Stow Youth Lacrosse Gears Up for New Season

Guest story by Jimmy Miller, editor of The Stohion a.

Being the “new kid on the block” is never easy.

Mark Daddario, head coach of the Stow Youth Lacrosse team, knows this from experience, as this year his program proved to provoke more interest than in the three previous years.

“With lacrosse being a new sport in Stow, getting the word out [about our program] was difficult ... with so many options for sports today, we had to find our niche to carve out where we belonged,” Daddario said.

Daddario is the head coach of the two youth lacrosse programs — a third through fifth grade team and a sixth through eighth grade team. The teams travel to different cities to take on neighboring competitors, such as Revere, Medina, Kent and Jackson.

The program also rises interest in the future of the high school's lacrosse team, as each player learns how to play lacrosse and gets to practice fundamentals. The high school's coaches, Brett Sinning and Rob Finch, also pay visits to the team and assist in any way they can, allowing the players to get to know who their future coaches may be.

“We have four or five young men moving up to the high school team that have a good skill set and a very positive future,” Daddario said.

While Daddario is the lone official coach of the team, he credits a few high school players for their efforts in assisting him. His son, Spencer, Adam and Jordan Mannella, Kyle Mosser, Nick Batton and Ryan Kevern, among others. Daddario also mentioned Jim Bjaloacik for managing the younger squad, and Eric Johnson, Geoff Sucler and Jeff Sanderson for their work in keeping the players focused.

The program also practices during the weeks of the season that mainly focus around fundamentals of the game. Each practice is started with stick skills, and later transgresses into defensive and offensive concepts of the game. Practices begin in January this time around, using gym time to work on skills.

“Development is what we are after,” Daddario said.

According to Daddario, around 90 percent of the players who take part in the program had not played lacrosse before, and that this program was a new idea for most. The game can take a lot of skill sets to learn and a lot of concepts to understand, but the best part to the coach is watching the players click with the game, and connect everything together.

Registration for the program is open for third through eighth grade, and Daddario's ultimate goal is to get as many players interested as possible.

“Being the new kid on the block, it takes time to make friends,” Daddario references the old saying as he discusses the previous lacrosse programs.

For more information, interested kids can contact Daddario at stowyouthlax@gmail.com or visit the team website.