DU senior and lacrosse midfielder Brad Richardson spent part of winter break helping a group of young men organize a national lacrosse team in Costa Rica.

“The most fascinating part was just that they were so passionate about a sport they did not know too much about and it was cool because it was something that I’ve grown up and been part of my entire life,” said Richardson, business management major.

Richardson, 22, and a group of other lacrosse players from various teams traveled to Costa Rica to hold a lacrosse clinic to teach the up-and-coming Costa Rican National Lacrosse team skills and knowledge about the game.

“They really know nothing about the sport, only from what they read in magazines and watch on TV. These guys have a passion to do something different than soccer, and they have fallen in love with lacrosse,” Richardson said. “We made a presentation about lacrosse, explained the origin, medical needs, had a question-and-answer session and donated equipment to the team.”

If established, the Costa Rican national team will play two exhibition games with other countries set up for next year. Richardson said the hardest problem for the team of 14-to-24-year-old players is getting field time and fundraising because soccer is the more dominant sport in Costa Rica and no one knows anything about lacrosse.

Richardson, who is from Vancouver, British Columbia, heard about this opportunity through Don Hedges, president of his local summer lacrosse team, the Coquitlam Adanacs.

For the last eight years, Hedges has traveled to Costa Rica with pre-med students to do community service, but this year the trip was focused on helping the Costa Rican lacrosse team.

According to Richardson, what this team needs the most is equipment and general knowledge about the sport. The Costa Rican team does not even have a coach yet.

“They all had NHL Boston Bruin hockey goalie masks instead of helmets. It was hilarious because they gave them to us to wear to play an example scrimmage. They ordered a bunch of them off the Internet, cheap ones that you could buy from Wal-Mart,” said Richardson. “It was funny to us; both sides were laughing.”

Richardson’s DU lacrosse teammate Ben Wahler, who did not go on the trip, helped gather old lacrosse gear to bring to Costa Rica. In total, enough gear for three players was donated, except for cleats because their feet are smaller than ours, said Richardson.

“I recognized that we are so lucky to have equipment and organizations like universities, colleges and private investors who are interested in the sport and we are able to play because of all the resources we have,” said Richardson. “Whereas, it is so hard for their team to even get equipment and field time.”

In addition to staying in contact with the team and possibly going back to Costa Rica for another extended teaching session, Richardson plans on graduating from DU this spring and hopes to play professional indoor lacrosse or work in Denver.