By David Knox, Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – This sports program has the third largest number of participants at Hewitt-Trussville, and it’s only in its fourth year.
There
are 42 boys and 22 girls ninth through 12th-grade playing lacrosse at Hewitt-Trussville this season for the Huskies club team. Lacrosse isn’t a sport yet sanctioned by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, but that hasn’t stopped the swell of the popularity. The team plays under the auspices of the Greater Birmingham Youth Lacrosse Association, but the coach and director of operations of high school lacrosse, unlike some of the other teams in the league, is a Hewitt-Trussville teacher and coach, Jamey Curlee.
Curlee coaches the boys, who posted a 12-2 record and lost in the state finals to Huntsville, The girls coach is Tom McCormick. The boys will be doing some quick retooling to get back to the state title game, while the girls are looking to bounce back from some tough losses last season.
Both Curlee and McCormick have been involved from the beginning of the Huskies program.
“People might say, ‘Lacrosse isn’t a real sport,’ and I say, ‘Oh yes it is.’ Just because it’s not sanctioned by AHSAA doesn’t mean it’s not just as real to those kids and parents.”
It takes a certain number of schools to petition the AHSAA that they want to offer lacrosse, and frankly, it’s hard to find inner-city and rural schools interested in the game – although Huffman is now fielding a team. And since it is not strictly a school-zone or system entity, HT could conceivably have team members from Springville or Clay-Chalkville or elsewhere, but they don’t right now.
“I treat it like a state championship sport, we’re going to come to practice every day, whether the state acknowledges it or not. I’ve been coaching for 25 years. We represent our school, we are Hewitt-Trussville Lacrosse.”
After an outstanding 2016 season, “It’ll be a challenging year for the boys,” Curlee said. “We lost 16 seniors and have two starters back,” from the 12-1 team that lost at Birmingham-Southern in the final to a Huntsville team it had beaten earlier in the season. Cambell Holley signed with Tusculum, Will Altman signed with UAH, Skylar DeFrank signed with Point University and Carter McAlpine went into the Air Force but holds several standing offers when he comes out. Three others are playing club lacrosse.
The boys will return Trevor McBride and Mitchell Peterson to build around. Curlee said he does have a strong freshman class that’s been playing together for several years, so it’s probably a more experienced team than he used to having in the underclassmen. He believes McBride, who plays attack, and Peterson, who is their faceoff man and middie, will get a host of college offers.
“It’s a really strong freshman class, so the future looks good,” Curlee said.
The boys opened their season with a non-league game against MadLax of Madison, Miss.
Peterson and McBride led the Huskies to an 18-9 win. Juniors Michael “Fish” Marlin and Griffin Gilmer and freshmen Garren Nowell and Turner Corley also chipped in with goals.
The junior varsity also won 9-8.
The season includes 12 league games and begins Friday, Feb. 10, at home vs. Briarwood. Faceoff is at 6 p.m. at the Huskies’ home field, Trussville Sports Complex. They’ll also face Huntsville, Vestavia, Prattville, Hoover, Homewood and UMS-Wright at home and travel to Huffman, Spain Park, John Carroll, Oak Mountain, Mountain Brook and James Clemons.
The junior varsity will also compete in about a dozen games.
The girls should be led by Kurre Woods, a senior midfielder. She’s optimistic that the talent is there, “we just have to learn to play together.” Every girl on the team has playing experience.
The girls also play a 12-game league schedule before the playoffs roll around first weekend in May.
One former girls player is Curlee’s daughter Laura Beth, who signed to play with NAIA Reinhardt of Georgia.