It's the oldest sport in North America.

No, not baseball.

Sorry, not football.

That would be Lacrosse, which has been around even before Columbus set foot on American soil.

The sport is rapidly growing across the country, and it has made its way to Hillsborough County.

"It's probably the biggest sport I've seen around here, ever since I've gotten here," Plant senior Julian Taylor, who began playing in third grade, said. "Just at the youth level itself, it has multiplied tenfold."

That has now spread to the high school level, where for the first time in county history, 10 schools have become sanctioned by the Florida High School Athletic Association, meaning they can compete for a state title in both girls and boys lacrosse.

"The organization Hillsborough Alliance for Lacrosse, HALAX, has been great," Alonso first-year head coach Aaron Berry said. "They laid the groundwork and the county has kind of said hey if you can get it going we will support it. We have had phenomenal turnouts man. Every team is fully staffed and fully manned on both guys and girls side."

As of last year, 138 of Florida's 800 high schools were FHSAA sanctioned in lacrosse. Well, the sport has now found a new home in Hillsborough county.

Plant and Alonso played in the club championship last year, but this year, they are eligible to compete for a state championship. It's something that this community has been longing for.

"We took great pride in playing in the club championship, and at Plant we have won it once before," said John Shaw, Plant's head coach since 2006. "We take great pride in that too, but it's not the same. We are playing in the major leagues now. It's kind of cool."

"This is something that the Tampa Bay area has been wanting to push for for a while," Taylor said. "So finally getting to fight for that title is something we are excited to do."

There's only one catch. Unlike other high school sports, these players actually pay to participate.

"Each one of the kids playing is about $400 bucks," Shaw said, "which subsidizes basically everything -- uniforms, transportation, refs, fields, the whole nine yards."

Luckily, some schools like Alonso provide scholarships to help cut the cost. That "pay to play" concept may end some day, but for now, everyone is just happy lacrosse is here to stay.

"It's special," Berry said, "especially to our group of seniors out there that have been working for this for four or five years and never got to play and officially represent their school. It means a lot to them."