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Somers Girls' Rise Profiled In 'Inside Lacrosse'

SOMERS, N.Y. -- The Somers Girls Lacrosse program has come a long way since three fathers took over the fledgling league more than a decade ago.

Members of the Somers High School Lacrosse team.

Members of the Somers High School Lacrosse team.

Photo Credit: Skip Pearlman

The story of the team is so inspiring that "Inside Lacrosse" recently profiled the three men who raised a handful of girls who didn't know a thing about the game to powerhouse players on the Somers High School Varsity Team in addition to many college teams.

Although there are three fathers who are responsible for the program's success, it all started with when John Lucchese showed up to coach his oldest daughter and 20 other third and fourth-grade girls in 2005, said Inside Lacrosse.

There was a problem, he brought his men’s stick along with gloves, arm pads, and cleats, and figured they would play the way men do. Which was fine, except for girls lacrosse is a totally different game, the magazine said.

After his rookie year, which he thought went pretty well, he was joined by Niall Rosenzweig and John Ericson, who also only knew men's lacrosse, added Inside Lacrosse.

After losing their first game, a ref congratulated them on teaching the girls how to play boy's lacrosse. That's when they knew they had to learn the girl's way and change began to take place, said Inside Lacrosse.

Years slipped by and the three continued having fun and making sure the girls had fun as they learned and became really top-notch players. Players that would one day be part of the high school's Varsity Team, added the magazine.

Lucchese, who many call the "father of Somers girls' lacrosse," begins coaching the JV team at the high school and the two programs begin to meld and improve, said Inside Lacrosse.

Fast forward about 10 years of coaching, playing games and encouraging young girls on the field and you find the father's standing on the sidelines as many of those same girls are in an intense battle for a state title against Yorktown High School. They lose the game. 

Lucchese is crying, but happy. It's a day the three men had dreamed about for years, the magazine said.

Somer Girls Lacrosse was finally a powerhouse to be reckoned with.

Click here to read the entire Inside Lacrosse profile. 

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