To the youngest players in this weekend's Cockeysville Invitational, a lacrosse stick is pretty much a third arm.
Nine teams of waist-high 7- and 8-year-olds spent yesterday morning laughing, passing and thwacking their way through an annual tournament that has become a magnet for some of the best teams on the East Coast and beyond.
The boys joined about 4,500 players up to age 19 on 31 fields throughout northern Baltimore County yesterday and will be back in action this morning.
"These people are here out of total love for the game," said Ann Hagerty, whose husband, John Boyce, started the tournament more than a decade ago. Their son Roger, 6, didn't play yesterday but happily re-enacted a recent goal-scoring assist for anyone who asked.
Even his imaginary passes were technically sound. Roger and many of the youngest players seemed almost as skilled as their high school counterparts - but at half the size.
Eight-year-old Harry Taylor III, wearing No. 1 for the Cockeysville Tykers team, made a perfect goal after artfully swiveling his stick and darting past Owings Mills players.
"Great shot, Harry," his father, Harry Taylor Jr., shouted from the sidelines.
"He's just internally motivated," the elder Taylor said. "And he can't get enough of the game. It's bordering on addiction."
Last year, Harry slept in his lacrosse helmet the night he got it, his father recalled with a chuckle, and is rarely without a stick in his hand. The boy has even tried to teach his 19-month-old brother, Najee, to play.
"Najee, you need to cradle the stick like this," Taylor remembered his son saying during one backyard lesson.
Najee seems to be picking up the sport well. He spent most of yesterday morning toddling along the sidelines waving a lacrosse stick that was considerably taller he is. Although Najee has his own stick - a softer, smaller version - he will have to wait another five years or so before gearing up.
Perhaps the youngest player at the tournament, Raymond Schulmeyer will turn 7 on July 7.
Like the Taylors and Roger Boyce, Raymond is growing up surrounded by all things lacrosse. He didn't cuddle up to a teddy bear in his crib - he slept with a lacrosse stick, his mother said.
Now No. 25 on the Carroll Manor Tykers team, Raymond has been at his older brother's lacrosse games since before he was born, said Terri Schulmeyer, recalling the Cockeysville Invitational she watched while pregnant with Raymond and his twin sister.
Meanwhile, the older brothers and their friends played at fields about 10 miles south at places such as St. Paul's School, Country Home Park, Dulaney High School and Pikesville Middle School.
This is the second year high-schoolers have been allowed to play in the tournament. Their coaches - frequently former college lacrosse players - led warm-ups and practice drills.
At the Hereford fields, coaches of the younger teams tended to be a little less aggressive.
"I know one third-grade coach who makes them do line drills, said Kent Eppley, who brought his 8-year-old son Corey from Darien, Conn., to the tournament. "I don't know about getting so technical at such a young age. ... It's better to just let them have fun and learn as they go."
The young players tried hard to mimic their older brothers, even participating in the time-honored tradition of dumping a cooler on their coach after the last game. But few of the Cockeysville Tykers have hit the 3-feet-tall mark, so Gatorade soaked only the calves and socks of coach John Novotny.
Novotny said he has coached for about six years, first for his son Michael, who is now 14, and now for son Garrett, 9. "They just love it at this age," he said.
Parents from the two 8-and-under Connecticut teams said their youngsters attend the tournament to learn from the more experienced and serious Baltimore-area players.
The Darien team lost its first game against a Cockeysville team by a wide margin, but none of the children seemed to pay much attention to the score.
As Eppley put it, "They're getting their clocks cleaned, but at least they feel like they're in the big leagues."