The Liberty boys lacrosse team’s season ended this past week with a loss to Nelson/Clackamas in the opening round of the OHSLA state playoffs, and with it ended the career of one of the school’s most decorated players.

Royal Beard led his team in scoring all four years in high school, first at Century where he spent his freshman season, and most recently at Liberty where he ended his high school campaign. He finished in the state’s top-10 all-time in career scoring with 184 goals, and last year scored eight goals in a game against Oregon City, tying the third highest mark in the state’s history. That’s not something that Beard takes lightly, in fact, it’s exciting for him to see his name amongst some of the state – and sport’s – best.

“It means a lot for other people to see, and for me to be able to showcase my talent and put it up with some of those people,” Beard said. “Two of those kids who are up there in scoring are now in the PLL (Premier Lacrosse League) and were great college stars. That’s pretty cool to be up there with them.”

Beard’s dad, Robert, coached at both Hillsboro and Century high schools for a combined 11 years. Due to such, Royal was exposed to the sport at a young age (7) and almost instantly took a liking to it, drawn-in in many ways by the pace of the game. And the more he watched, the more he wanted to play, and ten years and a lot of hours later, here he is amongst the state’s best.

“I started watching all the high school games, watching college games, and around my third or fourth grade time, I just really started getting into it and put a lot of time into it,” he said. “And I haven’t really stopped since.”

That meant year round action be it with the high school or club teams, until this past year when he decided to play football.

Beard said football has a lot of transferable skills with lacrosse, including footwork and obviously physicality, but added that the game also has similarities with soccer, basketball and hockey. All of which would historically be more popular games–at least in this area–than lacrosse. But that’s changing according to Beard, and he’s seen that evolution in his ten years in the game.

“The kids have gotten so much better in Hillsboro and on this end of town,” Beard said. “The talent has gotten a lot bigger, and the sport in general has got a lot bigger. There’s a lot more youth kids playing nowadays and you’re seeing that at the high school level.”

That’s not to say that they’ve caught the likes of Jesuit, OES or the Lake Oswego schools who are stalwarts in or around the state title game. The results alone will tell you that’s not the case, and Beard–who’s played with a lot of the area’s best players in club or all-star games–will tell you why.

“Those guys all have trainers and really specialized coaches, and workout routines,” he said. “We don’t have all that. But really, I think it’s more about the time they put in. Those kids work, and as a team everybody is out there doing something.”

Like most sports, it takes time to learn lacrosse. Most kids play baseball, soccer, shoot hoops and throw the football around growing up, but stick skills have to be learned from scratch.

Beard says passing and catching are two of the most difficult skills to learn when starting the game, but over time you get a feel for it.

“It’s unique to everybody,” he said. “After a while, you understand it and feel how you do it because everybody does it differently. You feel the release point and kind of make it your own.”

And Royal has definitely done that.

After scoring 39 goals his freshman season at Century, he scored 38 in his sophomore campaign at Liberty, 49 last year, and this season put 58 in the net. That production helped lead the Falcons to an undefeated league record and ultimately a Pacific Conference title, and despite the first round playoff defeat, Beard said this year’s team made this season a memorable and fun one to end on.

“We had great leadership in our senior class and everyone was locked in for the season,” Beard said. “The last couple of years we haven’t had the best chemistry. This year, I feel like we were all on the same page, were getting stuff done, and knew what we needed to do.”

But now it’s over, and so are Beard’s lacrosse playing days.

The senior is set to graduate in June and rather than go to college and play at the next level, he’s instead chosen to join the military and is set to leave for the Army late this summer.

Why, you might ask? Because despite his love for the game, he feels his personality is better suited for the “real world” rather than the classroom.

“I’m a hands-on guy and hate just sitting still and not doing something,” Beard said. “I like to be constantly moving, getting stuff done and just working instead of sitting in a classroom.”

And will he miss the game? Very much, but he won’t be turning his back on it forever.

“I definitely plan to get involved again,” he said. “Maybe coaching, or just clinics and running stuff like that.”