University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Lacrosse Makes Giving To The Community A Team Mantra
August 10, 2010 | Men's Lacrosse
Aug. 10, 2010
By Turner Walston
This story originally appeared in Tar Heel Monthly
After the final regular season game of the 2010 season, Carolina men's lacrosse attackman Conor Steidle said goodbye to his coach before starting to walk off the field. "Hey, why don't you stay and sign some autographs for these kids?" Joe Breschi said to the freshman. He gestured toward a group of first and second-graders, members of the Raleigh Rage Lightning and Rage Thunder and had capped their own seasons with a halftime game on Fetzer Field.
"Sure thing," Steidle responded, dropping his stick to oblige the young fans. It was but a moment in time, but the interaction was exemplary of the renewed commitment Carolina's men's lacrosse program has made to its community.
`Family, Academics, Lacrosse,' is the philosophy that Breschi, a 1990 Carolina alumnus, brought to Chapel Hill when he became head coach after 11 seasons at Ohio State. "I think the guys have really embraced the philosophy and approach of the coaching staff," he says. "Broadening your horizons, and being a better person in the community is what we're looking at doing."
Breschi's goal is to help his players recognize the opportunities that lacrosse has afforded them, and to use their platform to give back. "It's OK to give back," he says. "It's OK to be involved." In the two seasons under Breschi, the lacrosse team has taken on a number of projects.
The coach brought the 2nd and 7 Foundation, founded by three former Ohio State football players to combat illiteracy, with him from Columbus. And like many Carolina athletic teams, the lacrosse program adopts families over the Christmas holidays. In his first year as head coach, Breschi used the process to ground some of his new players. "I strategically picked a couple of guys that I felt would benefit from that experience," he says. "The two of them came back, and there were almost tears in their eyes, because this single mother of four, they were going to have a Christmas. They came back, and they said, `Coach, that was the best experience I've ever had.'"
In two short years, Breschi has seen the `Family, Academics, Lacrosse' philosophy transform his program. When he first came to Chapel Hill, he spearheaded all the team's community relations projects. Today, his players that are taking on initiatives of their own. "Now, it's developed into, `I've got an idea, Coach, what if we did this?' I said `Attack it.'"
Senior captain Michael Jarvis saw the devastation from the January earthquake in Haiti and wanted to do something to help. "I realized that it was already the poorest country in this hemisphere, and the devastation was going to be incredible," he said. Jarvis and Cryder DiPietro created and developed `Heels for Haiti' wristbands. Each team member was charged with selling five wristbands for a $5 donation. With help from the Campus Y and other student groups, the team raised more than $4,000 for the earthquake relief effort.
Connecting with the campus group Carolina Dreams, the team has partnered with the UNC Children's Hospital to roll the Kids Cart to patients' rooms. There, they deliver ice cream and coloring books. "Every once in a while, you get a kid who's a huge Tar Heel fan, and they just light up, and they're really super-excited that Tar Heel athletes have come to visit them," says sophomore Logan Corey.
Community service projects are wonderful, but a team's ultimate mission is to win games. Breschi wouldn't be coaching long if his teams weren't producing on the field. After a 12-6 season in 2009, the Tar Heels reeled off ten straight wins to open the 2010 campaign. They finished the regular season at 12-2 and second in the hyper-competitive ACC. The coach and players believe that the `Family, Academics, Lacrosse' philosophy has helped them determine priorities and translated to team success in the sport.
Corey remembers the team preparing luminaries at Ronald McDonald House around the holidays his freshman year. "We had 40 guys in this huge pile of sand, and it was almost like we were playing in a big sandbox. We were just having fun with each other, and still being super-efficient with the sandbagging," he says. "I feel like on the field, when we're chasing after balls and seeing each other, it's really an aspect of having fun and of doing work also."
Junior Milton Lyles says prioritizing lacrosse third - though the sport defines his role on campus - has helped him understand life's balance. "We didn't really have that structure before," he says. "But now, since family and academics are our two main priorities, we can look back and see how much time we spend on lacrosse, and then put forth that much more effort into the family and academic part of this whole student lacrosse experience."
In establishing his vision for the program, Breschi says `Family, Academics, Lacrosse' - in that order - are the cornerstones. He frowns upon showering too much attention on a single individual in a team sport. So while several Tar Heels have received individual accolades (five were named All-America in 2009), they all understand how to work within the team concept. "Not one guy on this team is bigger than the program. Nobody is bigger than the entire family, and we wanted to bring that atmosphere along." The dynamic is clear when the Tar Heels break the huddle chanting, `Family!' "It's not just one guy that wins a game or makes a play," Breschi says. "It's everybody else that's a part of it."
After each win, Breschi names an honorary captain. At the practice immediately prior to the next game, the honorary captain speaks on what it's like to be a Tar Heel lacrosse player. Jimmy Dunster had the honor before the Tar Heels hosted Maryland in late March. Dunster spoke of representing his school when he goes home to Connecticut. "Every kid in the neighborhood wants to see him, and play catch with him," Breschi says. "They all want to see Jimmy Dunster because he plays for UNC." After the Maryland game, the team held an autograph session for children, and Dunster encouraged his teammates to give up their time and sign every autograph.
"They sat around for an additional hour as every kid came by," said Dave King, a youth lacrosse coach in Raleigh. The Tar Heels gave their time and more to the children. If they didn't give the shirts off their backs, it was close. "They signed sticks, shirts, balls, hats, you name it. One kid got Sean DeLaney's socks, and it made his year."
Breschi says it's his job to make sure that his players value their experiences as much as those young people do. "I try to send that message every day, and I know a lot of guys get it. That is one message that we pound away at constantly. I'm trying to get everybody to appreciate what they have, so they can give back to the community and give back to this university. I think it's awesome."
In the fall, team members gave lacrosse clinics in the Triangle and in Henderson and Winston-Salem. Breschi sees the camps and the youth games at halftime as an opportunity for his team to promote the game and its players. "You can act like the big man on campus, or you can go out and do good, and use your spotlight for a greater cause. My goal is for our players to be known as a team that gives back as opposed to a team that sticks out their chests and says, `Look at me, I'm an athlete.'"
Portraying themselves in a positive light is of utmost importance when representing the game and the university in front of impressionable children. "These kids will remember this experience and the fact that they met some of these great players," King says of his youth players. "It sears this game into their hearts a little bit more than it might otherwise."
On April 10, the second-ranked Tar Heels traveled to East Rutherford, New Jersey to take on No. 1 Virginia. Carolina fought back from a 5-0 deficit but could not complete the comeback, losing for the first time in 2010, 7-5. "I told the guys, we may have lost the game, but there were three people - a stewardess, a person at the gate, and a parent - who said `I just want to let you know that your kids are the nicest kids. They are so kind.' We had one kid who carried a lady's bags at the hotel. It's those types of things that let you know they're getting it. I told my staff, `We're winning.'"
