History
Subscribe to our NewsletterOur Founding
Trenton Lacrosse was started by the Bobby Campbell Lacrosse Foundation. Bobby Campbell was a former head coach of Princeton High School, as well as a top-caliber lacrosse player for Princeton High and Penn State, who died in a car accident in 1999. Started by his friends, teammates and former coach, the Bobby Campbell Lacrosse Foundation (BCLF) was established as a 501 (c)(3) public charity to support and promote high school and youth lacrosse in Central New Jersey. BCLF aspires to honor Bobby's dream that lacrosse should be available to and played by all.
With this in mind, the Foundation began to plan a lacrosse program for Trenton (originally called Trenton BRIDGE Lacrosse) in August of 2005 and fielded the first teams in spring of 2006.
[insert comments from Ken Foulk. Also, include the Trenton YMCA and Boys & Girls Club involvement.]
[insert comments from Ken Foulk. Also, include the Trenton YMCA and Boys & Girls Club involvement.]
2006-2011 The Early Days
Two videos that were made in our first year (2006). Each are about 3 1/2 minutes. The first aired on CSTV (now CBS Sports Network) at halftime of a Syracuse-Colgate game and the other was on MSG Network as a feature on their weekly lacrosse show. The link to those two videos is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb6VvJNG1JY
The third video "Trenton BRIDGE Lacrosse" was made ~2011. It was intended to be a recruiting video and was done with a grant from US Lacrosse. That link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggA62jb7wps
2012 through Today!
2011:
The first Princeton Turkey Shootout takes place. This event was organized by Jack Ruddy of Princeton to raise money for the Trenton Lacrosse program. Jack's vision was to play lacrosse games with more of a pick-up style basketball game feel. Many teams represent their local town program, but some teams are formed amongst lacrosse buddies who make up their own team nick-name. Many high school players also volunteer to help coach teams. The Turkey Shootout took place in the Fall of every year from 2011 to 2016. [We'd love to see it return in the future!]
Somewhere around 2012, the program hit a rough spot. Around this time, Doug Donaldson, got involved.
Doug says when he went to the first practice, he found Coach Tim Ainsle, at the practice field with about 8 boys total.
[also mention involvement of Coach Tyrell Williams]
~2014:
~20 kids signed up for Trenton Bridge Lacrosse. Trish Long gets involved after signing her Kindergartener up to play.
~2015:
name changed from Trenton Bridge Lacrosse, to simply, Trenton Lacrosse, ~ 40 kids signed up. One scrimmage was scheduled for the boys. That game was cancelled due to bad weather!
~2016:
Enter Coach Jack McDonald.
~ 60 kids in grades K-8 played that year with ~5 games for the boys.
3rd and 4th grade boys play in the Bobblehead Tournament in PA.
2017:
Doug and Trish work with Leah Hall-Hansen & Rob Connor at nearby Christina Seix Academy (CSA) to get their 4th grade boys and girls involved.
80 kids! 60 boys and 20 girls
Kids play ~10 games (as part of the Central Jersey Youth Lacrosse League and Bobblehead League for the younger boys)
2018:
Isaiah Coleman from CSA joins the coaching ranks and Jack meets Terry Laszyn, 4th grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Trenton and former Rider University lax player, who then joins the coaching ranks.
70 boys:
2/3/4 team plays 7 games
5/6 team plays 8 games
7/8 team plays 6 games
For the girls, Coach Aleta Ricciardi gets involved.
Trenton Lacrosse and friends write an application and succeed in being admitted to US Lacrosse's Urban Lacrosse Alliance. As part of the deal, the team gets 25 new helmets!
2019:
March - Trenton Lacrosse hosts a free Sankofa Series clinic to introduce kids to the game. The folks at Centercourt help us out with field space and US Lacrosse provides instructors and 30 free sticks for boys and 30 free sticks for girls. All-in-all, an awesome event!
Our older boys participate for the first time in Central Jersey Lacrosse League tournaments and All Star Games.
Hoping that our program grows and gets stronger in 2020 and beyond!!
