
On Saturday, October 3, 2009, the Indiana Chapter took part in introducing lacrosse to thousands of fans that attended the 26th Annual Circle City Classic at Lucas Oil Stadium (home of the Indianapolis Colts) in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Circle City Classic is an annual event that pairs two “Historically Black Colleges” (HBCU) football programs to promote HBCU institutions and raise money towards scholarships. Indianapolis’ Classic is one of the largest events of its kind, annually attracting over 55,000 fans for the game and over 150,000 people to the city of Indianapolis to attend a variety of events. For more information, go to www.circlecityclassic.com .
The Indiana Chapter was invited as part of a select group to promote their sport and meet the Classic’s mission in this “Sports X-perience” event to promote youth involvement and living a healthy lifestyle. Some of the other groups that participated were USA Football, USA Track & Field, US Fencing, USA Gymnastics and the NCAA. All of the participating groups were asked to set-up an area inside the exhibit halls of Lucas Oil Stadium and give youth an opportunity to learn more about a sport through interactive activities.
Indiana coaches and players from both girls and boys youth and high school programs volunteered their time and energy and welcomed fans to pick-up a lacrosse stick, shoot on goal and learn about the “Creators Game”. Empire Lacrosse & Sports Store (local lacrosse store) provided balls and gift items to fans. In addition, Chris Berju (co-owner of Empire) was instrumental in working with Warrior to confirm the participation of Chazz Woodson (MLL Player for Chicago Machine) to travel to Indianapolis to participate in the event and conduct demonstrations and sign autographs.
The event was a huge hit with fans. Fans ended up receiving a special treat when “Master P” (5 time Grammy award winner and CEO and Co-Founder of No Limit Entertainment) stopped by the lacrosse area, grabbed a stick and played around with kids for a while. It was a great site.
The Indiana Chapter plans to participate in many more events like this in the future to promote the game at the grass roots level. For more information on the Chapter and other upcoming events, go to www.indianalacrosse.org .