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REPUBLIC, Mo. — Tradition is a true love of the Ozarks, and lacrosse is far from a traditional sport.
Justice Daniel gets a lot of blank stares when he brings it up to his classmates.
“Something to do with a racket or something?” they will respond.
Lacross is a club sport under MSHSAA with nearly every team based on the east side of Missouri in Saint Louis or Columbia.
A handful of students from Republic carry that banner for southwest Missouri, the only school within a 200-mile radius that plays the sport.
“People are kind of hesitant to come out and play because they don’t want to get embarrassed because they don’t know what they’re doing,” senior Bryan Cole said.
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Rather than constantly trek east, the Tigers play in the Heartland Lacrosse Conference, made up of teams from Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
That hasn’t stopped the program from now boasting over 100 kids in junior high through varsity as opposed to just 18 when Donnie Curran took over four years ago.
“It’s mostly through word of mouth,” said Curran. “We get kids to come out to free camps, get a stick in their hand, see if they like it, and generally it develops into more. Once you get a chance to come watch a game, you get hooked.”
Curran took over when his son, Kyle, was a freshman. Having not played the sport in college, Curran went through training and certification to prepare himself to lead the program. Slowly, friends began to join Kyle, and now he makes up one of 13 seniors on this year’s 20-man roster.
Justice Daniel is one who gets maybe the most attention from opponents. He is the Tigers’ primary faceoff man, setting a program record last season with 189 wins.
His resume can turn a head, given that he picked up lacrosse for the first time as a sophomore. He was named all-conference and the team’s most valuable player last season after notching 32 goals as well.
“He’s definitely a specimen,” said Curan. “He’s definitely the heart of the program.”
Daniel isn’t hard to spot at practice. His shorts, donning green army men holding lacrosse sticks, send a loud message about his confidence.
“That’s the thing about lacrosse players: we like to show off a little bit,” he said. “As you notice, I don’t have much flow. The stereotype is ‘long hair, don’t care’ but some of us have short hair and do care.”
Daniel played football for eight years and wrestled as a freshmen. He perceives lacrosse as a mixture of both sports, along with hockey.
“This is my third year of lacrosse and it already beats out football by far.”
It didn’t take him long to surpass the expectations of his coaches, either. He drew college offers from Rockhurst and St. Mary’s, but ultimately decided to attend College of the Ozarks.
In the meantime, Republic is happy to squeeze every bit of lacrosse he has left.
“He’s almost unmatched,” Curran said. “We have a distinct advantage when we go play some of these teams because he’ll just dominate them right off the faceoff line.”
With no program in Point Lookout, Daniel plans to focus on a criminal justice degree, having completed a program with the Missouri Highway Patrol Cadet Academy last year.
Of course, he still plans to carve out time for the sport he has grown to love.
“I would love to play lacrosse some time beyond high school, but as of now I can come back and help these guys after I graduate,” he said. “I really want to give back to the sport in some way.”
