Guys running around a field throwing a ball and hitting each other. This is lacrosse looks like to many observers. To Timothy Dunton, Piedmont Colleges’ men’s lacrosse head coach, it’s more than that.

“I would describe lacrosse as a combination of a lot of different sports, all kind of intertwined.” says Dunton.

Coach Dunton has coached Piedmont Men’s Lacrosse for four years, “I took over half way through it’s life,” he says.

The men’s lacrosse team has only been around at Piedmont College for eight years, and the past two seasons have been the best yet. “Second year in a row we made playoff,” says Dunton. “Technically the third, but we weren’t in the USA South Conference (for the first time).”

Lacrosse is a sport few, besides those who play and coach it, know what exactly it is. Coach Dunton says, “it’s a combination of a lot of different sports, kind of intertwined, definitely a lot of sports mixed into one.”

Junior Brandon Murria and freshman Parker Cheatham, both on the men’s lacrosse team, describe it differently.

“I would probably compare it to hockey because of all the similarities, but without seeing a men’s game for yourself it can difficult to explain,” says Cheatham.

Murria says, “I would describe it as a vacation.”

Cheatham and Murria both started playing because of a friend, but have kept playing ever since middle school. Cheatham likes the competitiveness of the sport and even more when playing his position as goalie. Murria played football before realizing lacrosse was a bigger passion.

“I like the sports participation,” says Murria, “everyone who plays it usually is cool and just makes it seem like a family away from home.”

The men’s lacrosse team is very young themselves with only a few seniors on the team. “We have a better team than the record show, and were very young,” says Dunton, “my junior class has been the core of that, we built around them.”

North Georgia does not have much of a lacrosse prevalence, the closest area where you see this sport is Gwinnett County. “It’s been kinda fun growing the game up here and exposing lacrosse to this area,” says Dunton.

With the men’s team being so young Dunton is on the fence about this season. “There’s not a lot of history for men’s lacrosse, and we don’t have any history to rely on.”

“I feel like we’re creating the history,” says Dunton.