Sticking around the game

COHASSET -- Many of the players arrive from work still in business-casual attire. They change into their uniforms in the comfort of their cars. They engage in friendly tete-a-tete with the "enemy."

Wives and girlfriends chill on the sidelines. Children mosey around with sticks of their own, idolizing their fathers, who are on the field. Teammates introduce themselves, ostensibly meeting for the first time.

The game begins around 6 p.m. Their skills are varied. Former Division 1 college lacrosse players are working off the rust, while newcomers, who were exposed to lacrosse through their children, are trying not to look misplaced.

These are the sights of the Olde New England Lacrosse League, an assemblage of Over-30 (11 teams) and Over-40 (seven teams) men's teams, representing communities from New Hampshire to the South Shore.

Scott McKenzie started the league four years ago. He took his son, Alex, to a lacrosse camp and jumped in as one of the instructors. Once the pads were on, the flame was rekindled.

"I was a little rusty at first," McKenzie, 50, acknowledged.

In 2003, McKenzie formed a team called the Rusty Bones, and they played mostly against players half their age in a recreational league in Nashua. Rusty Bones had success in its inaugural campaign, losing in the first round of the playoffs.

That success got McKenzie thinking.

"I figured there were more guys out there like me -- more guys who would love to play again," said McKenzie, who played lacrosse at Shawsheen Valley Technical High School, Boston College, and at the club level.

McKenzie has a striking resemblance -- even the hair -- to Donald Trump; he was actually stopped in an airport by someone who recorded a video of McKenzie uttering the phrase Trump made famous -- "You're fired." Maybe the correct term, in this case, is, "You're hired." McKenzie's proposal has exploded. The league had six teams in its inaugural season. "It was done on a small scale," McKenzie said. "It was a sort of a pilot."

In 2005, the league grew to 12 teams, and McKenzie divided the league into the Over-30 (eight teams) and Over-40 (four teams) divisions. This year, there are 17 teams with nearly 500 players.

"We're starting to inch our way into Rhode Island," McKenzie said.

The ultimate goal, he said, is for each state in New England to have its own league. The teams, however, will not convene during the regular season; each league will send its champion to a championship tournament. "The bigger this gets, the more people there are going to be helped," McKenzie said.

Who is to say the escalation will stop there? According to US Lacrosse, the game is the fastest-growing high school and collegiate sport in the country. The Olde New England league, according to McKenzie, has grown by 30 percent annually and there is interest from outside New England and the United States. McKenzie said he is receiving inquiries from California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia, and he has received e-mails and hits from Australia, Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, the Philippines, Scandinavia, and various Western European countries about starting comparable leagues. There is even a link to the Rusty Bones website, rustyboneslax.com, on the official website for lacrosse in Australia, lacrosseaustralia.org.

"How the heck do they know about us?" McKenzie quipped. "What about the places that don't know about us?"

They are cognizant of "us" because there is camaraderie among lacrosse players. Larry Simpson, a defenseman on the Cohasset-based South Shore Stragglers, a first-year team in the Over-40 Division, had not played for 13 years before joining the league this year.

"At 45 and experiencing early-stage midlife crisis," Simpson said, "playing lacrosse into your 40s is a heck of a lot cheaper than having to buy a red convertible and a lot safer than getting a Harley."

Simpson started playing as a freshman at Bethany College, a Division 3 program in West Virginia, and continued to play for the Pittsburgh Lacrosse Club for the next 12 years. He believes lacrosse is becoming the most popular sport for children.

"It's faster-paced, more players are involved at any given time, and it's time certain: The game starts and ends at predictable times," said Simpson, who is trying to start a few new teams on the South Shore for next season.

Ned Phillie, the president of Sandwich Youth Lacrosse who founded the Stragglers, joined the league two years ago because it was more organized than other summer leagues. He said the players are so loyal -- one of his teammates, Keith Bleiler, a doctor, actually stops seeing patients at 4 p.m. on game days so he can get to the game on time -- that the league will continue to grow exponentially.

"I think the league will become more organized geographically," said Phillie, 45, who played one year of lacrosse at the University of New Hampshire before sustaining a knee injury. "I was signed up to play for the [Sudbury Olde Patriots] before I started the Stragglers. As the league grows, it will allow players to play closer to home."

McKenzie and a representative from each team hold an annual winter meeting in Billerica. The panel shares ideas and talks about rules changes and means of expansion. Some of the rules that have been implemented affect the play of games: Each team is allowed two age exemptions, allowing two 28- or 29-year-olds to play on an Over-30 team and 38- or 39-year-olds to play on the Over-40 team; if you are over 40, you can play in both divisions. Also, you cannot take more than three steps before checking another player and you can substitute at any time.

"We all have to get up and go to work the next day," McKenzie said.

One of the focal points this winter could further revolutionize the game of lacrosse -- an over-50 division. "I've received interest," McKenzie said. The oldest player to ever play in the league was Bob Peters, a midfielder on Rusty Bones. He retired after the 2005 season -- he scored a goal in the championship game -- at the age of 61.

"Now, you can play lacrosse from the time you're 8 all the way up to your 40s, 50s, or 60s," McKenzie said with a smile. "That's a byproduct I totally had no way of envisioning."

Steve Crowe can be reached at scrowe@globe.com.