Catching the Spirit of Lacrosse

When starting a new high school lacrosse program in New York City, my teammates and I had never seen the game played at a high level. After practice, we would watch game film from the 1986 NCAA Final Four and championship games. 

We watched one half of the Hopkins vs Carolina game and more than 10 goals were scored in 30 minutes of play. I was sold. I was used to playing soccer in which the reward for 90 minutes of quality play was usually 2-3 goals. This was exciting!

There was a midfielder on the 1986 John Hopkins team that played with reckless abandon. I liked his style and took his number, #41, for the remainder of my high school career. 

Another drawback of starting a high school lacrosse program in Brooklyn in 1987, there were not many programs to play. I remember the team bus leaving the high school parking lot and driving more than two hours north to open our season against the Hotchkiss School, an elite boarding school on the Connecticut-Massachusetts border in the Berkshires. 

We boarded the bus college style, with shirt and tie. Coach Chakrian believed that in order to be the best, you needed to look the part. We always dressed formally on game day and we always had the newest gear on the field.

During the long journey to Hotchkiss, we watched more VHS championship tape. Our bags were packed with brand new uniforms, customized team gloves and sticks and an underlying concern that we had no idea how to play a real lacrosse game. We had practiced for three weeks with hockey nets in a gym space at Brooklyn College.

On our first weekend double-practice session, Coach Chakrian organized a clinic led by players from the Iroquois National Team and elite players from the New York and Long Island Lacrosse Clubs. What we learned was that there is only one way to play this game, full speed. Regardless of stick skills, we would be successful if we worked hard and played with passion.

Upon arrival at the Hotchkiss School, fields were lush and green. I remember coach saying, “Guys, look-there-look, out the side window! Those are real lacrosse cages!” Our orders for game cages had not been filled and we had yet to practice on an actual lacrosse field with game cages.

How could our three-week-old program compete with the Hotchkiss team? An army of Midwood lacrosse players in brand new uniforms looked great before the warm-up began, but only a small number of us could actually throw and catch.  

We lost the opening face-off, went down on defense, goalie made a save, we cleared the ball and set up our offense. Our offense was based in the reality that we could not throw and catch that well and we focused on spreading everyone out, working hard on 1v1 dodging. 

We ran our only play, “Wheel”, where the ball rotated up top to the midfield, cutters cleared room for my friend Everett Mapp. He hit a simple split dodge, beat his guy, bounce-shot between the goalies legs! The whole team ran onto the field as if we had won the national championship! Midwood-1, Hotchkiss-0.

Needless to say, we lost that first game with a final score of 6-1. But we played the way we were taught: energetic, fast, athletic and hard.

Lacrosse is not a game measured in wins and losses. It is about spring, energy, passion, and joint actions where individuals sacrifice themselves to create efficient groups. Lacrosse is a sport that is part of a tradition and spirit that is bigger than yourself.

Evolution Lacrosse Academy was founded on these principles and seeks to teach and honor these traditions. The first four letters of “Evolution” backwards spell “love” and our intention is to bring this spirit into young players’ hearts and minds.