Lacrosse teams hitting the road
Why are more high schools at all levels incorporating out-of-state contests?
It was Thursday night in Tampa when the St. Joseph lacrosse team faced off with a mechanical bull.
The Green Knights were finishing up a two-game, five-day business trip in the Gulf Coast heat when players filed into a restaurant with a rodeo kick.
For coach Dan DaPonte, some levity in April can lead to wins in May and memories for a lifetime. So he budgeted time in this year’s team-bonding tour for swimming, Spikeball and seeing who can hang on for dear life.
“They just have a great time being around each other and it’s good to see kids who are really quiet coming out of their shell,” DaPonte said. “We’re seeing them in a different atmosphere. We’re not seeing them in the locker room or on the field in practice. They’re just hanging out.”
More and more lacrosse teams are now incorporating travel into their spring agendas. This year, at least seven North Jersey programs went out-of-state for an early game or scrimmage – not including short drives over the New York border.
That list ranges from traditional powers like Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco to Group 1 squads like the Waldwick girls.
The motives behind the long-distance trips are varied. Some chase warmer weather and tough opponents. Others look for a way to bring their players together.
Fundraising events help defray the cost.
“The kids pay towards the trip, but not an exorbitant amount,” Wayne Hills boys lacrosse coach Marc Jacobson said. “Our booster club and fundraising help cover about 75 percent of the trip.”
While Florida is a popular hotspot this time of year, not everyone is chasing the rays.
Jacobson likes to tie his trips around a college campus and made past stops at Towson, Penn and Yale, among others. This year, the Patriots went up to Boston for four days in March and watched Harvard at a game and walk-through. During his time up north, Jacobson also brought his team to Paul Revere’s house and Quincy Market.
The idea to get away came from his father Steve, a former lacrosse coach who logged plenty of miles while at Fair Lawn and Hunterdon Central.
“When (his players) come back for reunions, they don’t talk about the games. They talk about the experiences they had on the trips,” Jacobson said. “These have been 30 or 40 years later and they’re talking about how good the trips were and how memorable they were. When I started at Hills, I wanted to bring that here. Our kids get to see parts of the country they haven’t seen.”
One of the other elements of team building comes with the room assignments. Before each trip, Jacobson will sit down with his captains to figure out the best way to group players.
“It was based on position,” Ramsey boys lacrosse coach Dan DeMartino said. “All the attackmen room together. All the midfielders and defensemen and goalies. We wanted them to build a relationship with their mates that will be on their line.”
“We kind of intentionally put kids together that aren’t best friends,” said DaPonte, whose team visited Nashville last spring and Charleston back in 2022. “When we get the room assignments, it’s usually a senior, a junior and a sophomore. We don’t let the seniors all hang together.”
Nowadays, finding the right opponent is easier than ever with programs like LaxNumbers and companies that match up teams.
Ramsey went through KSA Events for its preseason trip to Orlando and suddenly had three teams from three different states added to its schedule. Still, there were constant reminders of home amidst the daily theme park tours and temperatures in the 70’s.
By the time DeMartino flew back, he and his players spotted at least five other Bergen County teams, including the Rams’ softball program.
“With the preseason being so short, it’s nice that we had that experience because it was almost like a training camp for us,” DeMartino said.
When it comes to travel, no division around here has a wider geographic footprint than the Gibbs. Ridgewood scrimmaged in Delaware, Bergen Catholic swept a two-game swing down in Virginia and Don Bosco booked April games in Maryland and Connecticut.
St. Joseph, meanwhile, was dusting off the cobwebs against two Floridian schools near the tail end of their spring season.
“They’re in game shape,” DaPonte said. “They’re ready for that 80 degree heat that we hit on Thursday. There’s not much we could do to prepare for that atmosphere up here. There’s value in putting our kids in uncomfortable situations and letting them figure it out.”
Whatever the circumstances may be, the hope is that spending some time on the road will pay off in the long-run back home.
“We told the girls before we left that they would go down as a team and come back as a family and that’s exactly what happened,” said Waldwick coach Christina Evans, who brought the Warriors to Orlando in March.
“When you go out of state and travel together, playing competitive teams, it really was the boost we needed heading into the season. The girls are closer than ever.”