About Us

Winter 2011:  Jim and Tisha Bartu moved from Wichita, Kansas where their son Samuel Bartu had been playing lacrosse for four years and had fallen in love with the sport.  When Jim and Tisha realized they were moving to Lafayette, Indiana and that the closest lacrosse team was an hour away in Indianapolis, they began researching and talking to other teams about how to start a new team.   
 

Fall 2013:  Jim and Tisha Bartu along with Tom Mckee and Troy Brown hosted a lacrosse clinic to share how the game is played.  Paul Borchelt, from the Indiana High School Lacrosse Association, was in attendance and the Purdue Men's and Women's Lacrosse Teams held a demonstration.  At that first lacrosse clinic, Jim Bartu shared with the parents of 30 interested players what they could expect and what equipment was needed in order to play the game.

Spring / Summer 2014:  The Harrison Lacrosse Club men’s team played their first season under the coaching instruction of Head Coach Jim Bartu and Assistant coaches Tom Mckee, Drew Voss and Troy Brown.  The team started out with 23 players and added an additional 5 players throughout the season. The men went 2-7 for the season, which felt like a huge accomplishment.  All of the players improved greatly and ended with a lot of momentum and even greater interest for the following season. A few interested parents began meeting informally in the hope of beginning a more formal Lacrosse Board for the following season.  That first informal board consisted of Jim Bartu, Tisha Bartu, Tom McKee, Troy Brown and John Hufnagel.

Fall 2015:  Several girls at HHS asked Coach Bartu about joining the men’s team. Men’s and women’s lacrosse are two vastly different sports so a co-ed team was not an option.  However, Jim Bartu offered to help the girls find a coach if they gathered enough players to field a girls team.  The girls came back with about 20 names, and, true to his word, Jim connected the newly formed team with Coach Jordan Beauchamp.

Spring / Summer 2015:  The Harrison women’s lacrosse team played their first season. The men’s lacrosse team grew to around 38-40 players and boys ended their productive season with a 7-5-1 winning record.  The men’s and women’s teams formalized their relationship as the unified Harrison Lacrosse Club and elected a board comprised of parents and coaches from both teams.  

Spring / Summer 2016:  HHS Boys Lacrosse played their third season, and 25 HHS girls played their second season. The boys ended their season with a 10-7 winning record. Several of the boy players joined the True Lacrosse team from Indianapolis and many of them also played on a second travel team with The Tropics, which was a combination team made up of Harrison and Bishop Dwenger players.  Several girls also played in Indianapolis lacrosse camps during the summer.

Spring 2017:  HHS Boys Lacrosse played their fourth season with a 10-3 winning record.  There was enough interest on the women’ side to split the 39 players into Varsity and JV teams.
 

2017 To Date, nine Harrison Lacrosse Club players (five boys and four girls) have gone on to play lacrosse in college.  Our teams have grown and become more competitive. The future of lacrosse at Harrison High School looks bright, indeed!

With a firm commitment that expense should never prevent any student from playing and the two-pronged goal of building the sport of lacrosse at Harrison High School the board continues to work throughout the off season to secure practice and game fields, schedule games, formulate a budget, set goals, and raise funds to offset costs and provide scholarships.