Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/5/11
Staff Report
Four top club programs participated in a U15 Playday Sunday at Cabrini College to help promote the LEAPS lacrosse program.
The event, hosted by the Duke’s Lacrosse Triple H program, featured a round robin tourney with the Long Island Express, Tri-State (N.J.) and Connecticut’s CT Chargers.
The Duke’s team is coached by Billy McKinney and Eric Gregg, two directors of LEAPS, a non-profit program that for three years has been building lacrosse programs in underserved areas of the region. LEAPS collected a large box of gently used equipment and Duke’s players wore LEAPS pinnies to help promote the cause.
“We wanted to promote LEAPS,” said McKinney, the Director of Operations at LEAPS. “We had a ton of families out here and they ask about LEAPS. Our kids are wearing LEAPS pinnies.
“We brought a box to fill up and it is overflowing with equipment. This will help us equip more teams and get more teams playing.”
LEAPS, founded by McKinney, Gregg and John Christmas, has worked extensively in Philadelphia public schools as consultants and guest trainers teachers during physical education classes. Last year the directors worked with 50,000 students in 32 high schools introducing the sport. Budget cuts, however, have halted their efforts in the schools.
LEAPS continues to holds clinics and camps at the local level in all areas of the city. Click here for the LEAPS website at leapslax.org.
On the lacrosse field Sunday, the Duke’s Triple H team lost only a tight game to the LI Express, a traditional power. Each team played three games. After the tourney, the Duke’s L.C. freshman and sophomore teams squared off.
“We wanted to have the event to evaluate kids in a game-like setting,” said McKinney. “That’s hard to do in tryouts when all you can do is 1-on-1s and 4-on-4s. With the other three clubs involved, we had some of the best teams in the country.”
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