So do Tim Grimes, Spencer Sommer and Nathan Weaver.

The four Sehome seniors always thought football would be their first love, but their football days are over. They're 100 percent dedicated to lacrosse now as co-captains of the Whatcom Warriors, a second-year high school club team. It's the only lacrosse squad in Whatcom County.

"I almost do feel guilty about saying it, but I like lacrosse better than football," said Davies, hoping that Sehome football coach Kevin Johnson wouldn't hear.

Johnson isn't likely to lose any players to lacrosse, which is played in the spring, but the rapidly growing sport has significant potential as competition for the likes of baseball, soccer and track.

The players couldn't be more enthusiastic over their improvement. Last year, they won only one of nine games in a junior varsity division; this season, they are 7-2 overall and 7-0 in their five-team Division II circuit following their 18-2 home victory Monday over South Kitsap. Only three weeks earlier, they struggled to beat Snohomish 11-10.

Whatcom beat second-ranked Port Angeles in April, then lost to Vashon, another division leader, 11-4.

"It really stung our players," said second-year head coach Greg Hill of the loss. "They came back with renewed dedication. I'm really excited about how well that showed."

The second victory over Snohomish clinched a playoff berth with four regular-season games left. The playoffs for the 15-team, three-division high-school league will open with quarterfinals May 20-21 at sites to be determined. The semifinals will be May 25, followed by the title game May 28 at Qwest Stadium in Seattle.

"That's our goal, to play at Qwest," said Grimes. He and his teammates feel such an opportunity would help ease the disappointment of failing to make the high school football playoffs.

What accounts for such dramatic improvement in one season?

"Last year we were just out for fun in our first year of lacrosse," Davies said. "Now that we're in a varsity league, we're all taking it very seriously. We really want to play at Qwest."

"It was completely different last year," said Sommer. "Last year, we were just football players playing lacrosse. Now we're definitely lacrosse players. Last season, we got a whole lot of penalties. In lacrosse, you lay out guys instead of tackling them."

"Last year, that was hard," Weaver said. "We would instinctively tackle people. Now we really look forward to lacrosse practice. I would really encourage anyone who's interested to come out and watch."

Hill has stressed keeping the penalties (usually for blocking or sticking too aggressively) to a minimum, especially since teams must play a "man down" when a player is whistled to the penalty box. The Warriors generally demonstrated poise and kept their penalties to a minimum in their 13-2 win over Snohomish.

"One of the hardest things to do has been getting them to stop hitting and start picking up the ball off the grass," Hill said with a laugh. "Lacrosse can look easy, but it's not."

T.J. Foster, a senior Sehome football all-league defensive back, joined the team this spring and has turned into an outstanding defender, displaying a knack for intercepting passes. Jason Davis, a 5-foot-8, 130-pound Sehome junior with what Hill calls "a huge heart," uses his quickness to turn in consistently outstanding performances in goal.

Foster, who will play football at Grossmont Community College in San Diego, says he is playing lacrosse for fun and to stay in shape. "But now lacrosse is definitely my second-favorite sport," he said. "Catching the ball in lacrosse (with the net in the sticks) is harder than in football."

"T.J. picked the game up a lot quicker than most of us did," Grimes said.

"And now we're so much better defensively," said Davies, a midfielder.

The team's four captains have fallen so much in love with lacrosse that they intend to play it on the club level in college. Grimes will attend the University of Montana, Sommer and Weaver will play for Western's club team as students at Whatcom Community College, and Davies hopes to start at club team at Brigham Young-Idaho.

Sommer said he hopes every high school in Whatcom County eventually has a lacrosse team. "I never thought I would have a sport in college," he said. "Now I do."

Grimes just smiled when asked if he could ever have imagined loving lacrosse more than football.

"Two years ago, I would have asked, 'What's lacrosse?' " he said.