Men’s summer lacrosse boasts 45 years of pick ’em up and put ’em down
Players show up on time – 5:30 more or less – for Wednesday night lacrosse, a tradition that goes back 45 years when the games were played on the Rehoboth field closest to the highway.
Moose Mohr was the mainstay commissioner and enforcer of rules during much of that time. For $10, you got a pinny entitling you to play.
The games welcomed college players and older athletes with a sprinkling of high school players who could hang. The game itself has gotten less physical over the years – it just became uncool to flatten a foe in a pickup lacrosse game.
The tradition continued with the first open-field games July 15 at Legends Stadium at Cape Henlopen High School. The majority of players are now younger and Cape connected, but all are welcome for some drop-in or drop-down lacrosse.
Cape lacrosse coach Mark D’Ambrogi is in charge of making sure pandemic protocols are followed. And Mark, now 52, takes a few runs in the game to uphold tradition, and he cautions all players from college to high school if they do something stupid.
“We don’t want kids learning bad habits,” Mark said. “And some of the college guys need to be reminded how to play smart.”
Two teams faced off over two extraordinary long halves, and by the end of the game, all players were still getting up and down the field.
Some former players from the Rehoboth days weighed in on Fredman’s Facebook page.
Skip Lyshon: “Goes back more than 25 years, Dave. Played in a few of those games in the late ’70s, early ’80s. Played in front of Steve Aubrey many times. He was a rock.”
Brett Gardiner: “I remember playing with Brent those years in Moose’s league. Also Chase Monroe and Dave Lowry, RBP guards from UVA. Bart Aldridge and a cast of other UD players. Moose detached his wooden trailer from his ball hitch one game when it was 100 degrees out. I stepped on the back of it looking for tape and the water coolers went flying. Had to drop the gloves and go around town to find ice water to fill them up again. No bueno that day.”
All players are coming off a lost season of lacrosse, and it’s obvious they just want to play and keep on playing.
The Legends Stadium turf is scheduled to be replaced and resurfaced in August, which will shut down Legends Stadium for a few weeks. The living and emerging legends will just find someplace else to play.
