Chris Churchman has been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.
The 13-year-old lacrosse enthusiast from Wayne, who plays for both his junior high school and a club lacrosse team, can't wait for the NCAA Division I, II and III Men's Lacrosse Championships that will begin Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field.
"It seems like all my lacrosse friends are going," said Churchman, who went to last year's championships at the Linc with one friend and ran into six more.
Fans can watch as No. 2 seed Maryland plays unseeded University of Massachusetts at 11:30 a.m. and No. 1 Virginia takes on No. 5 Syracuse University at 2 p.m. in the Division I semifinal games on Saturday.
On Sunday, Salisbury will attempt to defend its title against Cortland State in the Division III finals. Le Moyne will play Dowling in the Division II title game.
For the uninitiated, lacrosse is a game played on a rectangular field by two teams of 10 players each, in which participants use a long-handled stick that has a webbed pouch on one end to maneuver a ball into the opposing team's goal. But lacrosse, which is fast growing in popularity, is not just for those who play.
"We're going down with family," said Joe Brodzik, a coach with the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Bulldogs, a seventh- and eighth-grade team in Doylestown. "It is one continuous party. More of a controlled party with kids running around."
Brodzik has attended championship games for the last few years, traveling to Maryland and Rutgers, and last spring to Philadelphia. He meets with longtime lacrosse friends and sees "hundreds of people" he knows.
"It is all about the fans when you go to this NCAA playoff, which is really cool," Brodzik said. "You can't get bored."
In addition to watching great lacrosse, fans can test their skills at interactive sports games at the HeadHouse Plaza at the Linc.
There will be a three-point basketball shoot-out, a baseball batting cage, a lacrosse cage to test the coordination and concentration of even the most seasoned player, and football, hockey and soccer games - plus autograph sessions with the teams.
And then there are the vendors.
"We were spending a mint," Deb Andress said of her family's outing last year.
Andress, who once played on the women's U.S. team and now runs a youth program in Doylestown for girls in second to eighth grades, is also the mother of five lacrosse players and a teacher at Pennsylvania State University's Abington campus.
