Fury High School Lacrosse to Play on District 228 Field for First Time

It’s been Joe Conway’s dream to bring a lacrosse program to Bremen High School District 228. The Fury lacrosse program is in its fourth year, and still growing—a co-op club team drawing players from Oak Forest, Tinley Park, and Bremen high schools. (“No Hillcrest students ... yet.”)

The team will take its next big step Thursday, with its first game played on a District 228 field. The boys varsity team will take on Homewood-Flossmoor High School at Oak Forest High School at 6 p.m. Previously, all home games have been held on park district fields.

“Anybody that knows me, knew me four years ago when I said ‘I will get this sport at the high schools,’” Conway said.

“It’s such a trememndous feeling knowing that these kids at the youth level can know that when they graduate eighth grade, they can go on to our schools and continue playing lacrosse.”

The Fury will play three home games in total this season on district fields, with the second and third scheduled for Monday against Sandburg at Bremen High School, and Wednesday against Minooka, at Tinley Park High School. Both junior varsity and varsity squads will compete in those games.

Bringing the sport to the district has been a mission for Conway, whose daughter Hannah began playing at the high school level, and went on to play at the collegiate level at Notre Dame College in Ohio. The IHSA still considers lacrosse an “emerging sport,”

The Fury program currently has 35 players: 5 seniors, 2 juniors, and the rest sophomores and freshmen. A typical lacrosse team requires 21–25 players, meaning many play in back-to-back games, double-rostered as junior varsity and varsity, Conway said. The teams will play 18 games and one tournament total, with six home games. The varsity team has won one game this season.

“We knew we’d have a tough varsity season,” Conway said. “We’ve had some close games. We’re taking our lumps.

“It was time for us to get in the deep water, and play the varsity competition.”

The disadvantage of introducing a new sport into a community is lack of experience among prospective coaches. Conway lucked out, he said, in finding John Harris, an Oak Forest resident who played while attending Michigan State University.

The Illinois High School Association has labeled lacrosse as an “emerging sport,” meaning it does not conduct a state tournament series, and the district sponsors the team. Conway expects the IHSA will likely vote to sanction the sport this summer, allowing a state playoff tournament next year.

“Our district still needs to learn how to manage the sport,” he said. “We’re going to do everything in our our power to work with the district, to make sure that it doesn’t go away.”

ALSO ON PATCH