History of Providence Lacrosse

      Providence Youth Lacrosse will celebrated our 34th anniversary during the 2010 season. The program was started in 1976 by Wayne Curtis, former Varsity Lacrosse coach at Moses Brown School. It was called Mini Lacrosse for many years. In 1983, Rob Hollis, former Moses Brown and current Providence Country Day Boys Varsity Head Coach took over the Mini Lacrosse program. As head Coach of Providence Youth Lacrosse Rob worked with players on an individual basis while each age bracket has at least two coaches who work with their teams.

      Many Mini Lacrosse players have gone on to be successful high school and college players. At least 10 high school All-Americans can trace their careers back to Mini Lacrosse. Several Mini players have gone on to play at Brown and several have been team captains, including one of the 2000 captains, Zach MacDonald. Sean Woods, a Mini Lacrosse graduate who played at PCD was an Assistant Coach at Brown who assumed the same position at Washington College for the 2004 season. Other former Brown players include Jamie Munroe (All-American and current Head Coach at Denver University), Neil Munroe, Bernie Buonanno, and Tom Gagnon. Other Mini players include Tom Pendergast who played at Harvard, Jeff Barrows who at one time held the scoring record at Franklin and Marshall, and Greg Baldwin who played at Wesleyan. Chris Rotelli, a two time All-American, captain of the University of Virginia 2003 national championship team, and Boston Cannons Midfielder, was both a player and coach for Mini Lacrosse. He won the Tewarton award for the best male college player in the country in 2003.

      In recent years the program became part of Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League which is part of RILAX (Rhode Island Chapter of US LAcrosse). Run over the past years by the efforts of Newell Thomas, Jim Gilbane and most importantly Tony Spirito. The tradition and spirit of Providence Mini Lax lives on in Providence Youth Lacrosse. Joining the program in 2005 Providence included Girls teams making Lacrosse available to both girls and boys between the ages of 7 and 15 in Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, East Providence, and Seekonk.

      Providence Youth Lacrosse is in close contact with, and uses the resources of these great local lacrosse programs: Brown University, Providence College, Bryant University

Girls Lacrosse Rules:   http://www.uslacrosse.org/the_sport/girls_rules.phtml

Boys Lacrosse Rules:   http://www.uslacrosse.org/the_sport/boys_rules.phtml