From the CEO: What Moves Me

I stood backstage at the USA Lacrosse Foundation Gala. Behind the black curtains stage right I could see the main screen and take in the grandeur of New York City’s Gotham Hall. 

The crowd always hums at this event. It usually takes the loud whistle from USA Lacrosse Foundation Board Vice Chair Mike Ferrucci to quiet the ballroom.

But not in this moment.

As Brooklyn Crescents Executive Director Jen Nardi spoke, the room listened — and the room responded. The story of the Crescents (“Lacrosse, the Brooklyn Way”), their profound impact on the community and USA Lacrosse’s support of the program is personal.

I later spoke to Jen and some of her colleagues. They told me stories of how they bootstrapped the organization, using their own money to get started and figuring it out on the fly. Furthermore, they emphasized that USA Lacrosse’s continued financial support has been the game changer for the Crescents.

Earlier in the day before the Gala, USA Lacrosse conducted a Board of Directors meeting in midtown Manhattan. Senior staff, members of the USA Lacrosse Foundation Board and several athletes from our U.S. National Teams joined the meeting. An unprecedented set of 40 top minds in the game and business coming together; it was a very impressive collection of stakeholders.

Clarifying and prioritizing what USA Lacrosse does, how we do what we do, how we generate and use our time, money and brain power all were on the table as topics — as they are for every board meeting. It’s how we measure impact, success and failure. It’s how we get better.

Back to my backstage moment. Listening to Jen, hearing how we are changing lives not only in Brooklyn but across all five boroughs of New York City, chills ran across my neck and my eyes filled. The true joy of seeing our impact gave meaning to the work and introspection earlier in the day.

At USA Lacrosse, we do a lot — more than people know and admittedly more than we should at times. But there is no denying our impact is pure, it is powerful and without us, the Brooklyn Crescents and many of the 2,300-plus member programs that receive funds, resources, education and so much more from USA Lacrosse simply would not exist.

When you ask yourself or someone asks you, “What does USA Lacrosse do?” consider the Brooklyn Crescents and multiply it by 2,300.