Tribe Lacrosse Entertaining and Thriving Ahead of TSSAA Sanctioning
by STEVE WILMOTH
TrCitiesSports.com
March 25, 2023
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Fans of football, basketball and soccer can find aspects of all three in the entertaining and blossoming sport of lacrosse.
The physical, fast-paced action is non-stop for four twelve-minute quarters on a field that’s easily contained within the confines of a standard 100-yard football field.
As a result, scoring comes frequently, if the offense shares the ball and works for the best scoring opportunities.
The Tribe Lacrosse team did just that in a 10-5 victory over Farragut Saturday afternoon at the Tribe Athletic Complex.
“We have a very unselfish program,” said Tribe Lacrosse coach Chris Bell. “I’m usually having to tell them that I need somebody to shoot the ball because they all want to pass. And I love that. That’s what we coach, that’s what I want to instill. This is a team.”
The Tribe Lacrosse team is in its fifth year, all as a club sport at Dobyns-Bennett High School. Bell says it’s another opportunity for high school kids to reap the values sown by high school athletics.
“Any youth and high school sport is a benefit for the community and a benefit for the kids,” explained Bell. “Athletics keeps them engaged, teaches them life skills, teaches them how you work in a unit, teaches how you suffer defeat, how you win graciously. There are so many things that come through youth and high school sports.
“And the passion that is around this sport, not just here, but nationally, and the speed with which it is growing, it’s an amazing opportunity that we are excited about.”
TSSAA Sanctioning is now finally coming as well, although not until the 2024-25 school year. The TSSAA had delayed the sanctioning vote, primarily to insure a proper number of qualified officials could be found.
For now, Bell says that sanctioning hasn’t necessarily moved the needle for the sport, but believes it will eventually.
“To this point, the effect of sanctioning has been none,” smiled Bell. “I can tell zero difference at this point, but I think it will be long term and long term it will be great for the sport. I think it will create a couple of slow years there as everybody adjusts.”
And this year, Tribe Lacrosse is the only local squad in a division that includes Farragut, Hardin Valley, Cookeville and Knox West.
“We drive two hours to every game we play practically,” noted Bell. “It will be nice to have some other schools pick up a program to where we can have local games on a weeknight where we don’t have to play every game on Saturday so we can get there.”
The Tribe Lacrosse team also has a working agreement with West Ridge and absorbed some players from Science Hill’s club team that disbanded this year.
“We co-op with West Ridge and the league allowed us to pick up some guys from Science Hill so they weren’t just tossed to the side,” explained Bell. “We couldn’t take them all, we already had a full roster, so some of those guys ended up playing for a team out of Greeneville.”
The Tribe plays its home games at the former Benny Compton Stadium, now part of the Tribe Athletic complex, although Saturday’s contest was one of only two home games on the schedule. Knox West will visit for a rare weeknight contest on Wednesday, April 12 at 7:00 p.m.
Prior to the game against the Admirals, the Tribe had battled against veteran private school programs like Knox Catholic, Boyd-Buchanan, Christian Academy of Knoxville and Baylor School of Chattanooga as well as Roanoke Patrick Henry, all on the road.
“The first part of the season is only non-divisional games against opponents that I can feel like can beat us but should beat us,” said Bell. “That’s how I like to sharpen.”
The teams played in a quagmire resulting from heavy rains overnight Friday. Since the team receives no funding from Dobyns-Bennett, everything to run the program must be done by players, coaches, parents and supporters, including field prep that included a resodding before the season.
“These conditions today make it difficult, it was a sloppy mess,” continued Bell. “It affected us all equally, but it still affects the game and it’s not quite as crisp as I would like to see it, but you have to make do with what you have sometimes.”
Last year, Tribe Lacrosse produced its first-ever win over Farragut and it doubled down on Saturday.
“This will be our fifth year as a high school program and Farragut is a much older program, so it’s always nice to beat those seasoned programs,” continued Bell. “We beat them last year by a similar score and that was the first time in program history we had ever beaten them. I like to see that pattern emerging.”
Another pattern emerging is that of college recruiters checking in on the Tribe. At least four players in the program will play at the Division II level next season and several others could.
“We’ve got one boy and one girl going to North Greeneville and Grayson Mahaffey going to Barton,” noted Bell. “We’ve got several others going to Division I because of academics or for their degrees that will play club soccer but are more than capable of playing.”
Saturday, the Tribe led the Admirals 6-1 by halftime.
“I thought Farragut played really well and was one of their better games,” continued Bell. I feel like our passing was cleaner though. I thought we did a really good job moving the ball, finishing with nobody being selfish.
“We wound up with the easy shots, we didn’t end up having to try and zing it by the goalie. We were just right there. Those shots when we get in close like that, the goalie is not supposed to save those. Outside, he’s supposed to save those. Inside that was either a great offensive play or a defensive letdown.”
Farragut sliced the lead to 7-5 before the Tribe refocused and closed out the match with three well executed end-to-end tallies.
“We were running a fast break, very similar to basketball in that regard, but it’s much harder to catch the ball and much harder to throw it in lacrosse,” explained Bell. “We just moved the ball well and got in a place where it was virtually impossible their goalie to make the save.”
The Tribe made its first venture to the state playoffs a year ago and the push for a second straight trip now begins in earnest with a trip to Asheville School on Wednesday. The team will also travel to Hardin Valley on April 15 and Cookeville on April 22.
“What I’ve been gratified to see as a coach is the development of these guys,” added Bell. “It’s not that the other teams have fallen off, it’s that we are now competitive and we are winning those games. We are not just in them we are winning them.”