H-K Youth Lacrosse Team Learns There Is More To Being a Team Than Playing Games

Players, parents and siblings from the Haddam-Killingworth U-9 Girls Youth Lacrosse team set out early on a recent Saturday morning to construct and plant a vegetable garden for a local family from the community. These young girls learned the valuable life lesson of doing something special for another person without seeking anything in return.

Our story begins during the 2014 season. The last weekend of May is the time when many local dance companies hold their end of season dance recital. Unknowingly, the new coach to the HK girls U-9 team scheduled not one but two games that weekend. Unable to field a full team due to there being so many dancers on the team, all games that weekend had to be cancelled.

Going into the 2015 season, Coach Sue knew better than to make the same mistake again. However, she did not want the stop the momentum and team-building that having a game or tournament each weekend was creating for her team. So at the start of the season, while there was still 12 inches of snow on the ground, Coach asked Debbie, our team manager / mom to find a community service project that the girls could do for an hour or so that last weekend in May. Debbie enlisted the help of Janice, another active and supportive lacrosse mom from the team. Together they came up with the idea of helping out a 1997 graduate of HK High School and a mother of three young children, Amanda Lisitano, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

After much planning and discussions with Amanda and her three young children, the plans for a vegetable garden were forged. A list of vegetables that Amanda’s children like was distributed and players one-by-one signed up to bring the plants. The coaches got together and made plans for obtaining the wood, hardware and soil needed to build the vegetable garden. The schedule was tight as many HK (Cougar) Cub players needed to be done early in order to make it to the dance recital.

The coaches met Amanda’s family just before 9 a.m. They pointed out a general area where they would like the garden to go. Work began promptly at 9 a.m. with players and parents digging a trench for the boards, pulling up grass and digging up Higganum’s best kept secret – rocks! By 9:30 or so, the landscape timbers were in place and the players and parents were transporting loads of dirt barrel by barrel over to the vegetable bed. Before long, the players were planting beans, lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and marigolds in the garden. Even Amanda’s children were getting into the action. Decorating touches were made and the garden was watered. By 10:30 a.m. the amazing garden seen below was completed, right on schedule.

Every player worked tirelessly that morning without a single complaint. They proved how much they can accomplish by working as a team. We expected nothing less of this very generous and caring group of young ladies and their families. The H-K Cubs wishes Amanda the very best in her battle against cancer and wish that she finds inspiration and hope in the garden that the girls built for her and her children. We wish you a bountiful harvest this summer and fall.

Written and submitted by Sue Kocsis