With a tweet of the whistle, the scrimmage began and the ball began to whiz back and forth across the wet turf.
“Ball side right! Ball center! Hold! Hold!” yelled Team Captain and Goalie Jeff Bertotti (’12, Anthropology) as he directed players to defend the goal.
A twice-weekly routine for the nineteen members of Humboldt State University’s Lacrosse Club, the practice takes on an added intensity this week as players gear up for their annual alumni game Oct. 22 in Redwood Bowl.
For the third year in a row, lacrosse club alumni and current players will come together for a weekend of camaraderie and friendly competition.
This year’s game takes on a special significance as players honor former club member Will Yavorsky (’00, Natural Resources and Interpretation) who anchored the lacrosse club from 1996 to 2000 and passed away this summer after a two-year battle with cancer.
“It’s been a tradition for us to bring players together for the alumni game every year,” says Head Coach and Sociology Professor Tony Silvaggio. “But it takes on a special significance this year as we honor and remember Will and the contributions he made to lacrosse at HSU.”
Humboldt’s lacrosse club was started by two freshmen in 1983. Called the Humboldt Hogs, the club began playing in the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL) in 1985. The team reached its peak in the ’90s before being dropped from the WCLL in in 1998. Silvaggio, an east coast transplant, re-started the club in 2007 in an attempt to kindle the type of athleticism and bonding he experienced playing the sport in upstate New York.
Traditionally a Native American game celebrating the changing of the seasons, lacrosse first became popular on the east coast but has gained traction throughout the country in recent years.
With its physicality and speed, the sport attracts a certain athlete, Midfielder Cesar Lopez (’13, International Studies) says.
“It’s a sport that has contact,” Lopez says. “I wasn’t about to play football because those guys are three times my weight, size.”
Bertotti agrees: “In lacrosse, you don’t have to be the biggest guy, but you can still be one best and fastest players.”
Most of the club’s members played sports – soccer, hockey, baseball – in high school and were looking for a physical outlet outside of class. But many had never picked up a lacrosse stick.
Lopez grew up in Los Angeles and only played for a month before coming to HSU. He spent his entire freshman year learning how a play works.
“Where I was supposed to stand on the field during a play – that took me a year to learn,” he says.
Now in his fourth year, it has become instinctive. “I’ve been doing this for so many years now,” Lopez says. “I love it. It’s like a brotherhood.”
Humboldt State University has both men’s and women’s collegiate club lacrosse programs. The men’s team is a member of the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association competing in the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL) division. The women’s club competes in the North D2 division of the Western Women’s Lacrosse League (WWLL).
Those interested in joining must enroll in the Intercollegiate Club Lacrosse class through HSU. For more information on the team, or joining, email avs1@humboldt.edu or visit www.humboldtlacrosse.org.