Lacrosse has always been a regional sport. The traditional hotbeds like Baltimore and Long Island are the heartbeat of the sport, while other regions have slowly grown into cornerstones of the lacrosse world.

Denver is now one of those cornerstone areas for lacrosse. It hasn’t always been that way, but for Outlaws attackman Eric Law, the Colorado lacrosse community has always been there.

Despite the sport's modest popularity at the time, Law started playing as early as 6 years old. His oldest brother, Jarred, started playing lacrosse with a few guys on his baseball team. From that point on, younger brothers Kevin and Eric followed suit with sticks in hand.

“I was just that younger brother looking up to my other brothers playing,” Eric Law said. “My brother Kevin and I kind of followed suit and it’s a sport that my family fell in love with immediately.”

Brothers are a massive part of lacrosse history, and Law was inspired by one of the most iconic trios in the sport’s history: the Powell brothers.

“We were huge Powell brother fans,” Law said. “I used to do the Mikey Powell triangle eye black all the way from elementary school through high school because I wanted to be just like him.”

While the Laws never became the next Powells, Eric emerged as a standout in a growing Denver lacrosse community. From the time he started playing in elementary to the time he starred for Arapahoe High School, the sport took off in the area.

Denver University became a nationally relevant program in the mid-2000s. The Colorado Mammoth arrived in 2003 and became one of the most popular teams in indoor lacrosse. In 2006, the Denver Outlaws debuted.

Seeing the highest levels of the sport in person was an inspiration for a generation of kids like Law who were falling in love with the game.

“I used to come to DU games all the time as a kid, and got to watch Michael Powell, Johnny Christmas, these legends of the game, come play at Denver,” Law said. “That's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to play for the Outlaws, play for DU.”

While the sport grew at the highest level in Colorado, the grassroots level followed suit. When Law started playing at Arapahoe, there were 40 to 50 high school teams in the state, he said. By the time he graduated, that number had nearly doubled.

After starting his college career at Salisbury University in Maryland, Law transferred back home to Denver and lived out his dream as the hometown hero. Under the leadership of current Philadelphia Waterdogs head coach Bill Tierney, Law helped lead the Pioneers to new heights.

Denver reached the Final Four for the first time in 2011 and returned in Law’s final season in 2013. Two years later, the program won its first national championship, becoming the first team outside of the Eastern time zone to do so.

“Coach T kind of just pressed the right buttons of getting the best out of guys,” Law said. “It kind of helped him change the culture around it and making guys believe that we deserve to be in the conversation with one of the top teams in the country.”

After graduating, Law was approached with an opportunity to give back to the community that shaped his lacrosse life.

Rod and Ben Allison founded Denver City Lax as a way to make the sport accessible for everyone and open doors to the game that were previously unattainable. What started as a part-time, post-grad job turned into so much more.

“One month turned into two months, two months turned into six months, and now six months turned into 12 years at the program,” Law said. “I fell in love with the mission and what it stood for, and what it means to the sport.”

Through his work with Denver City Lax and his professional career, Law wants to be a model for the next generation of Colorado lacrosse.

That next era is already showing, with Greenwood Village, Colo., native Asher Nolting starring for the Boston Cannons and waves of players dominating at the prep and college levels. Lacrosse has never been a more established part of sports in Denver.

“It makes me happy to see that the sport is going to be here for the long term,” Law said. “It really, truly is kind of turning into a pocket of its own.”

Law will return to Peter Barton this weekend with the Denver Outlaws to represent his home once again. Denver will face the Maryland Whipsnakes on Friday night (8 p.m. ET) and the Carolina Chaos on Saturday (7 p.m. ET).

When Law steps on that familiar turf, he’ll do what he can to inspire the next generation of Colorado lacrosse. And when he eventually hangs up his stick, he’ll still be there in the community he loves, sharing the sport that means the world to him.