first quarterfinals appearance in the state playoffs. Last season the Rebels went 13-4 and lost a one-goal game to Regis in the second round of the postseason.
Columbine’s success is the result of a physical, stifling defense and an active, athletic offense. The Rebels’ attack is the polar opposite of the ball-control, precision-passing game employed by defending state champion Cherry Creek. But the difference in philosophy is a matter of necessity for Columbine.
“I tell my guys that 90 percent of them would be cut by Cherry Creek,” Bailey said. “Stick handling is easily the biggest learning curve for the new guys. That’s the thing that requires the time and practice.”
Bailey, just like the nearly 100 teenagers that showed up for the first day of practice at Columbine this spring, is up for the challenge of turning them all into lacrosse players. After all, the sport offers something to love for every young athlete.
For Jordan Smith, a senior at Chatfield who will play running back at Colorado School of Mines, that thing was the bone- jarring hits.
“The physical side caught me first. There are some big hits in this game,” Smith said. “But after some time went on, it became more of a finesse thing for me. I understood the game a lot better.”
Smith didn’t have a Denison moment like his coach, but he did take a trip to Dartmouth and seriously contemplated giving up football for lacrosse. Smith was a bit surprised the thought even crossed his mind.
“I love football, but if I had to make the choice for sport alone I would probably play lacrosse,” Smith said. “Picking the School of Mines was a life decision, it was an education decision.”
Bailey, for one, wishes that football coaches would have the same enthusiasm for lacrosse as he and many of his players have for football.
“I’m a big proponent of being a pig,” Bailey said. “Play as many sports as you can. Football coaches like to have their players under their thumb at all times. But who can they trust better than me? I’m a football player, too.”
