New Foundations Being Built For the Washingtonville Lacrosse Program

By KAYLA JACKSON

When the Washingtonville Wizards first took the field this spring, they knew the expectations others had for them and a great fear that they would not be able to live up to them. Last year, the team graduated thirteen seniors and knew that the incoming freshman class would not be bringing in the amount of players they lost. With this in mind, the boys knew that they would be in for an interesting season. 

By the first day of try-outs, the team knew that they would be unable to compete at both a varsity and junior jarsity level with the number of players they had, and had to make the tough decision to not have a JV team for the year. This lack of a JV team means that the younger and less experienced players would have even less of an opportunity to hit the field this year. The decreased experience that these players will have could have rippling effects on the team, but this is not the root cause of the issue. 

The Washingtonville Lacrosse Program was once a thriving sports opportunity that many students were jumping at the possibility to be a part of. From 2017-2019 the sport had a boom in popularity and students signing up to join a team. When driving in the car and looking through the windshield, there was almost always a blue and gold lacrosse bumper sticker on the car in front. 

The program began to fall and then quickly crumbled after a series of events revolving around a lack of coaching and a misuse of funds. Sadly, this caused the recreational youth lacrosse program in the town to go desolate. The impact of this had yet to be felt by the high school teams until this year at WHS.

The boys and girls lacrosse teams noticed a severe lack in a number of freshmen signing up to play for the upcoming season. This resulted in the teams coming together to find a solution. Thus began the rebuilding of the Washingtonville Lacrosse program. 

The girls team hosted open clinics for girls grades one through six to come and explore the sport of lacrosse and somewhat recruit new players for the new and improved program parents of the town were trying to rebuild. 

The youth boys teams were struggling to find adequate coaching staff but the seniors on the WHS boys team were more than willing to step up to the challenge. Seven of the seniors on the varsity team now help coach the youth lacrosse program. The student coaches run practices, draft plays, and create line-ups for the games played by the youth players. The seniors who coach for the program include Joseph Corallo, and Timothy Mackay, who happen to be continuing their lacrosse careers in college. 

When asked why he chose to continue his high school career into college Mackay emphasized how the youth lacrosse program in Washingtonville helped him realize his potential and how he was lucky that his parents had also enrolled him in a travel team where the coaches continued to tell him how talented he was so he still had an outlet for his potential even without the town’s youth program. “Playing rec lacrosse gave me some of my closest friends today. It was another place I could play sports with my friends and my brother when football and basketball weren't in season.” 

Mackay will be attending Chatham University in the fall where he will continue to play lacrosse at the Division III level.

Corallo had a bit of a different perspective on his reason behind deciding to coach in the youth lacrosse program. “Last season we were really good and graduated a lot of seniors that were going to play lacrosse in college, so I knew what it was like to be on a winning team. I wanted more players to be able to know what that was like and the feeling that came with being undefeated for as many games in a row as we were last year.” 

Corallo expressed how he knew from experience that building a team that successful only happens from the youngest of players being encouraged and coached well enough to help them realize their full potential. He knew that his experience in the game would be put to good use by helping the kids in the program. Corallo is playing Division III Men’s Lacrosse at Immaculata University this coming spring. 

The parents of current youth lacrosse program players and the student coaches of the team can all feel the new energy and excitement amongst the youngest lacrosse players in Washingtonville. With a new generation of youth being encouraged to play and continue with the sport, the future's looking bright for the high school Wizards Lacrosse Teams.