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Labor of love leads to comprehensive history of lacrosse in Minnesota

By Samuel Wigness, Sport Ngin, 04/29/16, 8:15PM CDT

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Alan Childs' book "Minnesota Lacrosse: A History" chronicles the sport's origins and significance in the state.

East Coast, West Coast imports

Despite what most people believe, lacrosse has a long and important history in the state after being imported from the East Coast. A West Coast transplant, Childs has played an integral role in the sport's modern evolution in the state.

The Los Angeles native moved to Minnesota in 1992 so his children could grow up playing hockey. The appeal of wearing a pleated skirt as part of the lacrosse uniform drew Courtney to the sport in 2000, and she continues to participate as an offseason alternative to hockey. Soon the rest of the family -- daughter Bailey and sons Cory, Jace and Brody -- picked lacrosse as their No. 1 sport. 


Local author Alan Childs has not only written about lacrosse but also has had his hands in helping the sport grow after starting the Burnsville Lacrosse program in 2006.

With lacrosse a top priority in their south metro residence, Childs eventually faced a choice: continue open-enrolling his four youngest children in high schools where the sport was offered - the path he followed with Courtney and Cory - or bring participation opportunities closer to home. 

Childs opted for the latter, founding the Burnsville boys' and girls' lacrosse programs in 2006.

“Like any dad, when your kids get into stuff, you get involved," he said. "Our family had to start the Burnsville lacrosse program because we didn’t have one.

“I told my kids that if we were going to start the Burnsville program that we had to be all in," he added. "This is how we spend our vacations now.”

In the first few years, Childs spent countless hours officiating and coaching to keep the program afloat. As interest grew, Childs found suitable coaches and referees to take his place but never strayed too far, attending games a spectator.

He also incorporated his passion for the sport into his first book, “Flamethrowers - Guardians of the Game,” a teen fiction story about lacrosse.

A five-year devotion

In 2010, while in Winnipeg, Canada, researching a second edition of the Flamethrowers series, Childs came across a newspaper headline from an 1884 St. Paul Globe that read “Champions of America. The St. Paul Lacrosse Club Take the Trophy from the Calumet Club of Chicago.”

It was an stunning revelation. 

“Champions of the United States? (Minnesota) had a lacrosse team?” he said remembers thinking. “Then I started finding pictures of these guys at the Minnesota Historical Society and started tracing their stories."

That led to an idea.

"Nobody knows about this stuff and someone’s got to tell the story, so I figured ‘Well, I’m already in here and I’m a (lacrosse) geek, so let’s go.’”

Childs spent the next five years researching lacrosse's presence in Minnesota, dating from when the Ojibwe brought the sport with them as they navigated the St. Lawrence Seaway across the Great Lakes to its headwater in Hibbing, Minnesota, until the sport nearly disappeared at the start of the 20th century. 

He travelled throughout Minnesota, Canada and the East Coast interviewing people and uncovering documents to help him piece together a history, but much of the information he gathered indicated lacrosse had no legacy in the Midwest. 

“I had a lot of insane moments when I started thinking ‘What am I doing here and why would anyone want to read this book?’ “ he said, adding that some of the interviewees were interested in the story and pushed him to continue to piecing it together.


Lacrosse plays an important role in the lives of Alan Childs (center in sunglasses) and his family.

Research reveals inaccurate historical record

As Childs recorded his research, he used newspaper clips, pictures and historic documents to shape a timeline and quickly learned the anguishes of writing nonfiction.

“You hit walls in your research. You don’t know what happens and you can’t just fill it in – that’s the most frustrating part,” he said. “Even the newspaper articles were wrong sometimes. One said that Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were at the same lacrosse game in Minnesota – which was totally false. After looking into it, I realized that Sitting Bull was already dead and Crazy Horse wasn’t even in the state.”

Childs pursued through the roadblocks to produce a 500-page manuscript. He recruited the help of co-worker Cindy Wilson to edit it into a concise and accurate 340-page history of the sport he had come to love.

He claims the book, which is available for purchase on Amazon.com, will be his only non-fiction work, but plans to continue with the Flamethrower series.

Childs, and his family, also continue to stay involved in the state's lacrosse scene. He is an “at-large” board member for Burnsville Lacrosse and the Minnesota Lacrosse Association, while four of his five children coach the sport at various levels.

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