On the corner of Hill and Division streets on the University of Michigan campus, Elbel Field is a melting pot of sports diversity on a warm spring afternoon. The cold and rain finally relented and pickup games of softball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, football, and basketball populate the field.

On the east end of the park, a group participates in a game long an anomaly anywhere but the east end of the country. They toss around a lacrosse ball.

The netted sticks and hard rubber balls are quickly becoming fixtures not just in games of catch at fields like Elbel, but on the high school sports scene, locally and across the state.

According to US Lacrosse, the sport’s 12-year-old governing body, participation in organized lacrosse leagues increased from 125,000 kids under the age of 15 nationwide playing in 2001 to 297,271 in 2010, a 138 percent increase.

Lacrosse’s popularity and growth in Michigan reflects the national trend. In 2005, the Michigan High School Athletic Association took on lacrosse as an officially-sanctioned sport. Lacrosse is the third-fastest growing sport at the MHSAA level, behind competitive cheer and bowling, increasing from 114 teams (71 boys/43 girls) to 139 (87 boys/52 girls) in 2010.

Athlete participation in lacrosse increased every year since its charter season, going from 4,467 athletes (3,032 boys/1,435 girls) to 6,385 (4,249/2,136) in 2009. Overall, participation in MHSAA-sanctioned sports has remained constant with a 0.07 percent decrease in numbers.

“As far as coming out of the chute from the beginning of its sponsorship, I can’t say that any other sport has seen that explosion that lacrosse has had,” says John Johnson, MHSAA communications director for the past 23 years. “The only thing I can say is comparable was in the late ’90s until about 2005 in ice hockey, where we saw an almost doubling up.

“Right around that time there was the success of the Red Wings and there was a lot of new ice coming on the scene, so the game became more popular and more accessible at the same time.”

Lacrosse’s spike in popularity is harder to pin down, but Johnson has a few theories.

“The crossover nature to it, the fast-paced nature of the game, the almost kind of extreme feel it has,” Johnson says. “It’s something that’s new, quick, edgy and it’s really caught on with kids, and those people that have got involved have really got involved in grass roots efforts and deserve a lot of credit.”

The Ann Arbor Blue Jays is an example of one such grass roots organization.

Founded last year by Pioneer High School varsity coach Darren Millman, the Blue Jays recently merged with the city’s first youth lacrosse program, the Emerson League. Founded in 1995 by former head of schools at Emerson School, Gil Leaf, a former Harvard goalie, the Emerson League had 20 kids that first year. The Blue Jays had 120 registered players on teams from third to eighth grade last year.

“One of really my primary goals for the program and one of the things I’m trying to stress and my focus is not just a feeder program for Pioneer High School, but to grow interest in the community,” says Millman, a Maryland native and former goalie at Bucknell.

Millman will step down from his post at Pioneer at the end of the season, his seventh at the helm, to head the Blue Jays’ growth.

“Right now, we have paid coaches with experience in lacrosse. This differs from other communities where volunteer parents with no experience head the show, and this will translate into more kids learning the fundamentals of the game earlier on,” says Millman, pointing to similar programs in the Grand Rapids area where this model has proved sustainable and successful.

“It directly translates into success that (Grand Rapids area) high schools are having, even as more and more high schools are opening. It shows there’s room for all the programs to succeed.” Millman says.

East Grand Rapids has been in all five Division 2 boys state championship finals, winning the past three.

“It will be better for our five high school programs when they’re all duking it out with each other and the competition level is high across the board,” Millman says.

Another sure contributor to the growth of lacrosse in the area is Brian Callanan.

After 22 years of coaching in lacrosse hotbeds New Jersey and New York, Callanan arrived in Dexter, coincidentally, as the high school was looking for someone to lead a new varsity program.

“Here I am, detective-lieutenant, lacrosse program is humming and my wife is like, ‘We’re moving to Michigan,’” Callanan recalls with a laugh, his Bronx accent a further testament to the steady migration of the game from its Eastern roots. His wife’s job with Ann Arbor-based ProQuest required immediate relocation, forcing him to say goodbye to his Mahwah High School team in New Jersey, which he’d coached for eight years.

“In the space of two weeks I went from happy, doing my thing, to two weeks later my wife and daughter are in Michigan, I’m selling the house, retiring, leaving law enforcement.”

What happened next can be chalked up to fate. The Callanans happened upon a home in Dexter because of its proximity to a Montessori School they wanted their young daughter to attend.

Only after every other i was dotted and t was crossed did Callanan begin to wonder about coaching opportunities.

“I go to Laxpower (.com) vacancies. And what’s at the top of the list? Dexter High School. So I’m just like, ‘No way,’ ” Callanan recalls.

Seven months later the Dreadnaughts are 13-5 and set to play in the regional semifinals of the Division 2 state tournament on Tuesday after advancing through the first two rounds of the playoffs last week.

And Callanan is just getting started.

“It is the single most important thing for a high school team to have is a youth program,” says Callanan. “You can not begin playing lacrosse in ninth grade and compete. Could you compete in pockets of Michigan where everybody’s doing that? Sure. But if you want to be a lacrosse school or a lacrosse community, you have to have a youth program.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2565. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.