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GREENSBORO — About 30 youths played lacrosse when Billy Hook came here to grow the sport.

That was 15 years and more than a thousand players ago.

Now there are leagues spanning across Burlington, Winston-Salem, High Point and Greensboro with about 1,200 youth members, which he helped build through the Triad Youth Lacrosse Association.

After establishing Triad Youth Lacrosse over that time, the former Page coach is leaving soon to go work for U.S. Lacrosse.

"I'm kind of savoring every experience," Hook said about his final weeks as director of coaching for the association.

He will leave April 30 for a job as director of programs for the national governing body. He won't repair turf and fix goal nets anymore, either, like he does in Greensboro.

Not that Hook minds working the dirt.

"I was working out at Jesse Wharton, and patching holes," he said of the elementary school's lacrosse fields where many teams practice and play. "Is it grunt work? Yeah, but it's still lacrosse to me."

He's known for his energy.

"For what one Billy Hook did, there will be two or three or four who will step into the void and keep it going," said Dirk Siegmund, a past president and member of the board of directors for Triad Youth Lacrosse.

But not only is Hook leaving the organization, so is his wife, Wendy Hook, who is the executive director.

"Any article about Billy would be remiss if not mentioning how important his wife, Wendy, has been, too," Siegmund said. "She's been behind the scenes."

There are about 80 coaches that Billy Hook oversees in clinics and other work. His wife helps keep the local lacrosse group running smoothly.

"There's a huge sense of satisfaction," Hook said. "It's been an absolute joy to watch the game grow."

He'll replicate the work here on a national scale in the new job, Hook said, but it isn't easy to leave the friends he made here and the youth he coached.

"It took dream job like that to leave Greensboro," he said.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com