At a time in America when the word “change” is lauded and sought by many, change is already happening right here in the DC area—a meaningful, opportunity-giving, life-altering change. What is it you ask? Well, it starts with the word “lacrosse” and is completed by words like “generosity, friendship, love of neighbor and magnanimity.”
It is called The Washington Inner City Lacrosse Foundation (Winners) Lacrosse, a brainchild of Bruce Bashuck, President and CEO of J Street Development Company. Founded in October of 2000, Winners Lacrosse has introduced this upscale sport into historically underserved neighborhoods in the Washington, DC metro area. But it isn’t just athletics that drives Winners Lacrosse. Its mission is to give kids, many of whom live well below the poverty line, an opportunity they haven’t yet experienced or dreamed of. Winners wants to broaden these kids’ horizons and inspire them to reach for something greater, something they are truly capable of achieving and enjoying—success in lacrosse, in school and in life.
Up and Running, On and Off the Field
According to Jon Kornfeld, the new executive director, “This is a dream job. I saw the ad and applied, thinking I had no chance. I just wanted it because of the opportunity to be involved in what Winners Lacrosse is doing.” In addition to handling day-to-day operations, he coaches, drives kids to games, and helps out parents who have scheduling conflicts. Importantly, he is earnestly seeking to create big opportunities for Winners Lacrosse, pushing heavily for private school placement for some of the kids.
Kornfeld’s three loves—teaching, the sport of lacrosse and working with inner city youth have kept him busy for the past seven years. Since 2001 he’s taught at Holy Redeemer in D.C. and Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, and has coached girls lacrosse for Bowie Boys and Girls Club and Elizabeth Seton High School.
He continues, “I’ve dealt a lot with inner city kids. I find them to be amazingly astute. They can size people up. They have street sense. They know “bs” and they don’t tolerate it. To me this is ironic because at the same time, they live in an incredibly small world. Outside of the five or six blocks of their neighborhood, they don’t know the world. I was driving a middle school boy to a lacrosse game in Greenbelt, Maryland recently and he said to me, ‘This is the first time I’ve been outside of DC.’ ”
“Another kid from last year’s team, Garren Carter, is now an assistant coach on our boys team. He goes to Cesar Chavez High School and is too old to play for Winners. Earlier this year, Garren called me and asked if he could come around and help out, be near the game. So now he shows up to every single practice. He is a saint to the kids. I give him every grunt task there is…and he does it…with a smile. He loves to be here and, more importantly, I think he starting to realize he can use the game of lacrosse to further his goals in life. In the short time I’ve been with Garren, I am impressed with how forward thinking he is.
“As a 16-year-old freshman, he’s beyond his years in terms of maturity. Last year when he played lacrosse with Winners, he was a jack-of-all-trades and played where he was needed. He has played for only one season and with so little coaching, I have to say, this kid can really play. I’d like to seem him placed in a local private high school.”
Winners Lacrosse volunteer coaches are talented Lacrosse players in their own right. Jed Prosner, a three-time All-American at University of North Carolina and a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist his senior year contacted Kornfeld "out of the blue". Jed currently plays with the Colorado Mammoth of the NLL and the Philadelphia Barrage of the MLL, winner of the 2006 and 2007 MLL championships. Kevin Jordan, a JV Coach at Gonzaga College High School and former football player at Gettysburg College also coaches with the boys team. For the girls, Gilian Skulte an experienced girls lacrosse coach also initiated contact with Winners. Additional girls' coaches included Diana Spalding, a former player at American University, and Janet Carroll, a Maryland University Club Lacrosse Team player and First Team All-WCAC as a senior at Elizabeth Seton High School.
“In the next couple of years we want to explode.”
“This year we have one boy and one girl team, for middle school youth, and our numbers are up—35 kids are involved right now,” Kornfeld continued. “We are expecting more with the summer programs. A year from now we want to double our numbers and offer two teams and two age groups. In addition to a team for seventh, eighth and ninth graders, we want to add a fifth and sixth grade team for boys and for girls. By 2010 we want to triple where we are and include teams for third and fourth grade boys and girls.”
Winners also makes available to inner city youth six, one-week summer lacrosse camps, as well as lacrosse clinics throughout the year. All opportunities are free, excluding one which runs on a sliding scale. Camps are full day, with one hour per day spent on life skills. Last year they had a speaker talk about basic manners and interpersonal communications. According to Kornfeld, “These kids often need guidance on how to interact with others, how to look people in the eye; they need to understand the impact of body language, and what is and is not appropriate communication.”
The Changing Face of Lacrosse
Lacrosse has long had the reputation as a “white sport” and an upper/middle-upper class sport at that. But things are changing. Today, this fast-paced game that requires coordination and agility, quickness and speed, is one of the fastest growing team sports in the United States. Youth participation in lacrosse has grown over 500 percent since 1999 to nearly 250,000. Over the last six years, lacrosse is also the fastest-growing sport over at the NCAA level. When it comes to African-American athletes’ participation at the college level, “there have been real changes—less in terms of absolute numbers, which remain small, than in terms of impact and visibility, which is becoming significant, according to an article, Changing the Face of the Game, by Bruce Nelson. He says, “If we combine the classes of ’05, ’06, and ’07, I know of at least twenty-three black players at the Divison1 level.”
With the zeal and energy being expended by participating athletes, volunteers, corporate and nonprofit partners and donors, Winners Lacrosse looks likely to be a major player in helping to change the face of lacrosse locally and doing some extraordinary good for youth and their families in the process.
Check out Winners Lacrosse at www.winnerslacrosse.org
Pat Bradley contributed to this article.
