Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 1/20/11
The second release of the Philadelphia Wings “Tip of the Week” video will be delivered Friday by a player whose Philly roots run deep.
John Christmas has long been considered one of the greatest players ever to come out of Philadelphia. Now, in his fifth season as a member of the Wings, he has enjoyed success at all levels as a player, coach and a leader in the lacrosse world.
Christmas first built his legacy at Lower Merion High (322 career points) where he was a three-time All-American, the first in state history. He led the Aces to their last state title, in 1999. He then starred at the University of Virginia where he was a two-time USILA All-American (95 career goals) and helped lead the Cavaliers to the 2003 NCAA Division I Championship.
Christmas was selected by the Philadelphia Wings in the fifth round (49th overall) of the 2005 National Lacrosse League Entry Draft. He has become one of the most popular players on the team – perhaps mostly because of his work in the inner-city.
In 2009, Christmas and Eric Gregg founded the LEAPS lacrosse program, a non-profit created to build lacrosse programs in the inner-city of Philadelphia and beyond. He decided to take off a year of playing NLL lacrosse to get the project started off right.
In the two years of operation, LEAPS has teamed with several other organizations to build a strong infrastructure of lacrosse in the city through youth clinics and camps, professional development and training in the Philadelphia public schools, and help in development of the first high school league for boys and girls.
Christmas also has played six years in Major League Lacrosse with the Boston Cannons and Chesapeake Bayhawks. Last year he was a volunteer assistant coach at Penn and he also has served as a volunteer coach at Lower Merion and continues to coach with the nationally-ranked Duke’s Lacrosse Club.
Christmas currently owns and runs 141Lacrosse, a lacrosse training business. He also is co-owner of Triple H lacrosse, which provides specialized lacrosse instruction.
Look for tomorrow’s Wings “Tip of the Week” by John Christmas. The first tip was delivered by the Wings Bill McGlone. All of the Tip of the Week videos can be accessed by clicking here.
