  Back to Basics Alec Schimke Swarm Continues to Grow the Sport of Lacrosse Last week the Minnesota Swarm continued their goal of increasing the overall awareness in the sport of lacrosse around the Twin Cities when they hosted an instructional camp at the University of St. Thomas for members of the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) and Cultural, Academic and Athletic Program (CAAP). Led by the Swarm’s own Youth Box League Director Aime Caines, kids ages 10-16 received basic lessons on how to shoot, pass and pick up ground balls.  “What we did was give them an introduction to lacrosse and let them know what the Swarm is about as an organization,” explained Caines. “About half of the kids had not seen lacrosse or participated in the sport themselves. We got them all sticks and went through the fundamentals. It was a lot of fun.” Aaron Koski is the Director of NYSP/CAAP, which has been around the University of St. Thomas campus for over 30 years. NYSP/CAAP offers local kids a seven week session of educational classes and introduces them to life long gender neutral sports. With an increase in popularity and participation in lacrosse around the metro, Koski felt the Swarm’s presence was key to quality instruction for his group. “It was enormously successful,” stated Koski. “The only bad part was that it was only one day. The kids would have loved to have had it the whole summer or at least a full week.”  While one day certainly is not enough time to learn all the skills of lacrosse, Koski is hoping that this camp will help spur interest among the kids to participate in lacrosse in the future. When asked if he will continue to host lacrosse camps with the Swarm, Koski sounded optimistic. “Without a doubt,” replied Koski. “It has become a core sport that we have at our camp. We greatly appreciate the Minnesota Swarm’s offer to help us and they are a great organization to work with.” |
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