Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Harris.
Christian, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was living in Denver after receiving my master’s in education. I had every intention to become a public school teacher, but the job market wasn’t great and neither was my first experience as a full time teacher, so I took a job in an industry I knew well; lacrosse. My brother and I played lacrosse in college and he moved to Charleston after graduating. He found a group of people who wanted to help grow the game through camps and clubs, as well as open up a retail store. After I had been working at a hockey/lacrosse store in Denver for a while, my brother asked me if I’d be interested in moving to Savannah to open a franchise of what was now, Lowcountry Lacrosse. I was dating my girlfriend for about five months at this point, and asked her (hypothetically of course) if she would be willing to move to Savannah if I took the job; she (hypothetically) said yes. We packed up our things, got married in the Rocky Mountains, went to California for our honeymoon, and drove across the country to Savannah all within 10 ten days from our wedding.
We opened Lowcountry Lacrosse Savannah on October 18th, 2014. I hit the ground running, meeting all of the coaches in the area and plugging myself into the community. I had a lot of help (way too many people to name) in growing the business. As well as creating a youth league for boys and girls, a travel program for boys and girls, lots of camps and clinics and helped to foster the growth of a number of high school programs in the area. When I moved here, there was one varsity program, and two club programs for boys high school lacrosse and only one club program for girls. Now there are nine boys varsity and 3 girls with one girls club.
We’re in our 8th year now, the sport keeps growing in the area, and business has been great!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are always bumps in the road, but we have so many great people involved in the sport that the community helps to smooth them out. I lean on my coaches a ton, I inquire from parents about what their thoughts are on how we’re doing and what they would like to see for their kids. Most struggles are fixable, that’s for sure.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Off the field, we are a full service lacrosse store located in the Savannah, GA metropolitan area. We service the local lacrosse community along with teams around SC, GA, FL, NC and beyond. We are vendors for nearly all manufacturers of equipment, we do custom equipment and custom sideline gear or game jerseys, etc. We string sticks in house, and our knowledge about the game is unmatched. We get parents coming in all the time saying, “my kid wants to play lacrosse and I don’t know anything”, and we get them set for the season in no time!
On the field, we run a spring rec league called Coastal Empire Lacrosse for boys and girls K-8th grade and we run a travel club program for boys (Sweetlax Hawksbills) and girls (Savannah Gulls) K-12th for the summer and fall seasons.
We have amazing coaches who believe in the mission to teach the technical skills of lacrosse while providing an opportunity for personal development. We believe that lacrosse should be fun for the players but provide a foundation for building a character that will instill teamwork, discipline, integrity, sportsmanship and respect to other players, coaches and parents.
Our vision is to grow the game of lacrosse in the greater Savannah area. Not just numbers wise, but also in overall skill and (lacrosse) IQ level among players, coaches, parents, officials and fans. We want every kid who comes into our programs to leave with a smile on their face, knowing that they learned something and had fun, regardless of if they continue to play or not; and we want parents to be involved and learn the game to help grow the overall culture of lacrosse in the Coastal Empire.
What are your plans for the future?
We want Savannah to be a place where lacrosse is known by all. A few years ago, there were plenty of comments, “what is lacrosse?”, then it was “my kid just started and man, I wish I had played!”, we want it to be, “I love lacrosse and grew up playing in Savannah and now my kid wants to play!”
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.lowlax.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lowlaxsav/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lowlaxsav/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lowcountry-lacrosse-savannah-savannah
