Lacrosse is the fastest-growing high school sport in the nation, with roughly 144,000 participants in the 2007-08 school year, according to NFHS.
But that kind of growth can present its own problems. When a sport grows quickly, many new coaches may not have adequate training -- a situation some worry may lead to injuries.
"It's a concern among the governing body, that it is growing so quickly," said Andrew Lincoln, director of orthopedic and sports health research for MedStar Research Institute.
Lincoln also serves on U.S. Lacrosse's sports, science and safety committee.
In conjunction with Union Memorial Hospital, Lincoln and other researchers are seeking to find out the causes of lacrosse injuries and reduce them.
"There's a lot of concern about whether or not the game is getting rougher, more aggressive, so we're focusing a lot of our research efforts on what's going on with concussions, what the mechanisms are," said Lincoln, noting that concussions were the most common injury for boys (but only fifth for girls).
They videotaped 500 high school lacrosse games in Fairfax County, Va., this past spring, and hope to present their preliminary results by the start of the next season.
One possible recommendation they might make is introducing a youth ball -- less dense than the one used at the collegiate and professional levels.
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