Little Rhody Is Big-Time In Lacrosse

Rhode Island. Some may call it “little Rhody,” but it will be represented in a BIG way at this weekend’s men’s college lacrosse Final Four in Baltimore.

Three players who hail from the Ocean State, all of whom play key roles for their teams, will take to the field at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore this Saturday in a National Semifinal game featuring the University of Denver and the University of Virginia.

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Providence native and Denver senior defender Jamie MacDonald will be joined by his redshirt junior teammate and Narragansett native Brendan DeBlois on defense when the Pioneers square off with fellow Narragansett native Colin Briggs who is a junior middie for the Cavaliers.

What’s ironic is that this trio isn’t the only group of players playing big-time Division 1 college lacrosse. Rumford’s JJ Gilbane had an outstanding season for Cornell which was one of the top ranked teams in the country all season long. And fellow Rumford native Trevor Brown played for Johns Hopkins.

Ironically, all 5 young men were together in Hempstead, NY last weekend squaring off in the quarterfinals. Gilbane’s Big Red lost to Virginia while Brown’s Blue Jays fell to Denver.

“It was kind of cool being all together last week in New York,” said MacDonald. “The five of us were all really good friends growing up and remain close today. In fact, Colin’s room was right next to mine because our teams stayed in the same hotel.”

The question is: why has such a small state produced so many top-notch players in the sport of lacrosse?

“I think it starts with the youth leagues,” said DeBlois. “I played South County Youth Lacrosse with Colin and for the Rhode Island Select team and we played against each other. Colin’s dad had a lot to do with the success of the youth program along with Dr. Walsh.”

Jamie MacDonald agrees. “Tony Spirito, Peter Schmitz, Jim Gilbane and guys like that who run Providence mini lacrosse, it starts there. That was my first experience with organized lacrosse and really got me into the sport.”

Schmitz, who started East Bay Lacrosse, said a decision made in the late 90’s for RILAX to separate from NELAX was also instrumental in raising the profile of this state’s best lacrosse players. “NELAX was picking mostly Massachusetts guys to their select teams so it was hard for Rhode Island to get fair representation,” he said. “This allowed our youth-13 and youth-15 teams to play against some of the best players in the country to see where we stacked up. It’s really where you need to be to get recognized.”

It also helped that each of their fathers also played the sport so lacrosse sticks were lying around the house all the time. Stephen DeBlois played at Moses Brown before playing hockey at Brown University while Jamie MacDonald’s dad – Angus played collegiate lacrosse at Penn. Colin Briggs’ father – Peter is a Long Island guy who played at Franklin and Marshall.

For generations, young boys in Rhode Island and throughout the country grew up playing baseball. From tee ball to farm league and little league, that’s what you did in the spring. However, more and more boys are starting to play the sport of lacrosse which is growing in the United States like no other sport. Nowhere is that more evident than right here in Rhode Island.

Briggs is having an outstanding junior year at Virginia ranking third on the team in goals (24) and points (36) and second in assists (12). “Most people would agree that Chris Rotelli was the best high school player to come out of Rhode Island,” said Briggs’ high school coach Kevin Murray from Bishop Hendricken. “I might be biased but I’d put Colin right up there too. He’s a once in a lifetime talent who never rested on his laurels. He always worked hard in practice, won 3 division 1 state championships, was a 3-time high school all American and a 2-year captain.”

For MacDonald and DeBlois, stats are a little tougher to come by on defense but their presence on Bill Tierney’s team cannot be underestimated. DeBlois ranks first on the team in caused turnovers (19) and in penalties with MacDonald right behind him. “I guess those two stats go hand in hand,” said DeBlois. “You have to be aggressive to force turnovers and sometimes you’re going to get called for a penalty.”

So Saturday’s match-up between Denver and Virginia in Baltimore will be sort of a good news / bad news situation for Rhode Island. The bad news is that one or more of these fine young Rhode Island natives will see their spectacular season come to an end. The good news is that one or more of them will give this state something to root for on Monday in the Division 1 college lacrosse National Championship game.
 

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