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by posted 08/11/2011
 

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by posted 02/20/2011
 
RI Beach Dogs combine with Iroquois Lacrosse Program to instruct hundreds of local youths

PORTSMOUTH — The Rhode Island Beach Dogs teamed up with the Iroquois Lacrosse Program to give local children a unique historical and fundamental perspective on one of America’s oldest team sports recently.
Hundreds of enthusiastic children, ranging from first- to tenth-grade, came out to the camp at Portsmouth’s Gardiner Seveney Sports Complex to learn not just lacrosse skills but also to gain an appreciation for the roots of the sport. The five-day event was put together by former Roger Williams University standout Marshall Huggins who hoped all the children in attendance would take away something valuable from the experience.
“It’s more of a lifestyle camp. We focus a lot, especially with the older kids, on the sport and the technique and strategy,” said Huggins. “With the younger kids, we are just getting them into learning the sport. Obviously with the Iroquois here we are looking for them to talk about the history and tradition. To them it is the creator’s game. This is their medicine.”
While the sport of lacrosse has witnessed a dramatic rise in popularity in the United States and especially right here in Rhode Island over the past decade, many people are unfamiliar with the game’s extensive history. Lacrosse was played hundreds of years before any European touched foot in America and has deep spiritual roots in many Native American cultures, including the Iroquois Tribe.
Cam Bomberry, Director of the Iroquois Lacrosse Program, hoped the group’s visit instilled the pride and respect for the sport that he has had since he was a child.
“It’s been truly eye-opening on both sides for the instructors and the kids to see how lacrosse can build a lot of those bridges,” said Bomberry. “Lacrosse has been that good medicine to Iroquois for so long, it’s something that we share and something that was shared with us, being the gift from the creator. We appreciate it and respect it that way and when we go and do these types of things we try and share that same attitude and respect. It has been really well received here.”

by posted 02/20/2011
 
PORTSMOUTH — In England, soccer is the sport of choice for nearly all young athletes. There are clubs everywhere, and playing opportunities are plentiful.
 
So when his two sons showed an interest in lacrosse, John Ievers was a bit stunned.
It's a trend that's sweeping the nation, though, as more and more English kids are taking up lacrosse.
 
"It's a growing sport," Ievers said.
 
In the interest of building the sport, teams from England occasionally cross the Atlantic to play against U.S. competition. The Sheffield Steelers, for whom Ievers' sons, George and Dan, play, arrived in Rhode Island last week to play in the Ocean State Classic tournament, which took place at Glen Farm this past weekend.
 
One might have called the Steelers' second game in the tournament an international friendly, as they faced the Beach Dogs, a Portsmouth youth league team made up of boys from all over Newport County.
 
Not only did the Steelers win that game, they went on to win the under-15 title at the Ocean State Classic.
 
Ievers is the tour manager for the Steelers, who are comprised of 19 boys ranging in age from 13-16. Just before Christmas, Ievers said one of the club coaches who works for the English Lacrosse Association met with Beach Dogs coach Marshall Huggins to work out the details of how the two teams would come together.
 
"He met (Huggins) over here and said, 'Yes, that's just what we're looking for as well. How's this going to work?'" Ievers said. "Two people can say, 'Yes, that's a good idea,' but it takes a much bigger group to organize this. Parents on both sides need to buy into this whole arrangement.
 
"It's been quite an effort the last six months."
 
Families of the Beach Dogs players are hosting the Steelers during their two-week stay. Huggins said the process of searching for some overseas competition began about a year ago, when Rebel Lacrosse Wear, a company that makes lacrosse uniforms, put him in touch with English Lacrosse.
 
"We've been working for, maybe a year, just to pull it together, have them come over, sort everything out," Huggins said. "It worked out pretty well. Once we started communicating, we saw that it was a great fit, and Rhode Island was a great place to host this, because there's so much to do."
 
Among the non-lacrosse activities planned for the visitors from Sheffield — which is about 170 miles north of London — are trips to Boston and Six Flags New England in Springfield, Mass., as well as the local beaches.
 
Much of their time, though, will be spent on the lacrosse field.
 
"We have a lot of different lacrosse games set up with other Rhode Island teams, and Connecticut teams and Massachusetts teams," Huggins said.
 
The hope is that those games will help the Steelers progress as a team and a club.
 
"Playing any team in America is going to be a good challenge," said Andy Hopkins, one of the Sheffield coaches. "It matures them as well, because they're coming out here playing different opposition under different circumstances.
 
"I think it helps them jell as a squad as well."
 
The difference between American lacrosse and English lacrosse is that, typically, the skill and talent levels are greater on the American squads.
 
"They know the fundamentals, they've got good stick skills and they can do all the basics," Hopkins said of American players.
 
"They're a lot more well-drilled," added Ben Lyon, another Sheffield coach. "The standard is a lot better, generally."
 
This trip, however, is more than just lacrosse. It's about seeing new places, trying new things and meeting new people.
 
"We wanted to make it more of a life experience, not just lacrosse," Huggins said. "We're using lacrosse as the bridge because the players all have that in common."
 
Hopkins, Lyon and Krishna Balan, who all coach the Steelers, have taken similar trips, to places such as Maryland, Seattle and Buffalo, N.Y., and had positive experiences.
 
"I still speak to the people I went on tour with four years ago," Lyon said.
 
Whatever friendships develop over the next week and a half will be revisited in two years, when the Beach Dogs head over to England for the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, about 40 miles west of Sheffield.
 
"Teams from around the world come to play in that," Huggins said. "It's just a huge lacrosse Mecca."
 
While the Beach Dogs are, technically, a 15-and-under team, the age division in England is 16 and younger, which what the Steelers are. In preparation for the World Championships, though, Huggins' team is made up primarily of players who will be 16 or younger in 2010.
 
"I designed it that way so they'd get to play with each other for a couple years, and also I wanted them all to qualify for the World Games," he said.
 
Some of the Steelers will be too old to compete at the under-16 level in Manchester, but wherever division they're playing in then, it's a good bet they'll be better players, thanks in part to their tour of Rhode Island.