The New Breed, continued...

Dick Regan '76, in his eighth year as the College's athletics director, has hired two full-time head coaches with duffle-bags' worth of lacrosse creds.

Adam Pascal, a two-time All-American at Middlebury College, holds several NCAA tournament records, including most goals in a game, 8. After graduating in 1999, he served as a college assistant at Nazareth, Harvard and Williams.

A bachelor, he still plays with a group of Middlebury alums in tournaments like the Vail, Colo., "Shootout." From early June to August, he travels 9,000 miles in his car, checking out recruits in summer leagues and development camps. He's not recruiting from the Top 50 list, but "keeping an eye out for kids, any size or shape, who are a little quicker and a lot smarter."

His players are promoters. They act politely, wear coats and ties, represent their sport with class, sell themselves as being worthy of support. They thank the grounds crews and secretaries, inviting those folks to their banquets. They hand out lacrosse T-shirts and hats, hoping the craze will catch fire.

Coach Stephanie Pavlik, an all-around athlete at Mount St. Joseph's Academy outside Philadelphia, excelled as an MVP midfielder at UMass. Her game-winning overtime goal against Temple hoisted her team to the 2000 Atlantic 10 Championship. Settling into the Holy Cross family, she is engaged to marry head volleyball coach Chris Ridolfi on July 1.

Pavlik believes in the same approach that Pascal takes. She tells recruits they will have a chance to blend into a team with great chemistry at Holy Cross while netting a great education. She emphasizes the quality of the whole College experience. Her players appreciate that she is a players' coach. One of seven children, she knows how to scrap for recognition. She looks for natural leaders. In her first season, the team lost to Colgate in the Patriot League championship game.

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Regan understands that lacrosse is at a crossroads.

"For years lacrosse has languished here," he says. "Holy Cross has always been known for its traditional sports programs. But lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in America, and we must go with the flow."

Lacrosse is currently considered the "it" game, at least in suburbia. U.S. Lacrosse, the mother-hen of the sport, notes that there are 130,000 high school players and 500 college clubs.

A Native American tribal competition known as "The Creator's Game" was documented in 1636 by Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf.  A Canadian dentist, who no doubt figured lacrosse would be a boon to his business, standardized its rules in 1867. Lacrosse survived in prep schools and posh colleges and in hotbeds such as Maryland and Long Island. Today, more than a half-million competitors play for club and school teams across America.

"The Patriot League happens to have a strong group of lacrosse teams," Regan notes. "The sport has taken off, moving from prep schools into parochial and public schools. In hot spots, it is taking over baseball as the No.1 spring sport. It's a sport we want to do well in."

Regan is hoping that the College's new foray into raising money dedicated to an Athletic Fund will help sports programs. There are 14 varsity sports for women and 13 for men, all vying for a piece of the financial pie.

"A quarter of the student body plays a varsity sport," Regan says.

Sporting goods entrepreneur William H. Brine '52, recently made a challenge grant to the lacrosse program, agreeing to match $100,000 in donations (see the winter 2006 issue of HCM). Regan emphasizes that there remains a need to allocate more money for recruiting, staffing, equipment and enhancement of preferential packages for lacrosse recruits.

Someday, aspiring advocates hope, lacrosse will no longer be a minor sport, out in the cold, looking in.

John W. Gearan '65, was an award-winning reporter and columnist at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette for 36 years. He resides in Woonsocket, R.I., with his wife, Karen Maguire, and their daughter, Molly.