LAX on the upswing with Port Chester soaring and readying a move to varsity status next year
May 15, 2024 at 11:03 p.m.
Lacrosse has become the fastest growing sport in North America with more than 2.9 million players and player wannabees picking up the stick in the last several years.
While the sport was formalized in 1867 and has been growing by leaps and bounds ever since, it is soaring to new heights nowadays,
On the high school level, for example, LAX has grown in popularity that rivals football and basketball.
And the National Collegiate Athletic Association's lacrosse numbers have hit an all-time high, up 28% in the last few years.
With the NCAA LAX playoffs underway this week, the sport is attracting record television ratings.
And it doesn't stop there.
There are now two professional LAX leagues for women, the United Women’s Lacrosse League and the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League.
The men have three professional leagues: the National Lacrosse League, Premier Lacrosse League, and Major League Lacrosse, with more than 20 teams.
New York state of mind
In fact, the Albany Firewolves and Buffalo Bandits will be playing a best 2 of 3 series starting Friday (5/17) for the NLL championship at Albany's MVP Arena.
And in the same New York state of mind, the local high school Section 1 LAX playoffs are underway this week with the girls’ top seeds in four different competitive classes including Suffern in Class A, Yorktown in Class B, Nyack in C and Albertus Magnus in D while their male counterparts in class and seeding are Mamaroneck, Somers, Rye and Pleasantville.
The classes are based on school size and population.
Varsity LAX on agenda
Port Chester is about to join the LAX party as a high school varsity sport for the first time ever.
Up until now, Port Chester has been walking softly and carrying a big stick for the past eight years while gauging local interest in the sport.
"We first rolled out a lacrosse ball in Port Chester in the spring of 2016," according to Paul Santavicca, one of the guiding spirits behind the local LAX program.
"It was a club team sports lacrosse program for four years, from 2016-2019," he continued. "And now it has been an official sports program for four years, from 2021-2024."
But just as Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Port Chester's LAX program.
It has been a careful, methodical, analytical, educational process of schooling the local student-athletes in the fundamentals of the game, from the ABCs of catching a ball on a stick to passing, attacking and defensive formations, to building the endurance to run up and down the playing field in competitive situations for 60 minutes, 10 players on each team playing four 15-minute quarters with a faceoff after each goal to control the ball.
It sounds simple. But it takes some getting used to. Because you basically use a stick as your hands.
Short and long sticks
Players use the head of the lacrosse stick which has a mesh pocket at the end to carry, pass, catch, and shoot the ball into the goal. The stick becomes like an extension of the arm. And the mesh pocket acts like a glove on the hand. While the ball is flying around, the sticks are swinging and there is a lot of running around with two teams going at one another in a scoring contest.
The 2024 Port Chester Middle School modified boys’ lacrosse team. Back row, from left: Jefferson Ventura, Luis Castillo, George Ford, Michael Pauletti, Vincent Chumenti, Jasiel Garcia, Henry Ramirez, Elias Lopez. Middle row, from left: Angel Gonzalez, David Garcia, Andre Dias, Andy Jimenez, Andrew Palma, Randy Ochoa, Gabriel Rios, Luis Juarez, Justin Mutz. Front row, from left: Erik Chabla, Wilson Paiva, Jhonny Zhagui, Benjamin Garcia.Courtesy of Paul Santavicca
While all that and more is going on at the same time, LAX is also a contact sport and all players wear protective gear: helmet, gloves, shoulder pads, protective eye gear and elbow pads. And the lineup consists of three players on the attack, three midfielders, and four defensive players including the goalie. Defensive players carry a long stick, the others a short stick. The team with the most goals at the end wins.
Getting to know LAX
That is an oversimplification, of course. But it is basically how the game is played and has been since indigenous Indian tribes in North America started batting the balls around with tree branches way back in the 12th century, making it the oldest organized sport in North America. The game was extensively modified by European colonists and has evolved into the fast-paced game it is today. LAX has its own rules and regulations. And it takes time to get used to the rules of the game until playing becomes almost second nature and competing becomes part of the progression.
Santavicca has been in on the current Port Chester transformation every step of the way as a Middle School math teacher in the Port Chester School District as well as the former Rams football coach who turned around a losing grid culture only to step aside after winning a league championship so he could spend more time with his family.
The LAX All-American
But Santavicca was also a former high school All-American in lacrosse at Yorktown who co-captained his college LAX team at Marist so when prime movers behind starting a Port Chester LAX program like Middle School Principal Pat Swift and Port Chester Athletic Director James Ryan were looking for someone to help get the program off the ground, Santavicca stepped up. He had the background, the motivation, the knowhow and the desire.
And it has paid off.
"We now have over 100 boys and girls playing lacrosse on four different teams, on two different levels," Santavicca said. "Those levels consist of Modified 7th and 8th grade and JV 9th, 10th, and 11th. Next year, if interest remains high, we will grow to varsity programs."
Based on this year's track record and team potential, that seems likely, according to the Port Chester head coaches John Cegielski and Justin Thomas on the boys’ and girls’ JV level and their Modified head coaching counterparts in Stephanie Sumcizk and Santavicca.
Coaching quartet speaks
Cegielski, for example, is high on his key JV performers: Captains Alexis Morel (midfield), Francisco Ramirez (goalie), Jefferson Navarijo (attack) and Carlos Palma (defense). His most improved performers include Justin Maldonado (defense), Alexis Lopez-Chen (midfield), Derek Deras (midfield) Yudiel Gonzalvo (midfield) and Yulian Gonzalvo (midfield).
As an insight into the talent level, Morel was the Rams’ starting quarterback last season and now has two lacrosse seasons under his belt while John Pauletti, perhaps the football team's best offensive and defensive player, came out for the LAX team for the first time this season.
Thomas was just as enthusiastic about his girls’ JV team.
"Our top players this year have been Anastasia Wojdyla (the goalie, who has been complimented by multiple opposing coaches and by officials for being one of the best goalies they've seen at this level!), Gladis Castro (defense), Dominica Przyslak (midfield) and Alexandra Dattilo (attack)," he said. "Also, our captains Myisha Cruz (junior), Ainara Gomez (junior), Gabriella Sculky (freshman), and Ella Tobin (sophomore). And our most improved players this year include Angel Garza (midfield), Katerine Ramos (defense), Ashley Cortes (defense), and Alexandra Mendoza (midfield).
The JV squads figure to be the nucleus of next year's varsity Rams and Lady Rams.
The Mod Squads
The female Mod Squad's top talent revolves around McKayla McLoughlin (who starts at quarterback for the boys’ Modified football team, is the starting point guard for the Lady Rams varsity basketball team and is also an outstanding swimmer on the Badgers elite swimming training team), Jennifer Guayllazaca, Andrea Cortez, Anaeli Leveron, Keyla Guayllasaca and Abigail Sopon, according to Sumcizk.
Her most improved up-and-coming players include defender Michelle Vallejo, midfielder Devora Garcia and attacker Olivia Pauletti.
Santavicca's Mod Squad standouts include midfielders Vinnie Chumenti and Bryan Montie, Jhonny Zhagui (goalie), and George Ford (attack).
Up-and-comers include midfielders Michael Diaz and Elias Lopez and Wilson Paiva (attack).
They are the pipeline for a strong varsity training ground.
There's more, lots more, but Port Chester has been waiting for the right time to enter the LAX game big time, worked hard to master the fundamentals necessary to play the sport competitively on a varsity level and is ready for its closeup after testing itself on the JV level. Now the local student-athletes can't wait to pick up the stick and show what they can do as varsity players next year.
They've come a long way, baby. And so has the sport.
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