When I was at Randallstown High School earlier this week, I saw something I never expected to see on a freezing cold evening at a school best known for basketball – a bunch of guys with lacrosse sticks.

Boys basketball practice was going on in the gym, but these guys were honing their skills under the lights on the tennis courts and against the walls of the outdoor basketball court.
I knew they were serious when I heard one of them yell, “You can’t play like that if you want to play higher-level lacrosse.”

Randallstown isn’t exactly equated with high-level prep lacrosse, but coach Earl Thompson and his guys are trying to change that. Thompson, who was not out on the tennis courts that night, said interest in the sport has been building at Randallstown for the past three years or so.

After finishing 7-4 last season and falling in the regional playoffs in sudden-death overtime, the Rams are determined to keep getting better. And they’re doing it without benefit of a recreation feeder system.

Thompson said he has heard that about 50 guys could come out for the team in the spring and he is drawing them by fostering a strong sense of community and accountability among the players.

“We’re not only a team, but it’s like a brotherhood,” Thompson said. “They’re very committed and we have a creed. Our creed is: ‘We do solemnly swear and vow so to live to exemplify the high ideals of brotherhood, scholarship and sportsmanship and show myself worthy of membership in the Randallstown lacrosse team.”

Some of the guys are so dedicated that they even go out and try to drum up sponorship so the team can invest in the top-notch gear it lacks.

Thompson is working to get a recreation league started, and he said he also wants to get some of his players more experience outside of school.

“We’re trying to get some of our guys into club lacrosse, so they can be seen by Division I schools, because a lot of these kids don’t necessarily have the money to go to these schools and lacrosse is a good sport. Like I told them, ‘You will not get an NFL contract or an NBA contract, but if you can do the basics and you get good at it, you can get a four-year ride at a very good institution of education and that’s just as good as an NFL contract any day of the week.’”

Obviously, the Rams heard that message loud and clear. They’re willing to be out in the cold working toward their goals and they will be out there on their own until practice starts Feb. 28.

--Katherine Dunn