Lacrosse Cool Then and Now, the 1970s

Photo: 1976, Cornell Hall of Famer Eamon McEneaney against an unknown Hopkins defender

The other day I started sharing about the purchase of my first lacrosse stick in 1976 and the conundrum of traditional pockets when you know nothing about stringing and adjusting them. In 1976 mesh pockets did exist, but they were nothing like the one I used my senior year at Syracuse or what players today are using. In 76 a mesh pocket was hard to break in and soft mesh, as far I remember, did not exist. Only goalies used them. In addition mesh did not give you the “cool styling and profiling points” that a traditional pocket gave you back then. Almost all the studs I followed growing up on Army lacrosse played with traditional. That was also the case for one of my favorite players back then, Hall of Famer Eamon McEneaney (Sewanhaka, Cornell). I first saw this All-American attackman score a punch of goals in route to a championship victory over John Hopkins on ABC’s wide world of sports. The game came on TV a week after the actual had been played. Today the definition of cool as changed and mesh is in and traditional is out—accept for in the women’s game. Can someone school me on why mesh is not used in the women’s game?

Lacrosse Pockets Then and Now: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Pocket

Hempstead's Lacrosse Legacy

Aaron Jones clearing the ball in a game at Yale University, circa 1987

Hempstead, New York, is a predominately African American suburban community with a urban feel to it. It had a successful program under Coach Al Londy which for some unknown reason went defunct but not before sending attackman James Ford onto Rutgers where he earned All American honors. After Londy, Coach Al Hodish jumped started the program in 1975 introducing it to me and a bunch of junior high classmates. That nucleus of players in my community developed a bond with each other and passion for lacrosse. By 1980 we had advanced to high school, added players like Danny Williams (Army), Brian Duncan, Tim Pratt, and John Williams (all three played at Adelphi), and we had become a dominate program used to competing at the highest level of lacrosse without regard to region or resume of our opponents. We played legendary teams from Concord, Massachusetts, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Ottawa, Canada; Baltimore, Maryland; and throughout Long Island. By the end of my senior year in high school (1983), guys on the team had earned All league, All County, All Long Island, and invitations to play in the National High School North – South All Star game. Many of us went on to play collegiate lacrosse and earn All American honors and invitations to play in the college North South All Star game. For me, Hempstead lacrosse was a springboard to Cornell University and a chance to play for legendary coach and Hall of Famer, Richie Moran. Today when I think back to my roots, I am grateful for the springboard to a division 1 lacrosse program and a prestigious academic atmosphere, however, I am more thankful for the foundation that community provided me. At Cornell things were tremendously different. Socially I, like all my high school teammates, transitioned from a uniform background where we were all black and working class to an elite Ivy League environment with an almost exclusively upper class white student body and faculty, with a few black faculty and some blacks working as staff around campus. Our love for the game was the only tangible commonality between me and a great majority of my white teammates at Cornell. Through it all, Cornell lacrosse was a phenomenal period in my life. On the field we were fortunate to resurrect the winning prowess that lacrosse program had established throughout most of its history; more tomorrow.

Hempstead Lacrosse History: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Hempstead

Cornell Lacrosse Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=Cornell

What My Students Don't Know About Me

1983 Championship celebrations, I transferred to SU several months thereafter 

Today is student orientation here at Babson College where I am a member of the faculty. A reporter once asked me: what would your students be most surprised to learn about you? I paused and then said, they would be surprised to learn that school was never easy for me and that I never made the honor role in high school or dean’s list in college. Second, they would be surprised learn that I am more than “a nerdy academic” and in fact I was a “jock” who played in two national championships (losing both by the way) as a Syracuse University lacrosse player. 

Fall Ball Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=fall+ball

Staying Fit After Your Playing Days:http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2012/07/its-about-changing-your-lifestyle_06.html.

Club Teams and Tournaments Are Out of Control!

Related links below

Coaching Series: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=coaching

My Earliest Exposure to Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=elliot

Croton and Yorktown Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/2010/01/be-steve-mabus-in-your-lacrosse-world.html

Coaching Youth Lacrosse: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=youth+lacrosse

Reflections on US National Team Tryouts Part 2

Rick Sowell running midfield for Washington College in game against Navy, Annapolis, Maryland

Guest blogger Rick Sowell: First thing I remember is that it was hot! I was fortunate enough to tryout on 3 separate occasions and each time I felt it was an honor to participate at such an elite level. It’s a challenge like none other; an opportunity to represent your country, how great is that? Four days of extremely intense lacrosse. I remember Fred [Opie] (Croton Harmon, Herkimer, Syracuse) played terrific, making plays all over the field. Aaron Jones (Hempstead, Cornell) also played well, I thought. It was my first time seeing Danny Williams (Hempstead, Army) play and boy could he get up and down the field in a hurry. His stick skills held him back a bit, but he was quite an athlete. I must also say, being among the few Afro-Americans to tryout was a neat experience. On the field trying to compete at the highest level, and off the field becoming friends was a lot of fun!

National Team Stories: http://lacrossememoir.blogspot.com/search?q=National+Team

Reflections on US National Team Tryouts

1990 exhibition game victory against the Syracuse All Stars in Liverpool, New York, a suburb of the City of Syracuse.

Following making the US National Team in the summer of 1989, I decided to take the GA position at Gettysburg instead of Dartmouth. SU teammate Tim Nelson took the job at Dartmouth and within weeks coach Dave Urick left Hobart to become the Head Coach at George Town; he hired Cobleskill and Washington College lacrosse alum Ricky Sowell as his first assistant. Rick and I tried out that same year for the US National team which made the experience in more special for me. There were something like 6 African Americans at that tryout which had to be a record at that time. Sidney Abernethy received an invitation to tryout back in 1981 but he turned it down feeling just too burnout and in need of a break from the game. Thus perhaps we were the first African Americans to do so in 1989 but I am not sure. The group include Ricky, Dan Williams (Hempstead, Army) Aaron Jones (Hempstead, Cornell), and a midfielder from Penn State Chris (can't remember the last name)who was a very good. I was the only one among us who made the team. I've heard tale that one disgruntled white player, a defensemen from my home region, claimed I made it because I was black. I found that pretty comical. I do believe I surprised a lot of folks because I was not a D-1 All American and other than the "shot" people had never heard of me or thought much about my game. However I started for two years on one of the top club teams, and earned all club honors. In addition, I definitely played my best lacrosse during the tryouts and enjoyed every minute of the experience. Ricky, Aaron, and I would go on to play for MLC in 1992 I believe, wining a club championship that year. I asked Rick to serve as a guest blogger and he was gracious enough to reflect on his lacrosse experience. The next couple of days you will see post he has written. Rick is the only African American Division I coach in the nation and he’s the Assistant Coach on this year’s 2010 U. S. National Team.

The High and the Dream Athletes Experience

 Me covering Umass midfielder Stephen Moreland Jr. North Andover, Mass at Umass, Amherst in 1985

I loved playing lacrosse so much that I once suspended a Spanish immersion program in Guadalajara, Mexico to catch a flight back to New York to play for free in a club championship game on the weekend.  That was before the days of the professional Major League Lacrosse (MLL). I’ve seen summer tournaments in which MLL players come and play against amateurs for the love of the game and the high that great athletic competition produces. It’s the high every athlete who has experienced craves and causes you to have that dream in which you some gain another year of eligibility and your run around the house looking for your equipment before the team bus pulls away. Many other college athletes tell me that they have the same reoccurring dream.