Charlene Zarnik
Lifespan Human Development
Community Service Project
Spring 2009
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Junior Hoyas U15 Lacrosse Club; affiliation of the
Harrison High School Men’s Lacrosse Teams
The head coach is Michael Smith (His cell number is
included in the journal information.)
Reference 1: jrhoyas@yahoo.com
The players practice on the back field of
Bullard Elementary School in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Most games are played on away game fields and only a
few are home at the Harrison High School’s stadium
field.
The address of Harrison High School is
4500 Due West Road, Kennesaw,
Georgia, 30152.
Reference 2: http://www.hoyalacrosse.com/
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Reference 3: http://www.uslacrosse.org/
Originally, lacrosse was a Native American game
played to prepare men for battle. The men played
what we would consider tournaments that lasted
for days and sometimes to the death.
Today, lacrosse is played primarily in northeastern
United States and Canada. However, it is said to be
the fastest growing sport in the United States.
Many colleges, universities and high schools have
lacrosse programs.
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Middle school and high school boys’ recreational
travel sports team; grades 6 through 9
27 boys, ages 12 through 14 years old
Boys attend both Cobb County Public Schools and
private schools in the West Cobb area
◦ Lost Mountain Middle School
◦ McClure Middle School
◦ Durham Middle School
◦ Mount Paran Christian School
All boys have previous lacrosse experience
There is 1 head coach and 4 assistant coaches
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In boys lacrosse, each team fields ten players; one goalie, three
defenders, three midfielders, and three attackmen.
At the U15 level, there are two sizes of lacrosse sticks. The defensemen
always have a lacrosse stick six feet long. Sometimes midfielders can
too. The rest of the sticks are 40 to 42 inches long and the goalie has a
stick with a much larger head to catch the balls shot on goal.
Mandatory equipment for all players includes sticks, shoulder pads,
chest protectors, gloves, colored mouth guards, athletic cups, and
helmets. Goalies have more protective body gear and helmets.
Usually the game is played in four quarter periods each being 12
minutes long. Tournament games are usually played with 2 halves each
being 20 minutes long.
Penalties are called for aggressive behavior including slashes with
lacrosse sticks, pushing, and tripping. The penalties are usually 30 to 60
seconds long. A penalty for not wearing a mouth guard is usually a 2
minute unreleasable penalty.
Lacrosse resembles basketball, soccer and hockey in its method of play.
The object of the game is to shoot a lacrosse ball into the opponents’
net.
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The Junior Hoyas is a newly organized junior lacrosse team in West
Cobb. Prior to this year, there was only one organization that
sponsored the middle school and elementary teams in West Cobb, the
West Cobb Lacrosse Club.
Last summer, the area middle and high school coaches came together
to reorganize the lacrosse programs. Four high school lacrosse
organizations decided to create their own junior programs. The Junior
Hoyas is one of these teams.
The goal of this new reorganization of teams is to create a feeder
program for the high school teams where the high school lacrosse
coaches have the ability to directly support those feeder teams.
Throughout the season, high school lacrosse players are encouraged
to assist the junior programs and practices to include the junior
varsity, varsity, and junior teams are scheduled.
Finally, all four teams to include the Junior Hoyas (Harrison High
School), Junior Bucs (Allatoona High School), Junior Mustangs
(Kennesaw Mountain High School), and Junior Hawks (Hillgrove High
School) come together for a mini West Cobb game day at the end of
the season.
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The registration fee for the Junior Hoyas team is $325 per
player; to include:
◦ Rental of a team helmet, two game jerseys, and gloves per
player,
◦ Ownership of two pairs of team practice shorts, two pairs of
game shorts, one shooting shirt, one practice pinny, a
hooded sweatshirt, and sweatpants per player,
◦ Rental fees for an equipment storage facility, a practice field
with lights,
◦ Referee fees for games,
◦ Registration fees for area tournaments,
◦ Equipment such as goals and nets, practice cones, and
lacrosse balls, and
◦ Coaches’ trainings.
 Players are also responsible for registering with the US
Lacrosse organization who provides player injury insurance;
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the fee is $35 per player.
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The staff of this organization consists of volunteer coaches who
have either coached or played lacrosse previously.
The head coach is Michael Smith who works closely with the
Harrison High School coaches to organize this junior team.
He assists with the registration of players, ordering equipment, and
the scheduling of games, practices, tournaments, and referees.
The head coach’s role is to lead the team at practices, to be the
only “speaking coach” on the sidelines during games, communicate
with referees during games, and communicate directly with the
coaches of the opposing teams.
The head coach is also responsible for direct communication with
the players’ parents.
There are four assistant coaches who are fathers of four of the
players on the team.
The assistant coaches help during the practices by running drills
and monitoring scrimmages.
The assistant coaches run the practices in the absence of the head
coach.
All five coaches attend lacrosse coaches’ training sessions provided
during the season.
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Parent Team Coordinator; parent-team communication, fundraising,
uniform distribution, etc.
Sideline Monitor (games and some practices)
First Aid Services Provider
Game Statistician and Timer
In a position such as team coordinator, there
are more hours clocked in behind the scenes
than on the field with the players. The task
includes supporting the coaches and that
takes on many responsibilities from stocking first aid kits,
spending hours picking up new uniforms and deciding which
players get what sizes, to supervising a fundraiser and then
collecting the money at the end of it all. There were many
emails back and forth to the head coach and then information distributed to the parents.
Finally, there was some time spent with the players taking care of the necessities of life like
taping up scraped knees and filling water bottles. The best of times were the moments
cheering from the sidelines and sharing team stats with the coaches and players.
“It’s all good!”
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Reference 4: Tyler's Junior Hoyas Interview
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The following slides include
information regarding what I
witnessed in my encounters
with adolescent boys during
my service project
experience.
The information was
obtained from the text,
Human Development, by
Diane Papalia, Sally Olds, and
Ruth Feldman, 11th edition,
(2009), as well as other
resources provided by the
course instructor.
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Body types are so different during adolescence as bodies begin to develop and mature
differently and at different rates.
Adolescents become overly self-aware of their body changes.
Adolescents spend much of their time in their own world very disengaged from adults.
However, they become egocentric in a way that they think everyone is interested in their
thoughts and ideas.
Adolescents believe that no one has ever thought or felt what they have.
Adolescents experience moodiness and emotionality to include emotional outbursts
which may be associated with hormonal development and the different way they process
information as compared to adults.
Adolescents engage in risky behavior that is believed to result from a socio-emotional
network that responds to social and emotional stimuli; peer influence.
The cognitive-control network necessary to check and balance decision making does not
develop until early adulthood.
Immature brain development may interfere with a teen’s ability to regard warnings and
make logical decisions.
Adolescents need to develop ways of organizing their thoughts, understanding abstract
concepts, and controlling impulses so that they prepare neural foundations necessary to
be capable adults.
The experiences and activities of adolescents help to shape the cognitive growth and
development in those areas.
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Other changes occur that affect adolescents’ sleep patterns, eating patterns, levels of
stress and patterns of physical activity.
Adolescents who regularly exercise are more unlikely to participate in risky behaviors than
those who do not.
The capacity of working memory increases in adolescents which helps them to deal with
complex problems that have multiple pieces of information.
Although cognitive abilities that help to gather, understand, and process complex
information do increase in adolescents, motivation and emotionality interfere with the
level and speed in which these processes occur.
Friends affect how adolescents make moral decisions.
Higher moral reasoning ability in adolescents is associated with close friendships and
being perceived as a leader.
Although adolescents turn to their peers for companionship and role models, they rely on
their parents for security and safety.
Adolescents may reject directions and suggestions made by their parents in their quest for
autonomy.
They begin to question or challenge principles that do not fit their views.
Adolescents begin to focus on what is possible rather than reality.
In learning situations, they prefer hands-on methods and manipulatives to reading
textbooks.
They tend to become frustrated when they cannot understand a concept because they
fixate on the fact that they cannot understand and not what the content is that they need
to understand.
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As I watched these boys mature on the field and learn how to handle
their sticks and control their reactions and emotions, I knew that the
goal of preparing these young players for high school play was
basically accomplished. The boys appreciated those practices when
they had the pleasure of working alongside the high school players
and being coached by the varsity high school coaches. They
definitely had great adult role models to look up to and great
players to aspire to be like.
Wins
Jr. Bucs
Jr. Jackets
Jr. Raptors
Jr. Longhorns
Jr. Mustangs
Jr. Hawks
Jr. Warriors
Jr. Kell
Jr. Loftus
Loses
Jr. Greyhounds
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The challenges for any fledgling organization
are the basic three elements; time, money,
and resources.
The inclement weather has been
unpredictable which has interfered with the
team’s outdoor practice and game schedules.
The greatest challenge has been not having
an adequate field to host home games and
conflicting schedules with teams who share
the same practice fields.
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If the team had unlimited funds to spend, the first purchase made would be a
turf stadium field. Next to the field would be an indoor practice facility that
included an indoor heated swimming pool with a jacuzzi, a workout/weight
room, locker rooms with showers, and a training room staffed with an
athletic trainer equipped with an EKG machine.
Next, a team statistician would be hired as well as an official time keeper,
and an announcer for the games.
Two coach buses would be purchased for traveling.
All new uniforms would be purchased.
Players would receive state of the art equipment to include matching team
lacrosse sticks, gloves, bags and helmets.
A scholarship program would be created if players were expected to pay the
registration fees.
Basic lacrosse equipment for girls and boys would be purchased and
provided to the elementary and middle schools in the area to help introduce
the sport to young children.
Finally, a Web designer would be hired to produce and manage the team’s
Website. A team photographer would also be hired to take both still shots
and video to be used for the team’s coaches’ review.
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http://www.laxpower.com/common/rules.php
http://www.laxpower.com/common/hs_boys.php
http://www.lacrosse.com/
http://www.youthlacrosseusa.com/youthnews/usla
crosseloangrantprograms.htm