Early morning guests in Kris Gratz’s second-grade classroom at Glendale Elementary School are welcomed by the strains of music, an extra touch in a classroom overflowing with personality. Gratz always plays music on her computer in the mornings.

“It relaxes me,” says the Savage resident.

She’s definitely earned the luxury of taking a load off. In addition to teaching a first- and second-grade looped class, in which she teaches first grade one year and second grade the following year to the same students, Gratz is a mother of four. Oh, and she and her husband Dan are also gearing up for the fifth year of the Prior Lake-Savage Lacrosse Tournament, which they founded. Gratz seems to be always moving, even gesturing animatedly as she speaks.

Gratz didn’t grow up playing lacrosse and neither did her husband. It wasn’t until five years ago, when their oldest son Sam, now 15 and a sophomore at Prior Lake High School, picked up a lacrosse stick that the Gratzes got involved in the sport.

“They were looking for people who would volunteer, step up and help out,” she recalls. “That was Dan and I.”

During a conversation with other lacrosse parents about ways to give their children additional opportunities to play, the Gratzes found themselves volunteering to start a tournament.

“[We were] just wanting to be involved in our kid’s sport,” Gratz says. “We loved the sport and we loved the people who were in it. We just wanted to help out in any way we could.”

Dan, who is now the president of Prior Lake Athletics for Youth (P.L.A.Y.), also served as the organization’s lacrosse director for a number of years.

When the tournament debuted, it featured eight teams of boys in fifth and sixth grades. Five years later, the competition has blossomed into a two-day extravaganza. This year’s event, slated for Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1, will include 75 teams of boys in grades three through eight and girls in grades five through eight, competing on fields at Hidden Oaks and Twin Oaks middle schools as well as The Ponds Park in Prior Lake.

The endeavor has also grown to include seven coordinators, handling sponsorships, marketing and obtaining field times as well as over 200 parent volunteers who do everything from scoring the games to selling concessions.

“Tons of volunteers,” Gratz says. “It would not happen without the parent volunteers.”

She says the event is one of the largest youth lacrosse tournaments in the state and its growth is in line with the sport’s popularity in the area.

“It’s just such a fun sport and it’s such a team sport,” Gratz says. “In lacrosse, you have to work together.”

Having seen how far the tournament and sport have come in the last five years, Gratz is optimistic about the next five.

“I hope it continues to grow,” she says. “I hope in five years, first of all, we’re still doing the tournament. For the youth, I hope that what we’re doing pays off at the high school.”

In the immediate future, however, Gratz has plenty of nonlacrosse-centric things to occupy her mind. Sam and his siblings 11-year old Lucas, 4-year-old Noah and 3-year-old Lily, keep Gratz plenty busy, as do her current crop of students, to whom she’ll have to bid farewell this June as they move up to third grade and out of Gratz’s classroom.

“It’s a tough one,” she says of the second year in the teaching loop. “You’re saying ‘goodbye’ and it’s like family.”

Q AND A WITH KRIS GRATZ

What three words would people use to describe you?

Caring, passionate and genuine.

What are your hobbies?

I actually like to run. I like to scrapbook but I don’t do that too often. [Dan and I] hang out with our friends and the kids.

What is the last good movie you saw?

I went to “The Hunger Games.” I loved it.

Where was your favorite vacation?

I try to go every year, just Dan and I, we go to Myrtle Beach, S.C. I love that time. We get up and run on the beach and it’s just so relaxing.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I want to go to Hawaii.

If you could meet anyone from history, who would you meet?

Oh my gosh, I don’t know. Where do you begin? I think it would be so cool to talk to past presidents. Just to see the way the world was, I think would be so interesting.