Alliance continuing to plant roots in Boston area
Harlem Lacrosse began as an organization hoping to provide opportunities, relationships, and experiences that activate the skills and traits to put youth on a path to success as students, athletes, and citizens.
The company, which has expanded across the Eastern United States, had a vision of empowering kids who are most at risk for academic decline and dropout. In 2017 the organization partnered with a similar organization from Boston — MetroLacrosse.
“If you name an independent school in the Boston area, or a boarding school in the New England area, chances are we have a student there that had been admitted over the last four years,” said Harlem Lacrosse managing director Pat Cronin. “It’s been amazing to
see. Where we can kind of put a stake in the ground, is that we’ve helped these kids with amazing educational opportunities, but it’s also just an opportunity for them to see what’s out there, to see this whole universe of schools.”
Cronin can attest to MetroLacrosse’s mission better than anybody. During his high school days at Boston Latin, a lacrosse program had not yet been established. Always attracted to the sport in general because of its camaraderie, Cronin played for the MetroLacrosse club program off to the side. He later joined the club team at UMass before graduating in 2013.
Around that time Cronin received a call from a former coach of his and the CEO of MetroLacrosse, Michael Levin.
“He asked me if I’d be interested in working full-time for Metro,” said Cronin. “I was going for the software management kind of role. Just thinking of working for MetroLacrosse full-time made me realize how much of a perfect fit that would be, rather than trying to hold myself to a trajectory that I really wasn’t that passionate about.”
Soon after, Cronin and his colleagues accelerated a merger between MetroLacrosse and Harlem Lacrosse. As Harlem Lacrosse began to establish roots in multiple cities, Cronin immediately saw an opportunity.
“We were essentially serving kids from the same neighborhoods and the same schools,” Cronin said. “MetroLacrosse would go and introduce lacrosse to the kids at the Joseph Lee School every year, Harlem Lacrosse expanded to the Joseph Lee School. We were in a situation where we weren’t necessarily competing for the same resources, because I think there’s a lot of resources out there. There’s a lot of support out there, but the missions are so closely aligned, and it was a match that made sense.”
The New Balance Foundation, one of Harlem Lacrosse’s most noteworthy supporters, was in full support of the merger, and the two companies quickly began working in lockstep with athletes across the city by establishing programs. Program graduates have been admitted to multiple NEPSAC schools, including
Brewster Academy, Middlesex, Nobles, Pomfret, Rivers, St. George’s, Thayer, and others.
Harlem Lacrosse has also worked over the last handful of years to build a new lacrosse culture at TechBoston as well.
“We joke that we’re going global,” chuckled Cronin. “But we’re finally getting to the point where kids are actually getting on flights to attend school. I think there’s a misconception sometimes about our ultimate goal, that we’re trying to get as many kids into independent schools as we can. That’s really not the ultimate goal. We have this program, and our philosophy, which we refer to as: ‘Personal pathing.’ We have the capacity to figure what path that any given student is on, and is this the path that makes the most sense for them. If so, how can we support them on that path?”