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Lacrosse is just a small piece of life’s puzzle

By: Doug Sarant
| Published 04/19/2022

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THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Here in The Woodlands, Texas, the lacrosse program has enjoyed a lot of success having players play at the next level, to include NCAA D-1. But, for every one player that plays at the next level, there are 99 non-lacrosse success stories.

At a young age just about every kid playing lax is measured by whether they’ll eventually play in college by friends and adults in the community. Eventually, the player joins in and the pressure is ON at that early age.

People don't realize how unfair it is to a young person. As the player grows, college lacrosse becomes less and less important to them for many reasons…very few of those reasons are of the negative variety. Some find they can get into real good local colleges in and out of the states they live in. Others find careers they want to get into without attending college. BUT, the one thing every single one of them can look back on in regards to having been in a high school activity, is how that activity they were in at a young age helped shape who they are.
Some of those benefits can be best summed up by North Dakota’s lacrosse growth guru, Kurt Weinberg…

“Reasons to play a sport in high school: learning teamwork, sportsmanship, delayed gratification, hard work, success, developing relationships, camaraderie, taking correction from a coach, etc. All other outcomes are gravy.”

I’d like to share one success story now. Pictured is Garrett Rogers and his beautiful six-year-old son, Logan. Garrett was an excellent goaltender in the early to mid 2000’s. He could have played somewhere but he chose to enter the workforce instead.

Today, he is a very successful leader in the heavy equipment industry. I’d put his happiness these days up against any former player we’ve ever had. Every time I think of Garrett, my heart becomes full. Especially when I think of those Woodlands High School alumni games he'd shut down the best players we’ve ever had…not mentioning names Nick Gilligan (love you, Nick!).

Young people, please don’t think you’ll be measured by how far you take lacrosse. You’ll turn out to be just as important to those around you no matter what you end up doing.

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