Flat Rock Middle School eighth grader Karson Bobbitt knew his project was good, but he didn’t know it would be good enough to win second place in the state competition held at the University of Georgia.

His project, titled Lacrosse Mesh Performance Challenge, was derived from his favorite hobby, lacrosse. “I participate in the school science fair every year and every year I try to do something different,” says Bobbitt. “I have come up with some pretty good projects, but my idea for this year’s project came to me while I was practicing with my lacrosse team.”

Bobbitt says he has always wondered if the different materials used to make lacrosse nets would produce different results during a game.

“There are several different positions in lacrosse and each position needs the ball to do different things. Attack men and mid-fielders need the ball to move fast in a short amount of time. Defensive positions need the ball to fly higher but not necessarily farther. I wanted to see if the different types of netting would gain these types of results for the different positions on the field.”

Bobbitt decided to test two types of netting. The first, called traditional mesh, was actually used by Native Americans. It is made with three leather thongs that are weaved together with nylon. The second type of mesh is called Six Diamond mesh. According to Bobbitt, Six Diamond mesh is a modernized mesh that has been reworked to support today’s level of play.

Bobbitt’s hypothesis turned out to be right. He and his father tested the two mesh types on the FRMS football field. They built a machine that would hold the lacrosse stick and catapult the lacrosse ball across the field. What did he find?

The Six Diamond mesh had the best performance for attack men and mid-fielders because it moved the ball faster in less time. It moved the ball 60 feet in one second. The traditional mesh caused the ball to fly higher but not travel as far. The ball with the traditional mesh traveled 57 feet across the field but flew higher than the ball used with the Six Diamond mesh.

“That’s what’s needed for defensive positions,” said Bobbitt. With these results, Bobbitt believes attack men and mid-fielders should use sticks with Six Diamond mesh, and defensive players should use the traditional mesh.

When asked why he thought the judges liked his project so much, Bobbitt says he’s not sure. “It definitely caught their attention,” he says. According to Bobbitt, one or two of the judges were from different countries and had never even seen a lacrosse game. “They wanted to know about the game and seemed genuinely interested in it.”

While he may be a bit perplexed by the fact that some of the judges didn’t know anything about the sport that has become such a big part of his life, with this finish, Bobbitt becomes the first FRMS student to have a science fair project make it all the way to the state level.

“I believe Karson’s project gained so much attention due to it’s uniqueness,” said FRMS science teacher Sue Ellen Buchannan. “It is so different from so many of the projects we see year after year and it also clearly meant so much to him. He loves lacrosse and he chose a subject matter that meant so much to him personally. Something he really wanted to know the answer to.”