Print Version

HEMPSTEAD, NY- When it comes to finding the best lacrosse talent in the world, look no further than Long Island. Long Island continually produces the most talent of anywhere and turns out the best men’s college players year in and year out. All you have to do is look at any stat sheet or a list of past All-Americans and you will see the list flooded with student-athletes from Long Island.
Of the 57 division one men’s lacrosse teams and the 2333 total players in 2007, 14 percent of those players were Long Island natives. Out of those 57 teams, only 76 players were named All-Americans with 16 of those players coming from Long Island for a stunning 21 percent. Not only were one out of every five players on the All-American list from Long Island, but “Strong Island’s” very own Matt Danowski out of Duke University and a local product from Farmingdale took home the Tewaaraton Trophy, given annually to the collegiate game’s best overall player.
Starting at age three, the future stars of the game learn the skills necessary to become successful lacrosse players in the local Nassau and Suffolk county PAL (Police Athletic League) leagues. According to U.S. Lacrosse, not only is lacrosse continuing to dominate the Long Island athletic scene, but lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in America.
The number of youth leagues and teams has grown over 500 percent since 1999 with over 200,000 high school players and over 250,000 youth players. As the sport continues to grow and more and more states begin to produce collegiate talent, there will still be one and only one place to find the best of the best, Long Island.

Production Memo

This project was tough yet exciting to do at the same time. I would say my biggest challenge was editing the video on Microsoft Movie Maker. I was able to figure it out, but it took me a long time to get the video just the way I wanted. Another tough obstacle was working with our sources for the project and working out a time that met both our schedules so we could meet and talk. I learned a lot though about how to interview people, maintain a blog and various other websites such as Blip.TV and the Google Docs website and a Wiki Page, and of course I learned how to use movie maker.

As far as Bill Blundell's Six Reporting Elements, here they are.

1) History- The history of lacrosse is extremely vast dating back to the Native Americans and later from the evolution of the Native American game into modern lacrosse in 1636 when Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary, documented a Huron contest in what is now southeast Ontario, Canada.

2) Scope- Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing team sports in the United States. Youth participation in the sport has grown over 500% since 1999 to nearly 250,000. No sport has grown faster at the high school level over the last 10 years and there are now an estimated 200,000 high school players. High school participation saw the largest percentage of increase during the past year, with over 200,000 players in 2007.

3) Central reasons- This extreme growth is happening because anyone can play the game and lacrosse is fast-paced and full of action. It combines many other sports such as hockey, basketball, and soccer.

4) Impacts- No one is hurt by the growth of lacrosse. In fact, the people who are most helped is our youth. Everyone now has another sport besides just baseball to play in the spring.

5) Gathering and Action of contrary forces- This doesn’t really apply to my project and the sport of lacrosse as there is no real social conflict involved here.

6) The Future- The Future is that the sport of lacrosse will continue to grow and eventually the main hotbeds of Long Island and Baltimore will no longer be the main areas for colleges to look for players. With the game expanding at such a rapid rate, areas such as Texas, Colorado, California, and Ohio among other states are growing at such a rate that they may soon be the go-to places for top-level recruits/players.

Advice that I would give to any future students in Online journalism is to stay on top of your project and get as much done as early as possible. It will make your life a whole lot easier come deadline time.

Coach Purdie Interview Transcript

Coach Purdie Interview

0:02- Coach, Why do you think Long Island continually produces top-notch collegiate talent?

0:07- With players starting here at age 3, it really looks to begin an instructional process and helps those players who could be lacrosse players later on get the basic skills needed. We also have such a networking of teams that players are able to play on from junior high to high school and then in the summer here on Long Island there is no weekend that goes by that you can’t be playing lacrosse. And we’ve basically been known for many years to have such strong lacrosse that those guys are really playing against the best players in the world every weekend and that makes you a better player.

0:51- Well, how would you compare the players coming out of high school into the college scene from Long Island versus what is considered the other top areas such as Baltimore?

1:00- Well Baltimore has some guys as, but what you are really looking at is as lacrosse develops around the country and world, still right here in Long Island you have some of the best lacrosse going on every day of the week so if you’re a player and you’re looking to get better, this is really a ultimate place to come and I back that up with the fact that I came here 20 years ago because I wanted to get better after I left Australia.

1:31- Have you any trends in the college recruiting scene that is going away from Long Island to other states, other countries?

1:41- Absolutely, yea absolutely, you just have to look at some of the top players I have on this team. You just need to look at who won the last world indoor championships; you just have to look at who won the last world outdoor championships, that’s not USA. Its team Canada so if you were to ask me, I think Canada is going to start sending a number of top recruits.

Coach DiPietro Interview Transcript

Coach DiPietro Interview

0:03- Coach, Why do you think Long Island continually produces top-notch collegiate talent?

0:10- I think one of the reasons is due to the youth programs on the Island. I think there is a lot of history on Long Island starting with Manhasset and Garden City in the 1930s and programs like that that have youth programs that are so big they just spread to the other communities on Long Island. It’s one of those places where kids start playing at a young age so by the time they get to high school and college they have already played for 10-12 years.

0:38- How would you compare the players coming out of Long Island versus what is considered the other top hotbed in the country, Baltimore?

0:45- There is always that battle between Maryland and Long Island. The stereotype is that the Baltimore/Maryland player is more finesse and stick skills and things like that and Long Island is more physical and more hard-nosed and the guys scrape a little more but they both produce excellent players

1:09- Why do you think other areas such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, all areas that have a long and rich tradition of lacrosse, don’t produce the same amount of top players that Long Island does?

1:21- I think some reason is because I think the college coaches, a lot of college coaches got their start on Long Island or Upstate New York or Maryland and a lot of those coaches come back to these areas because they get certain types of players with a certain type of mentality so they like recruiting those types of guys.

1:41- Have you seen any trends on the college recruiting scene that already have top colleges going away from the traditional hotbeds like Long Island in search of players elsewhere and other states?

1:52- Definitely, as the sport continues to grow across the country, there are more and more teams, more and more programs, so its only a matter of time before some warm weather states where you can play all year long start catching up to places like Long Island, Maryland, but college coaches are definitely looking other places to find that diamond in the rough that they can’t get from here.

2:15- Do you think that as the sport spreads, states like Colorado, California, Texas, will eventually replace Long Island as the top place to go get players ?

2:23- I don’t know if it will replace because I think the sport is so ingrained in Long Island in the culture and the communities that I don’t know if it will ever replace it but I definitely think places like that will start to produce division one talent on a consistent basis every year.

Transcript of Main Project Video

Transcript of Main Video

0:00- If you’re looking for top-notch lacrosse talent look no further than Long Island. Year in and year out Long Island continually produces the top players in the world. From an early age local players get accustomed to the game and all its’ rigors so by the time they reach the college level, they have been battle tested. So if you’re looking for your programs next star, look no further than Long Island.

0:22- Coach, Why do you think Long Island continually produces top-notch collegiate talent?

0:28- I think one of the reasons is due to the youth programs on the Island. I think there is a lot of history on Long Island starting with Manhasset and Garden City in the 1930s and programs like that that have youth programs that are so big they just spread to the other communities on Long Island.

0:45- We also have such a networking of teams that players are able to play on from junior high to high school and then in the summer here on Long Island there is not a weekend that goes by that you can’t be playing lacrosse. And we’ve basically been known for many years to have such strong lacrosse

1:04- Why do you think other areas such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, all areas that have a long and rich tradition of lacrosse, don’t produce the same amount of top players that Long Island does?

1:16- I think some reason is because I think the college coaches, a lot of college coaches got their start on Long Island or Upstate New York or Maryland and a lot of those coaches come back to these areas because they get certain types of players with a certain type of mentality so they like recruiting those types of guys.

1:34- Have you any trends in the college recruiting scene that is going away from Long Island to other states, other countries?

1:43- Absolutely, yea absolutely, you just have to look at some of the top players I have on this team. You just need to look at who won the last world indoor championships; you just have to look at who won the last world outdoor championships, that’s not USA.

1:57- Reporting for Nassau News, I’m Brian Schneider.