Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Lacrosse fans, and especially those of Steamboat lacrosse, will have plenty to watch this weekend.

Steamboat Youth Lacrosse will host the sixth annual Steamboat Classic Lacrosse Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

The tournament brings 35 teams from across the state and Wyoming to compete in fifth, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade tournaments.

The fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade games will be played at Emerald Park. The eighth-grade games will be played at Emerald Park and Gardner Field.

Steamboat will field a fifth-grade team, two sixth-grade teams, a seventh-grade team and two eighth-grade teams.

Steamboat Youth Lacrosse Director Neill Redfern has designed the schedule so a Steamboat team always will be playing.

"A Steamboat team is playing all day, every day," Redfern said, noting the Steamboat teams will play at least 24 games in two days. "If you want to watch a Steamboat team and don't care about age or grade, you'll have a chance from 9 (a.m.) until 6 (p.m.) Saturday and 8 (a.m.) until 5 (p.m.) Sunday."

Teams from Aspen, Summit, Vail, Grand Junction, Laramie, Wyo., and several from the Front Range are expected to attend.

All teams will get a guaranteed four games each and in some instances a fifth game.

Redfern said that from its inception, the tournament has been designed for all local athletes to be able to play home games.

In most other instances, Steamboat Youth Lacrosse teams have to travel to tournaments across the state.

Just last weekend, three Steamboat teams traveled to Aspen for a tournament. Steamboat had two eighth-grade teams - one that won the tournament - and a seventh-grade team.

"We really don't have expectations," Redfern said. "It's all about getting home games for our guys. We've got good teams coming up. If we play hard and have fun, we're succeeding."

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com