POULSBO — Lacrosse might be one of the fastest-growing team sports in the United States, according to the national lacrosse Web site, but the North End’s program continues to struggle for players and recognition.

According to www.uslacrosse.org, national youth participation in lacrosse has spiked 500 percent since 1999 and for the past 10 years interest in lacrosse has flourished among high school athletes with an estimated 200,000 players.

However, the NK girls Lacrosse team lost members this year.

Head girl’s team coach Val Torrens said approximately 12 members got jobs instead of returning. She said the registration fee of $140 can be a major deterrent, whereas to participate in a NKSD sanctioned sport athletes pay $60.

“For some it’s too expensive. Most kids we would have hoped were coming back are working instead,” Torrens said. “It’s also been a lot harder to get word out that the team is here.”

Getting the lacrosse word out is a challenge in the North End because the program isn’t a sanctioned North Kitsap School District sport. Since its inception in 1991, Torrens, other coaches, athletes and parents have strived to see lacrosse get recognition as a district sport. The fall-out rests on the shoulders of the lacrosse players.

North freshman Mallory Glebe joined lacrosse this year. She said it’s hard to be a member of a team not recognized by her school.

“I get asked about it a lot,” Glebe said. “It’s difficult sometimes.”

Although the 26 young women who comprise the 2008 team meet the same requirements for eligibility — having an Associated Student Body activity card, meeting academic eligibility standards, turning in insurance and medical forms — getting recognition is easier said than done.

The first hurdle the lacrosse program must jump is becoming a Washington Interscholastic Activities Association sport.

“The school board has always said when it becomes a WIAA sport (they’ll consider it),” Torrens said.

She said the WIAA is going to vote on lacrosse this spring.

If the WIAA vote is a yes, the lacrosse program must conquer two additional road blocks: funding and access to facilities.

NKSD Board Member Tom Anderson agrees that the WIAA “really controls what sports the district plays.” He said there’s a need for lacrosse at the high school, as it allows for more participation by more kids. And he’d be supportive of the sport if the WIAA votes for it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for the district.

“It’s a matter of money,” Anderson said. “In an ideal world we’d have all sports. In the real world we may have to limit our programs because of budgetary constraints. It’s a matter of limited facilities and priorities. We can’t do everything for everybody.”

Recognition aside, Torrens said the journey has been a long but good one as the program’s experienced several leaps and bounds of progress.

Torrens said when the team first started practicing it couldn’t do so on school fields, and instead held practices at Raab Park. The field had no official lacrosse line, no goals, it had nothing. Therefore all the team’s games had to be away games.

“The kids never saw a lined field until they got to somebody else’s field,” Torrens said.

Today the lacrosse club has its own designated practice field in Strawberry Field No. 2. The program can now use Strawberry Field No. 1 for home games when the field is available, and it usually is. The varsity members can earn an athletic letter for their efforts.

Although the lacrosse program is responsible for “lining” the field for games, which takes approximately three hours to complete and an entire case of paint, which costs $50 per case, that’s all going to change next year.

One component of the North Kitsap Regional Events Center master plan is to lay Strawberry Field No. 2 with artificial turf and lacrosse lines.

“That’s huge,” Torrens said. “Getting the lacrosse lines in was one of the bid alternatives for the NKREC. It was one of five the board said yes to.”

The NKREC will be a complex of multi-event buildings, sports fields, multi-purpose trails and other facilities. The complex will allow for extended use and the district’s ability to host major soccer and lacrosse tournaments.

And Torrens, who’s been funding the lacrosse program out of her own pocket for years, hasn’t lost hope of becoming a sanctioned sport.

“It’s something the kids want and that’s why I want it,” she said. “Over time it’s been slow, but we’re getting there and I fully expect in time lacrosse is going to be a school sport. I have no doubt.”

In the meantime the program is seeking assistance through grants. It has submitted applications to both area tribes and Wal-Mart.

“Probably the biggest thing for us right now is to get us some grants so we can assure the kids we do have scholarships available and can buy more equipment and replace equipment,” Torrens said.

On Wednesday the North Kitsap Lacrosse team plays a home game against Mercer Island. The game starts at 5:45 p.m.