2. Junior Hoyas U15 Lacrosse Club; affiliation of the
Harrison High School Men’s Lacrosse Teams
The head coach is Michael Smith (His cell number is
included in the journal information.)
Reference 1: jrhoyas@yahoo.com
The players practice on the back field of
Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Most games are played on away game fields and only a few
are home at the Harrison High School’s stadium field.
The address of Harrison High School is
4500 Due West Road, Kennesaw,
Georgia, 30152.
Reference 2: http://www.hoyalacrosse.com/
3. Reference 3: http://www.uslacrosse.org/
Originally, lacrosse was a Native American game played
to prepare men for battle. The men played what we
would consider tournaments that lasted for days and
sometimes to the death.
Today, lacrosse is played primarily in northeastern
United States and Canada. However, it is said to be the
fastest growing sport in the United States. Many
colleges, universities and high schools have lacrosse
programs.
4. Middle school and high school boys’ recreational travel
sports team; grades 6 through 9
27 boys, ages 12 through 14 years old
Boys attend both Cobb County Public Schools and private
schools in the West Cobb area
◦ Lost Mountain Middle School
◦ McClure Middle School
◦ Durham Middle School
◦ Mount Paran Christian School
All boys have previous lacrosse experience
There is 1 head coach and 4 assistant coaches
5. In boys lacrosse, each team fields ten players; one goalie, three defenders, three
midfielders, and three attackmen.
At the U15 level, there are two sizes of lacrosse sticks. The defensemen always
have a lacrosse stick six feet long. Sometimes midfielders can too. The rest of the
sticks are 40 to 42 inches long and the goalie has a stick with a much larger head to
catch the balls shot on goal.
Mandatory equipment for all players includes sticks, shoulder pads, chest
protectors, gloves, colored mouth guards, athletic cups, and helmets. Goalies have
more protective body gear and helmets.
Usually the game is played in four quarter periods each being 12 minutes long.
Tournament games are usually played with 2 halves each being 20 minutes long.
Penalties are called for aggressive behavior including slashes with lacrosse sticks,
pushing, and tripping. The penalties are usually 30 to 60 seconds long. A penalty
for not wearing a mouth guard is usually a 2 minute unreleasable penalty.
Lacrosse resembles basketball, soccer and hockey in its method of play.
The object of the game is to shoot a lacrosse ball into the opponents’ net.
6. The Junior Hoyas is a newly organized junior lacrosse team in West Cobb.
Prior to this year, there was only one organization that sponsored the middle
school and elementary teams in West Cobb, the West Cobb Lacrosse Club.
Last summer, the area middle and high school coaches came together to
reorganize the lacrosse programs. Four high school lacrosse organizations
decided to create their own junior programs. The Junior Hoyas is one of these
teams.
The goal of this new reorganization of teams is to create a feeder program for
the high school teams where the high school lacrosse coaches have the
ability to directly support those feeder teams.
Throughout the season, high school lacrosse players are encouraged to assist
the junior programs and practices to include the junior varsity, varsity, and
junior teams are scheduled.
Finally, all four teams to include the Junior Hoyas (Harrison High School),
Junior Bucs (Allatoona High School), Junior Mustangs (Kennesaw Mountain
High School), and Junior Hawks (Hillgrove High School) come together for a
mini West Cobb game day at the end of the season.
7. The registration fee for the Junior Hoyas team is $325 per player; to
include:
◦ Rental of a team helmet, two game jerseys, and gloves per player,
◦ Ownership of two pairs of team practice shorts, two pairs of game
shorts, one shooting shirt, one practice pinny, a hooded sweatshirt,
and sweatpants per player,
◦ Rental fees for an equipment storage facility, a practice field with
lights,
◦ Referee fees for games,
◦ Registration fees for area tournaments,
◦ Equipment such as goals and nets, practice cones, and lacrosse
balls, and
◦ Coaches’ trainings.
Players are also responsible for registering with the US Lacrosse
organization who provides player injury insurance;
the fee is $35 per player.
8. The staff of this organization consists of volunteer coaches who have either
coached or played lacrosse previously.
The head coach is Michael Smith who works closely with the Harrison High
School coaches to organize this junior team.
He assists with the registration of players, ordering equipment, and the
scheduling of games, practices, tournaments, and referees.
The head coach’s role is to lead the team at practices, to be the only
“speaking coach” on the sidelines during games, communicate with
referees during games, and communicate directly with the coaches of the
opposing teams.
The head coach is also responsible for direct communication with the
players’ parents.
There are four assistant coaches who are fathers of four of the players on
the team.
The assistant coaches help during the practices by running drills and
monitoring scrimmages.
The assistant coaches run the practices in the absence of the head coach.
All five coaches attend lacrosse coaches’ training sessions provided during
the season.
9. Parent Team Coordinator; parent-team communication, fundraising,
uniform distribution, etc.
Sideline Monitor (games and some practices)
First Aid Services Provider
Game Statistician and Timer
In a position such as team coordinator, there
are more hours clocked in behind the scenes
than on the field with the players. The task
includes supporting the coaches and that
takes on many responsibilities from stocking first aid kits,
spending hours picking up new uniforms and deciding which
players get what sizes, to supervising a fundraiser and then
collecting the money at the end of it all. There were many
emails back and forth to the head coach and then information distributed to the parents.
Finally, there was some time spent with the players taking care of the necessities of life like
taping up scraped knees and filling water bottles. The best of times were the moments
cheering from the sidelines and sharing team stats with the coaches and players.
“It’s all good!”
12. The following slides include
information regarding what I
witnessed in my encounters
with adolescent boys during my
service project experience.
The information was obtained
from the text, Human
Development, by Diane Papalia,
Sally Olds, and Ruth Feldman,
11th
edition, (2009), as well as
other resources provided by the
course instructor.
13. Body types are so different during adolescences as bodies begin to develop and mature
differently and at different rates.
Adolescents become overly self-aware of their body changes.
Adolescents spend much of their time in their own world very disengaged from adults.
However, they become egocentric in a way that they think everyone is interested in their thoughts
and ideas.
Adolescents believe that no one has ever thought or felt what they have.
Adolescents experience moodiness and emotionality to include emotional outbursts which may be
associated with hormonal development and the different way they process information as
compared to adults.
Adolescents engage in risky behavior that is believed to result from a socio-emotional network
that responds to social and emotional stimuli; peer influence.
The cognitive-control network necessary to check and balance decision making does not develop
until early adulthood.
Immature brain development may interfere with a teen’s ability to regard warnings and make
logical decisions.
Adolescents need to develop ways of organizing their thoughts, understanding abstract concepts,
and controlling impulses so that they prepare neural foundations necessary to be capable adults.
The experiences and activities of adolescents help to shape the cognitive growth and
development in those areas.
14. Other changes occur that affect adolescents’ sleep patterns, eating patterns, levels of stress and
patterns of physical activity.
Adolescents who regularly exercise are more unlikely to participate in risky behaviors than those
who do not.
The capacity of working memory increases in adolescents which helps them to deal with complex
problems that have multiple pieces of information.
Although cognitive abilities that help to gather, understand, and process complex information do
increase in adolescents, motivation and emotionality interfere with the level and speed in which
these processes occur.
Friends affect how adolescents make moral decisions.
Higher moral reasoning ability in adolescents is associated with close friendships and being
perceived as a leader.
Although adolescents turn to their peers for companionship and role models, they rely on their
parents for security and safety.
Adolescents may reject directions and suggestions made by their parents in their quest for
autonomy.
They begin to question or challenge principles that do not fit their views.
Adolescents begin to focus on what is possible rather than reality.
In learning situations, they prefer hands-on methods and manipulatives to reading textbooks.
They tend to become frustrated when they cannot understand a concept because they fixate on
the fact that they cannot understand and not what the content is that they need to understand.
15. As I watched these boys mature on the field and learn how to handle their
sticks and control their reactions and emotions, I knew that the goal of
preparing these young players for high school play was basically
accomplished. The boys appreciated those practices when they had the
pleasure of working alongside the high school players and being coached
by the varsity high school coaches. They definitely had great adult role
models to look up to and great players to aspire to be like.
Wins Loses
Jr. Bucs Jr. Greyhounds
Jr. Jackets
Jr. Raptors
Jr. Longhorns
Jr. Mustangs
Jr. Hawks
Jr. Warriors
Jr. Kell
Jr. Loftus
16. The challenges for any fledgling organization are
the basic three elements; time, money, and
resources.
The inclement weather has been unpredictable
which has interfered with the team’s outdoor
practice and game schedules.
The greatest challenge has been not having an
adequate field to host home games and conflicting
schedules with teams who share the same
practice fields.
17. If the team had unlimited funds to spend, the first purchase made would be a turf
stadium field. Next to the field would be an indoor practice facility that included an
indoor heated swimming pool with a jacuzzi, a workout/weight room, locker rooms
with showers, and a training room staffed with an athletic trainer equipped with an
EKG machine.
Next, a team statistician would be hired as well as an official time keeper, and an
announcer for the games.
Two coach buses would be purchased for traveling.
All new uniforms would be purchased.
Players would receive state of the art equipment to include matching team lacrosse
sticks, gloves, bags and helmets.
A scholarship program would be created if players were expected to pay the
registration fees.
Basic lacrosse equipment for girls and boys would be purchased and provided to the
elementary and middle schools in the area to help introduce the sport to young
children.
Finally, a Web designer would be hired to produce and manage the team’s Website.
A team photographer would also be hired to take both still shots and video to be used
for the team’s coaches’ review.
