Opinion: They built a lacrosse powerhouse in Fort Mill

For years, the Fort Mill area has been known for the hardware its high school bands accumulate every year. With the announcement that the Nation Ford High School Band will be participating in the 2017 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, those kudos keep coming.

We also have another growing area of dominance to point to – lacrosse. The Fort Mill boys and the Nation Ford girls won Upstate title games last week and will have already played for the S.C. Championship by the time you read this. This is the fifth year in a row the state lacrosse title game has a participant from Fort Mill.

This year was particularly satisfying. In the Upper State girls’ final, Nation Ford beat JL Mann out of Greenville. On a field filled with weeds and undulations, nearly two hours from home, the Falcons knocked off the three-time defending champs who had a 67-game winning streak. That is actually one of the longest streaks across any high school sport in South Carolina history.

Normally it is Fort Mill High grabbing the accolades. Their girls’ and boys’ teams have three state titles since 2010.

In a game traditionally played by native tribes in Canada to toughen young warriors for combat, it has been popular up North for years, but found its way down South – and it only took a few hundred years. While boys’ games can often be rough, I can’t say the same for the girls. I don’t know of another sport where the game is so different between the genders. The boys have helmets and pads and hit with abandon. The girls have no pads, wear goggles and any contact results in a whistle. In fact, if you attend a girls’ game, you’ll hear a lot of whistles.

A fun part for fans is taking bets on what each whistle means. I made $50 one game just guessing. Guessing is what most fans do. In some sports, people yell and scream at the referees. In girls’ lacrosse, people look to the person next to them and ask “What was that whistle for?” It is really a great game to be a referee. If nobody knows the rules, they can’t complain too much, right?

On the flip side, if nobody knows the rules, it becomes really hard to follow. It’s like watching a game of backgammon.

Something was different about the Nation Ford win vs. JL Mann, though. It was non-stop action and the game wasn’t decided until NaFo’s goalie made a save at the buzzer to seal a one-goal victory, 15-14.

Lacrosse has been strong in Fort Mill for some time, but the Falcons’ girls have arrived in a big way just a few years since the program started. Just ask JL Mann.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 1:46 PM with the headline "Opinion: They built a lacrosse powerhouse in Fort Mill."