The Nanuet Lacrosse Alumni Association held its third annual alumni game Saturday at Nanuet High School. Read this to see last year's alumni game.
More than 40 past lacrosse players returned to play in the men’s and women’s alumni games. The money raised goes into scholarships for a current male and female lacrosse player at Nanuet. They have to write an essay about what lacrosse means to them, and the association boards reads through them and picks the two winners.
The scholarship is named for Dale Abeling, a former physical education teacher, who also coached football and lacrosse at Nanuet.
“Coach Abeling was a great coach and a better person,” said one alumni who wished to not give his name. “He did great things for the program and the school. I think a big reason many of us come back to play in the game is because of him.”
The men and women switched off playing halves of their separate games, with one team wearing black mesh Nanuet lacrosse jerseys and the other wearing white. The men took a little while to get going, tied at 1 at the half. The scoring opened up a bit after the break, and the game ended in a 4-4 tie thanks to a goal by the black team with 32 seconds to go.
The women connected a bunch of goals much quicker, with the white team holding a 4-3 advantage at the half and building it to a 9-6 lead in the second half. The black team made a run, cutting it to 9-8 with less than a minute to go, but their last efforts fell just short.
“It’s always fun to get out there play again. Many of us haven’t played since college,” said Tara Lahm, one of the committee members for the association. “We still all love to play.”
She said this year’s turnout was a bit smaller than the previous two years, especially on the women’s side, where they didn’t have many subs and used players from the men’s game in goal for each side.
“Still, I think we had a pretty good amount of people come for the game,” she said. “More importantly, it’s good to raise money for some current lacrosse players. We all loved playing lacrosse at Nanuet, and it meant a lot to us. It’s nice to help out the program and make sure it stays at the top.”
