President Gary Richins below!
Dear Coastal Lacrosse Families,
This past Friday evening, May 28th, marked the close of another successful spring season of Coastal Lacrosse Club. We had a great turnout at our 2nd annual end of season party and all seemed to have a great time. This year's theme was "Catch the Wave" and I think many new families did just that by joining and getting involved in the program. I want to personally thank all parents and volunteers who made this spring season such an amazing success.
Our season started one week late due to the crazy cold snowy weather we had this past winter. We began practices during the second week of March and began games on March 28th with away games at Kent County, the DYLA's newest member. The season culminated with the fun and competitive DYLA tournament, which the girls played in Middletown on May 22nd and the boys played in New Castle on May 23rd. We registered 119 children in our program and fielded teams at all girls levels (U9/U11/U13/U15) and at three levels for boys (U9/U11/U13). All of our teams (girls and boys) had extremely successful seasons marked by competitive wins, good instruction and lots of fun and playing time for all children.
Coastal Lacrosse also promoted several family fun social events. We held our indoor pool splash at Ocean Pines in February where we had numerous families attend and socialize. We also held our 2nd annual "High Tide Fundraiser" at Seacrets on April 10th. The fundraiser was another huge success as we raised over $7000.00. Thanks go out to Karen Hammond and her committee for such a great party. We had a terrific turnout and fun was had by all with Opposite Directions as entertainment, great silent auction baskets, a big 50/50 drawing and numerous door prize drawings, not to mention the always lively atmosphere of Seacrets. We also had our year end season party at Hudson Fields in West Ocean City on the evening of May 28th. Special thanks to the Bush and Hudson family's for the use of the fields for the party and also for practices. Jeanene Gwin and Shelly Krall worked really hard putting the party together and are to be congratulated . We had over 200 parents and children in attendance. The bounce house and 65 foot long obstacle course proved to be a ton of fun for the kids and the adults enjoyed the social atmosphere on a beautiful summer evening. The kids also received their annual Coastal Lacrosse signed t-shirts which are proving to be the "in" fashion piece of clothing to have.
Although we are looking to a summer off from lacrosse, many of our players play on summer travel teams and we wish them much luck on their tournament play. In addition, your board of directors will be working on many things. We expect to have our fall lacrosse clinics again this season. Please look for emails regarding when they will start in September. They were well received last year and we hope to have great attendance this fall. We will also have our indoor program begin registration in late October or early November. Emails will be sent out and teams will be filled on a first come basis. Last winter we were able to field three boys teams that played a full indoor season at Crown Sports Center and we hope to field more teams this year. We were able to secure practice space for these teams and it definitely helps players get a great head start on their spring season. Please sign up early if you would like to get involved in the indoor program. The largest program we are working on is trying to establish our own "Home of Coastal Lacrosse". We have been afforded the opportunity to develop our own practice/game field facility in West Ocean City at the Hudson fields. We hope to build a first class facility that will include four or five grass fields, practice walls, a parking area and new equipment. We are in the planning stages and hope to begin construction this fall.
We will also be meeting with our fellow league clubs (DYLA) and trying to improve on our past season. Some improvements we will be pushing for is equal travel, better scheduling and consistent officiating. In order to make up for some missed games, we were able to schedule the entire club to play Atlantic (boys and girls) and against Salisbury on the girls side. We hope to have regular scheduled games with several of those teams next year. We also hope to send boys and girls teams to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. and schedule some home play days against several teams from out of the area.
We can always use more help. I stressed the need to get involved at the year-end party. We all work very hard at making Coastal Lacrosse a strong youth sports club, but we can always use more hands on deck. We can find any position to fit your abilities whether you want to work behind the scenes or out front as a coach or team parent. Please consider getting involved in your organization to make it better for everyone.
Gary Richins
President
Our Mission Statement
The Coastal Lacrosse Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the growth of youth lacrosse on the lower shore of Maryland and Delaware. The club offers an instructional and developmental program for boys and girls of all ages. Our coaches and volunteers are committed to providing a uniform and organized program emphasizing the basic and finer skills and strategies of the sport in order to prepare the player to compete at the next level. Players of all skill levels will have the opportunity to develop their game in a positive environment that promotes teamwork, fair play, good sportsmanship and lots of fun.
