Dillon Biggs and Chris Cannon are on a manhunt.
Biggs and Cannon, both freshman, undecided majors, came to USI in the fall looking for the lacrosse team that did not exist.
In previous years, others attempted to form a team, but it never happened.
“(We) pretty much got it going from the ground up,” Biggs said.
Cannon is an attack man for the team and has been playing lacrosse for almost four years while Biggs is a defense man and has been playing for two.
“It’s like hockey, in the aspect that you have a stick, and you move the ball around with the stick, but it’s set up like soccer… and then it’s like football because you can pretty much knock the crap out of everybody,” Cannon said.
The club’s official roster lists 25 people, however only 10 players for a team are on the field at a time. There are three defense men, three midfielders, 3 attack men and one goalie. Lacrosse is popular on the East and West Coast but is just now beginning to get popular in the Midwest.
“It’s huge here, except for at the college level,” Biggs said.
The first week that Cannon was on campus, he was determined to figure out who to talk to in order to get on the lacrosse team. Both Biggs and Cannon played for Castle High School, and 60 guys played on that team.
Middle school and youth leagues are popularizing the sport as well.
They are the only club team in Evansville, Briggs said. They also accept honorary members, who can be anybody. They have players from Ivy Tech, as well as Owensboro Community College, but most of the players are USI students, Biggs said.
“It’s a very violent game, and it’s a very fast game,” Biggs said. “It’s considered to be the fastest game on two feet.”
People get concussions and break bones all the time. Biggs tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a high school game last year.
Cannon played hockey for 10 years before finding lacrosse and liked it better. Biggs used to play football until he found lacrosse.
“I used to play football and when football was over I needed another sport and my dad, who is of Native American heritage, said ‘hey I’m going to help coach Castle’s team I think thing you should try it out’ and I never looked back,” Biggs said.
According to uslacrosse.org, Native Americans played lacrosse when Europeans first made contact.
The lacrosse team practices every Wednesday and Friday from 5-7 p.m. at the Broadway Complex.
The team does not have a set schedule of games yet, and they are still trying to work out the kinks, Cannon said. They have an away game on April 21 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
If people are interested in playing for the lacrosse team, add USI Lacrosse on Facebook and message them from there. Cannon said it is the best way to contact.
The team have been helping various high school and youth league teams and that is also the team’s main way of recruiting.
Being a club team, it can play year round. During the winter, the team played at Metro Sports Center in Evansville, where there is an indoor field.
Biggs said the lacrosse team’s main goal is to host a home game, and that even if people have never played before they should still try it out.
He said the team works with anyone who is new.
“We’re obsessed with lacrosse,” Biggs said. “We will do anything to cram it down as many people’s throats as we can, basically.”