ADAMS TWP — The quantity of lacrosse players in Mars has definitely picked up.

So has the quality.

Mars 15-under team recently returned from Sandusky, Ohio, where it won the Roller Coaster Rumble Lacrosse Tournament by winning all six of its games. The championship game was a 9-8 triumph over Lama Lax, a club team from Michigan.

“We've developed enough quality players in our program that we can compete favorably against all-star select teams from other areas,” said Vince Grieco, founder of the Mars youth lacrosse team and coach of the Under-15 squad.

Mars formed its youth lacrosse program in 2009 with 38 fourth- or fifth-graders comprising two teams. By 2012, there were more than 200 kids in the program comprising 10 teams.

Mars Youth Lacrosse now fields multiple teams in the U-9, U-11, U-13 and U-15 divisions.

Mars High School fielded a varsity boys lacrosse team for the first time this past spring. The Planets went 7-7 and reached the playoffs.

“Seven to 10 of their players were freshmen who came through our program,” Grieco said.

A Mars resident, Grieco had never seen lacrosse until he attended St. Vincent College. He wound up playing four years of club lacrosse at the University of Virginia.

“I wanted my son (Anthony) to have the opportunity to play,” Grieco said. “Pine-Richland had a program, but would not accept kids from outside of its district.

“We had no choice but to start a program here.”

Grieco recruited the help of Jim Brown, a co-worker who was one of the top collegiate lacrosse players in the country at Syracuse. Brown and Grieco ran the program during its debut season.

“Jim still pops around from time to time. He's like a celebrity to these kids,” Grieco said.

As the program quickly grew, the need for coaches grew with it.

“That first group of kids we had did an excellent job of selling the program to their friends and classmates,” Mars U-15 assistant coach Rick Kapres said. “We grew through word of mouth.

“Once the kids experience it, the sport sells itself. It's so fast-paced, full of action, and that's what they want.”

To increase the Mars coaching staff, Grieco trained volunteers through video from U.S. Lacrosse and the organization paid potential coaches' fees to attend clinics.

“There would be 60 or 70 coaches at a clinic somewhere and 15 would be from Mars,” Grieco said. “It was crazy, but we have about 30 coaches now. Some don't have kids in the program. They're involved for the love of the game.

“At the beginning of each season, I do a 2 1/2-hour presentation to all of our coaches, going over rules of the game and coaching techniques.”

One of Mars' coaches, Bob Marcoux, played lacrosse at Carnegie Mellon University and is a Mars resident.

Mars also took an Under-13 team to the Sandusky tournament. That team dropped a 7-6 decision to a club select team from the South Hills of Pittsburgh.

“That team had the best players from Mount Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Peters Township ... Our kids hung right with them,” Kapres said.

Mars will take U-13 and U-15 teams to a tournament in Hershey later this summer.

Attackers Anthony Grieco and Tyler Brown, midfielders Ben Lewis and Joe Horvat are among the U-15 standouts, but the program's success comes from unity.

“All of these kids really do enjoy playing together,” Kapres said. “They've learned the game together and they know what they're capable of accomplishing together.”