Members of the blue and black lacrosse teams tangle up at midfield Saturday during a match at Lakeside High School. ROB CARR/STAFF

Jeff Becker and the Aiken Augusta Lacrosse Club would like to see lacrosse go mainstream. The game is already one of fastest-growing team sports in the United States. Their goal is to make the same thing happen in their own back yard.

Becker, who helped coordinate the competition, said more than 30 Atlanta high schools compete in lacrosse. He said he would like to see the same thing happen in the Augusta area.

"It's a great game," he said. "Now we've just got to show people why it's great."

A combination of hockey, basketball and soccer, lacrosse is believed to be the oldest team sport in North America. According to the sport's national governing body, the U.S. Lacrosse Association, it first was played by Native Americans, perhaps as early as the 1500s.

Football great Jim Brown was a lacrosse All-American at Syracuse University, and is considered to be one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time.

The object of lacrosse is to score goals by putting the ball in a triangular net guarded by a goalie. The game is played with a stick, also known as a crosse, consisting of a metal or composite shaft and a net pocket.

David Holland of the black team, left, pressures Ryan Meade of the blue team during the Lacrosse competition. ROB CARR/STAFF

While foot speed is a plus, endurance and good hand-eye coordination are a must for any lacrosse player.

"It's like soccer, but there's a lot more scoring, and there's some hitting, but it's not dangerous like football," Becker said. "And there's some elements of baseball in there, too. If you're good at picking up ground balls in the infield, you'd be good at lacrosse."

Becker and others who have tried to begin lacrosse programs at the youth and high school levels, find resistance from the baseball community.

"The baseball coaches don't want us to start lacrosse in the high schools because they end up losing their players to us," Becker said.

Nathan Booker, who owns a lacrosse equipment store in Stone Mountain, Ga., says interest in the sport at the high-school level is exploding in metro Atlanta. Lacrosse is now sanctioned by the Georgia High School Association.

"They've added about five to 10 schools a year for the past couple of years, and now it's a sport you can letter in," Booker said. "It's also grown in the colleges, with a lot of 21-, 22-year-olds picking up lacrosse at the (Southeastern Conference) schools who have club teams."

While lacrosse is a major sport in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland as traditional powerhouses, the game is also thriving at the club level in the SEC.

Curt Gary, of the Aiken Augusta Lacrosse Club, says Auburn University's lacrosse program is on the verge of becoming a competitive sport. Several products of the Auburn club program competed in the two Georgia Games matches.

"Auburn is close to varsity level, and the programs at Georgia and South Carolina are strong," said Gary, who coaches the Aiken Augusta women's team and referees lacrosse games around the Southeast.

The local program is also growing. Gary said most of the club's players are recruited from Fort Gordon. Almost all of those who join have no prior lacrosse experience.

"I came out here and started playing in 1993, and I'd never picked up a stick before that," said Becker, 33. "I've been playing it every since."

Reach Rob Mueller at (706) 823-3425.