By Nathan Max
WSL Executive Editor

There is yet another new varsity lacrosse league in the Western United States.

The 2010 season will mark the inaugural season for the Tornado Alley Lacrosse League, a three-state union that will include teams from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas.

There will be four varsity teams in the first season, with initial plans to expand to at least seven in 2011. Wichita has left the Lacrosse Association of Kansas to join the new league and will be joined this season by Oklahoma-based Tulsa and Edmond and Northwest Arkansas.

In 2011, Oklahoma-based Holland Hall, Owasso and Potawatomi plan to join, according to Tulsa head coach Dustin Booth. First-year programs Holland Hall and Owasso will play an independent schedule this season, and Potawatomi will field a JV team this season that will play a hybrid schedule and also face varsity teams, Booth said.

Holland Hall is a member of the Southwest Preparatory Conference, which means it could eventually face Western United States powerhouses St. Mark’s and Dallas Episcopal at some point in the future, Booth said.

The first TALL championship game will be play on May 1, 2010 in Oklahoma.

“I think it’s exciting,” Wichita president David Sherman said. “It kind of speaks to the growth of the sport. Travel-wise, it’s a little better on us, and competitive-wise, they’re a little bit more where we’re at. We’re all areas where lacrosse is developing in its early stages.”