The Malibu Sharks youth lacrosse squads will take the field against competition from nearby lacrosse clubs on Sunday.
The second-year youth program’s U11, U13 and U15 teams will play in exhibition contests at Malibu High School against at least six teams from Santa Barbara, Newbury Park and Oaks Christian School.
Skylar Hopkins, the owner of Catch! Lacrosse, the skill development program that helped the City of Malibu organize the Sharks youth lacrosse program, said this is the second consecutive season that featured this event.
“The kids had a lot of fun,” he said of the 2015 exhibition.
The teams will play in a round robin-style tournament, so each squad will play at least two games in their age group. Play will start around noon.
The Malibu youth teams were originally expected to participate in the Southern California Lacrosse Association for the first time this season, but Hopkins said the decision was made to hold the young lacrosse players out of the league because of low number of participants.
Forty kids are playing on Sharks’ U9, U11, U13 and U15 teams.
Hopkins said not playing in the lacrosse league was a little disappointing at first, but coaches and parents realized that letting the players develop their lacrosse skills for a spring is important.
“It made better sense for this team right now to have a season where they are just playing for fun rather than making it where they are competing for a season,” Hopkins said. “For the most part, all the kids are first- and second-year players.”
Hopkins said some of the U15 players, who have lacrosse experience, are playing with a group in Thousand Oaks.
“They have done very well,” he said.
He said the season is going well for the players in the Malibu program. The players practice twice per week and the coaches are working with the players on fundamentals, including “the ability to handle a puck, catch a pass, throw a ball, find an open teammate.”
“The kids have come so far,” Hopkins shared. “They are night and day from where they were a month ago.”
Hopkins said he really enjoyed seeing the camaraderie the young lacrosse players showed at a recent practice.
“They were playing team-oriented lacrosse,” he said. “They have great attitudes. One time, a kid knocked another player over and then helped him up.”
