MIA Lacrosse Players Learn Service at West Point

Marco Island Academy lacrosse coach Doug Hill loves lacrosse. But what he loves just as much is building his players into valuable members of the community. That’s why when the opportunity presented itself, Hill jumped at the chance to take five of his players to West Point this summer to participate in a four-day clinic directed by respected Army lacrosse coach Joe Alberici. 

“There's a part-time resident of Marco Island who coached lacrosse in Long Island,” Hill said, “His name is Tom Rotanz. Tom organized a Winter Classic in Naples the last couple of years where the U.S. Military Academy West Point lacrosse team came down and played at Paradise Coast Sports Complex. Tom was looking for sponsorship, and he reached out to local businessman Greg Pascale. Greg said to me, ‘Hey, this might be something that the boys could get involved with.' So I reached out to Tom Rotanz and asked him if there were any volunteer opportunities, because I always look for things for the boys to get involved in the community.” 

Rotanz turned over ticketing for the event to Hill, whose players also helped with cleanup, setup, and anything else that needed to be done. "We had a great experience,” Hill said. "I met Coach Alberici and really liked him. I introduced him to (MIA player) Noah Smith, and that started Noah's process on applying to be a cadet at the academy. He's in the process now. Then I learned about their camp and the fact that it was instructional. There's only about ten instructional camps for lacrosse left in the United States. So, the opportunity was great because for $860, room and board included, the kids got a four-day camp. They were able to play seven games, and they had 14 individual topic sessions.” 

Hill was delighted to bring a quintet of his Rays players to West Point. 

 “We were the second most represented school,” Hill said. "There was a group from the Bronx that had about nine very talented athletes there. We had about 100 kids in the 14-18 age group. It was an overall wonderful experience for the kids. They made new friends. We now have a school from Texas that wants to come during their spring break and play us and other teams in the area. It was an opportunity for the kids to branch out. One of our kids had only been as far away from home as Orlando. So for him, it was a big experience.” 

The camp was held during the heat wave that gripped the entire nation during July. 

“It was very hot there,” Hill said. “They implemented extra water breaks, shortened sessions, shortened games, just more rest because it was extremely hot there.” 

The players stayed in the same barracks that the Cadets live in. 

“They had to walk about five miles a day because they had to walk back and forth to the barracks from the fields,” Hill said. “And they had nine hours of camp. So they were very tired. The last night we stayed in the Thayer Hotel, a beautiful, historic hotel. That night we went out to dinner, and the boys were literally falling asleep while eating. They were dog tired. They had a great time. They bonded together as teammates, which is also great. We had two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and an incoming freshman." 

Part of the experience for the players was the invitation by Hill for them to keep a diary of their experiences. He even found military-issue journals that he inscribed with each player’s name. 

 “They were appreciative,” Hill said, "but I didn't pry and ask them what they wrote or whatever. A friend of mine is a retired colonel. He has a stack of these books from different operations. Every operation they have to write things down and the book is secret. They write classified information in them. So I gave them to these guys for that reason." 

A highlight of the camp was a speech that Alberici delivered to the campers. 

“Coach Alberici was around a lot,” Hill said, "and he did something very special at the end. He gave a speech he calls his Tough Guy speech. The message is that in life, it's important to be a tough guy - but not a tough guy in the sense that you're beating people up or being aggressive on the field. But a tough guy in that you make tough decisions. Like you make the decision to be respectful of the officials or your teammates or your coaches or your parents. You make the tough decision in school to study more, to get a higher grade. You know, 82 might be good enough, but if you can get a 90, why don't you do it? That's the tough thing to do. It's a tough guy making decisions about how you act. Imagine your grandmother is sitting there, would you say that to somebody? Be the tough guy by sticking up for the kid that is getting bullied. That's a tough guy thing to do. Be a tough guy by getting your friend to put his vape stick down and go to the gym or get outside and throw the ball. It's a great speech. Like he said, 'I can say one thing a million times or I can say a million things one time.' To be effective in life, it's all about persistence. Refining your skills through repetition. So really, I admire him as a coach. He's been there 20 years. He’s a wonderful human being. He's done a lot to help and serve others. That I always value.” 

So, what does Hill get out of his effort to take his players to a lacrosse camp over 1,300 miles away from Marco Island, and to put in the hard work it takes to build a lacrosse program at MIA? 

"My payoff is when I see a kid get excited and happy and feel good about himself because of something that they did, that they accomplished,” Hill said. "That's my payoff. All the coaches are volunteers. We all contribute to the program, and we do it because for me, somebody did that for me as a kid. Now it's my opportunity. I knew coming up the coaches would work with me. You always put in extra work after practice, before practice. And coaches would stick around. And they would work with me, help me. Because I had that experience, I like to do things for people, help people.  I like to serve my community and see the kids happy. That's the payoff.” 

Hill hopes attending the Army lacrosse camp will become a tradition for his program at MIA. But for now, he’s trying to increase his numbers. 

“Our goals are one, to grow the depth in the team,” he said. "Right now, we have about 16 kids committed for next season. We really want to see that number at 20-22. That's number one because the more players we have on the team, the more opportunity we have to improve. We have all different skill levels. The kids will have more confidence when we go and play Community School, who has 60 kids on the sideline and we have three. It's pretty daunting for the kids. 

“A second goal is getting the community more involved and coming out to watch games. I've had people tell me that they heard about it, they came out, they watched the game, and they loved it. They'd never seen a lacrosse game before because they're from Minnesota or Michigan or somewhere they don't have lacrosse. So, more community involvement is an objective. And the other way, having the team be more involved in supporting the community. Civil service. Not just getting the benefit of being able to play and go to the school and everything else, but actually giving back to their community. Planting that seed and teaching kids the joy of giving is very important to me. When they give and do for others without any kind of financial payment or any kind of benefit, when they feel that intangible of seeing the joy in someone else from something that they did, that's planting a seed for them to be servants in their community in the future. And that, to me, is extremely important."