SNOHOMISH - Better consider clearing some room on your plate because the smorgasbord of youth sports now features another spring entree guaranteed to satisfy.

No longer confined to its northeastern roots, lacrosse has spread across the nation like wildfire in recent years. One need look no further than Snohomish County for evidence of the sports' exploding popularity.

With clubs in Lynnwood, Mukilteo, Snohomish and Stanwood, programs for both girls and boys are thriving. Each club serves multiple schools or school districts. The Snohomish Lacrosse Club, for example, offers opportunities for players from the Snohomish, Monroe, Lake Stevens and Marysville school districts.

Doug and Bonnie Roulstone of Snohomish started the Snohomish club in 2002 with just a handful of players. The organization grew to about 100 players within a year. This spring, better than 200 players in grades 5-12 turned out.

And it's not just boys who are jumping on the bandwagon. The numbers in Snohomish are fairly evenly split between boys and girls. The growth has been similar statewide. In 1987, there were just three girls high school programs in Washington, all in east King County. By 1999 there were 18. Now there are about 35 spread around the state.

A recent article in Sports Illustrated magazine declared lacrosse to be the fastest growing sport in America and identified Washington as one of the state's leading the way.

With feeder programs stockpiled with fifth- and sixth-graders, that growth is expected to continue for some time. So why are kids drawn to lacrosse as a springtime alternative to baseball, soccer, softball or track?

"It's billed nationally as the fastest sport on two feet," said Snohomish Lacrosse Club board member Mark Steranka. "And, given the speed at which the ball is moving, it certainly is."

Lacrosse players use a long-handled stick with a triangular shaped head and a loose mesh pouch to catch, carry and pass a hard rubber ball that's slightly smaller than a baseball.

The chief objective is to score goals by throwing the ball into a hockey-sized goal. Players carry the ball using a rocking motion - known as "cradling" - to protect the ball inside the mesh pouch until they are ready to shoot or pass. In order to get open, players move and set screens in a manner similar to basketball, hockey or soccer.

Unlike those sports, however, the rules for boys and girls lacrosse are quite different.

Hard contact is the order of the day for the boys. For protection players wear elbow pads, gloves, light shoulder pads, mouthpieces and helmets with full-face guards. Anyone looking to carry the ball very far is likely to get legally knocked end-over-end by a defender.

"It's sort of like hockey on cleats," said Steranka, who played varsity lacrosse at perennial national power Notre Dame and coaches the Snohomish Lacrosse Club's middle-school program for boys in grades 7-8.

While the boys version of the game is rough and tumble, the girls play more of a finesse game. The football-like contact so prevelant in the boys game is not allowed among the girls. The girls wear goggles, not helmets, and there's no need for shoulder pads.

Successful girls players utilize many of the same skills needed in basketball or soccer, said Snohomish Lacrosse Club girls varsity coach Sean Collins. They need the ability to run, throw, catch and see the entire field.

The Snohomish girls team's senior leader, Shayla Whipple, demonstrated those skills in a recent game played at the Snohomish freshman campus. Whipple showed an uncanny ability to quickly change speeds and juke defenders. "Her nature is so sweet," Collins said. "But (on the field) she's like a thoroughbred."

After struggling for victories in its first couple of seasons, the Snohomish girls team reached a turning point, Collins said, after the players witnessed the passing skills of a group of experienced women players in their 40s and 50s. "They moved the ball from one end of the field to the other in five seconds," Collins said. "I asked the girls 'Can they run faster than you?'"