In 2019, Justin MacDougall, who was taking his own kids to Kingston for lacrosse, started work on revitalizing the SAY-LAX program. He wanted to build it from the ground up and started small with a summer camp.
The league worked on cross-promotions with a local flag football league and with the local USA Hockey program to encourage multi-sport participation. A TryLax grant from US Lacrosse helped spur interest and a First Stick Program grant from US Lacrosse helped reduce the start-up equipment costs for some of the interested first-year players.
What had started with about 20 players in 2019 shot up to 77 in 2020. Everything was going great, and then the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“It was really disheartening at first,” MacDougall said. “Like most organizations, we felt paralyzed. We did what we needed to do and then, ‘Here we are, what can we do?’”
Following the US Lacrosse Return to Play recommendations and New York State protocols, SAY-LAX proceeded, even bigger than planned. When the local Little League baseball program canceled its season, another 25 players signed up to play lacrosse with SAY-LAX.
It started with Zoom sessions, conditioning and parents getting small groups together. On July 7, SAY-LAX held its first practices of the season. You couldn’t have picked a more perfect date — it was Bob Slate’s birthday.
Over the next several weeks, the kids were back on the field.
“For New York State, it was no-contact lacrosse,” MacDougall said. “We couldn’t travel. We focused on what we could do. The last couple of practices, we had small-sided games with each other. It worked out. The bottom line is the kids walked away happy. The parents walked away happy. It was definitely hard, but we did it.”
A special visitor to one of those practice sessions was Darcy Slate.
“When Justin stepped in, Bob didn’t really get to see how much it blossomed,” she said. “If he could have seen what I saw, it would have made him so happy.”
LOCALLY GROWN: NORTHEAST
Hudson Valley
Tappan Zee Youth Lacrosse believes in building community through lacrosse and looks to instill “TZ pride” in its players. One coach suits up as the high school mascot and steps in the goal for them to shoot on him during clinics. The players also get divided based on what side of Route 303 they live — the River Rats and Shanks Soldiers. Reciprocally, the varsity coaches put on clinics for new and developing youth coaches. “We make sure our values are aligned,” said Brian Murray, director of TZYL.
Philadelphia
Phantastix Lacrosse in Wayne, Pa., sported pink socks all season in support of a fifth-grade girl, named Lily, who underwent chemotherapy treatments for high-risk neuroblastoma. Proceeds were donated to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to support pediatric cancer research. Lily FaceTimed with teammates before games, created offensive sets and even attended one practice to play catch from a safe social distance.
Rochester
Churchville-Chili Lacrosse Club in suburban Rochester, N.Y., supports the local school district lacrosse programs and fields its own boys’ and girls’ teams at youth levels for league play. Additionally, there’s indoor offseason league play and practices. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the club designed a new program to comply with the state mandates for low-contact activities, ordering custom face coverings for players and running short, fun, socially distanced sessions focusing on athlete development.