25 Top CNY Lacrosse Stories of 2009: 11-15

Lake Placid is known as one of the world's top winter sports venues, but for each of the last 20 years field lacrosse wins the gold for one solid week. It started with seven teams in one division, a lot of rain, and not much hope for a second year, but in 2009 The Summit celebrated its 20th Anniversary year. Lake Placid Summit Lacrosse Tournament founder George Leveille is still at the helm and has overseen the growth of the tournament. Many of the teams have been coming for years, and many players, including Casey Powell, use breakout performances at Placid to claim their position in the lacrosse world.

The '09 edition featured a Burnt Orange team, made up of former Orange, playing in tribute to Roy Simmons, Jr. who made his first appearence at the Summit this year. Looking over the rosters of the teams you'll find both legends from years gone by as well as today's best . . . and most likely stars of the future.

The Burnt Orange lost a close one in the Masters Division final to Rusty Red, a predominantly Cornell alum team. Graph-Tex teams won both the Men's Open Division I and the Women's Open Division.

For a great afternoon, go to Inside Lacrosse TV and check out the interviews and highlights available in the Search Results box.

 

There is no greater example of an entire sport being one family as that of lacrosse. The last half of 2009 saw no greater example of that with the entire central New York community coming together to try and find a bone marrow match to help Cazenovia senior laxer Taylor Matt. The difficulty in finding a match for Taylor lies in her Greek, Irish, and Native American heritage. Many drives have been held with the help of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for Tayor specifically and to raise the awareness of the importance of bone marrow donations in general through the Be the Match Registry.

The spring and summer saw similar efforts to help former Syracuse All-American goalie Travis Solomon.  Public events and fund raisers were held to raise awareness of Travis's fight with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's desease. From the Lafayette community, to Syracuse University Dome faithful, to the Tewaaraton Award ceremonies, the entire lacrosse community works to help one of its own.

Central New York coaches took home a bevy of awards in 2009. Some recognized for a successful season, some for dedicating a lifetime to understanding the game of lacrosse and then passing that knowledge onto others. Other than ladies first, I'll list these in no particular order. Please, if I've left someone out, let me know:

• Melissa Pearsall, RIT: IWLCA Outstanding Assistant Coach for D-III

• Patty Kloidt, Hamilton College: Field Turf Award, D-III

• Pat Genovese, William Smith: IWLCA Lifetime Achievement Award

• Mike Messere, West Genesee: Tewaaraton Creators Award by Nike

• Chuck Wilbur, OCC:  IMLCA JUCO Coach of the Year

• Roy Simmons, Jr., Syracuse: Spirit of Tewaaraton Award

• Steve Beville, SUNY Cortland: IMLCA D-III Coach of the Year

• Jeff Tambroni, Cornell: Division I Field Turf and IMLCA Coach of the Year

 

 During the summer of 2008, Le Moyne administrators were notified by the MAAC of amended bylaws requiring associate members to compete at Division I for all sports. Since only the men's baseball and women's lacrosse teams played D-I ball, these teams were dropped from the conference and forced to play as independents. This turn of events resulted in Le Moyne establish an Intercollegiate Athletics Task Force to examine the future of Le Moyne Athletics, with particular focus on NCAA divisional reclassification.

 With the options being keeping the status quo, dropping men's baseball and women's lacrosse to D-II, or moving the entire athletic program to Division I, December of 2008 brought the results of the Task Force's work. The Task Force voted unanimously to recommend a complete move to Division I for all sports.

 The administration cautions this is far from a done deal, it is known that D-I competition would not start until the 2012-13 academic year, and would not be eligible to compete for D-I Championships until 2016-17.

You can support Le Moyne's move to Division I on Facebook.

Along with special recognition for Roy Simmons Jr. and Mike Messere, the Tewaaraton Foundation also announced their 2009 Outstanding Native American High School Awards were going to Corcoran's Trenna Hill, of Mohawk decent, and Isaac "Ike" Hopper from the Onondaga Nation and West Genesee.

These young people were recognized for both their efforts on the field and as leaders and student athletes off the field.

Please take a few moments to read a note Ike Hopper wrote to the people of the Onondaga Nation regarding his trip to Washington, DC, and his thoughts about winning the award.

Top Stories 6-10