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I started following lacrosse in 1982 when I read some stories and box scores in my local newspaper, mostly about the great Yorktown HS team. Saw my first game that year when they held the NY State Championship in, of all places, Memorial Stadium in Mount Vernon here in Westchester County. It hasn't been here since, hint, hint. Yorktown, fresh off avenging their only loss of the season to powerhouse Ward Melville HS in the state semis, was led by a junior attack unit that would all notch over 130 points and be named All-Americans as seniors (Tom Nelson, Rob Betchley, and Ed Trabulsy) and Syracuse-bound, soon to be two-time HS AA junior defenseman Mike O'Donnell. They lost 8-7 to a fantastic squad from West Genesee HS from the Syracuse area. West Genny, on their way to tying Sewanhaka (LI) HS's national record 91-game winning streak (which Yorktown stopped in the 1984 state championship), was led by a phenomenal performance by another future Orangeman, Tom Korrie. He'd go on to set the Syracuse single-season goals record that stood until a kid you may have heard of named Gait showed up there. Being a novice fan at the time, I really didn't know the caliber of the teams I was seeing and don't remember any of the other players for the WG Wildcats. I don't think they handed out rosters, because I've saved, oh, say, a million of them and don't have that one. I went to another game in 1983, Yorktown's state semifinal win over Ward Melville, and a few more scattered games throughout the 1980s. I didn't go to too many, because I wasn't confident my endless succession of used cars would get me there. Actually I was afraid they wouldn't bring me back. Then in 1989, I had moved to an apartment in the Yorktown area and was reading about the big upcoming game between rivals Lakeland HS and Yorktown. Didn't have anything to do that Saturday, so I was among the large crowd at Yorktown that day. I don't know if coach Roy Simmons, Jr. was there also, but if he wasn't, he must have certainly heard about the game, because it was a showcase for a couple of HS sophomores who would go on to have great success on many Syracuse teams as well as a gold medal winning Empire State games Hudson Valley team and a gold medal winning world champion U-19 Team USA. I'm talking about Ric Beardsley and Roy Colsey. This day belonged to Beardsley and the Lakeland Hornets, as 10th grade defenseman Ric dominated the game all over the field for a 6-4 win. As I walked to the parking lot, I casually asked anyone who was listening, "Who was that defenseman, number 47? He's pretty good," and somebody told me it was Ric. I thought to myself, "I have to see more of these games and more of that kid." That was it; I was hooked on lacrosse. I've seen probably more than a thousand games since that day. Colsey and the Cornhuskers would come back next year to defeat Lakeland 7-6 in OT to capture the first Murphy Cup game in honor of the grandfather of Yorktown lacrosse, Charlie Murphy, led by Roy's 4 goals. I was there also and have been at every Murphy Cup game since, all but one won by Mr. Murph's Huskers. I bought my first new car ever in 1989, a Jeep that now has over 150,000 miles on it, picked up a local Hagstrom map, and started locating high schools so that I could see more games. Back then nobody knew who I was, so I'd sit in the top row by myself and enjoy the games in anonymity. That would soon change. As people would see me at game after game, they'd say hello and engage in conversations about lacrosse with me. As the years have gone by, I've met more and more people who have welcomed me, a guy who's never played or coached lacrosse, into the family we call the lacrosse community as one of their own. They've welcomed me to games, tailgate parties, even occasionally to their homes. I've even once been invited to tag along in a SUV to a game a long way from home. I'm writing this to say thank you to all of those people for letting me be some small part of the lacrosse community. I find it hard to come up with the right words to express how great it's been getting to know all of you. So, thanks to, first of all, the many great athletes who give their all on their fields of dreams. And thanks to the McElduff family, the Carcaterras, the Ceglias, the Caiones, the Harringtons, the Culligans, the McCalls, the Watsons, the Marrs, the D'Andraias, the Simshausers, the Crocketts, the Cohens, the Raes, the Olmsteads, the Dooleys, the Weber/Vedders, the Shanleys, the Settembrinos, the Girolamos, Mr. Murph, the Salch's, the Kears, Mrs. Emmer, the Vlahakis's, the Priors, coach Nicol, coach Searing, coach Whitten, Dave Miller, Joe Borges, coach Burke, both coach Savastanos and family, coach Vitolo, Vinny DeGregorio, Keith Larit, Frank Branca, Robby Doerr, the Farmingdale gang – Barbara Russell, Coach Hartranft, Pete Mendelson, Teddy Kugler – GC coach Doug Dwyer, Mr. Schell, Mr. & Mrs. Collins, Mike Wienick, the Garcias, Mr. Lindsay, coach Weir, Mr. Cadman, Joe Vuotto, AST Lacrosse. I could go on forever; gosh, I hope I didn't forget somebody important. If I did, I didn't forget; my brain is just shutting down at the moment. Also thanks to all the friends I've met in cyberspace but never in person, especially the guys at LaxPower. I've met Baldo and laf, but not Dakota Dan yet. He's been ducking me for years. I'll track you down one day, Dako. So, thanks to everybody, and I'll see you in the top row in a few weeks. |
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