His Space // editorial
‘GO IN AND GET A SHOVEL’
F
Reporting for duty at the new US Lacrosse headquarters
irst, there was one room — a large room to the right of the lobby of the Larry Goldfarb gym at Johns Hopkins. That was the home of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame and the Lacrosse Foundation.
Steve Stenersen worked there. So did three or four others. There were always volunteers around. I referred to Stenersen in the Baltimore Evening Sun as “head of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.” He called to correct me. “Please,” he
said, “that makes it sound like I go around all day dusting statues.
Our primary function is growing and promoting the sport.” The Foundation had its
moments, such as the Lacrosse Classic, a weekend featuring games between college all- stars, club champions, youth teams, etc., all held at Hopkins’ Homewood Field. The Classic drew some 10,000 spectators one night. I was among them. Volunteers such as Mickey Webster, Jimmy Grieves, Nolan Rogers and Hanlon Murphy worked themselves into a frazzle. Then came a major
breakthrough — a new home in a standalone building beside Homewood Field. I retired from the newspaper and joined the Lacrosse Foundation staff Jan. 2, 1996. There were nine employees. It had snowed the night before. As I walked up to the building, there was one person outside. It was Stenersen, shoveling snow. “Go in and get a shovel,” he said, my fi rst order from my new boss.
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As the membership and the number of employees grew, we were tripping over ourselves in the offi ce. An auditorium was converted to workspaces. So was the storage room downstairs. Then in 1998, the Foundation became US Lacrosse, the national governing body of the sport, offi cially welcoming seven other groups, including women’s and offi cials’ organizations. We outgrew the building so quickly that half the employees started working in a 19th-century police station a mile away — then in offi ces at a hotel across the street from headquarters. Then came the day all of us had long awaited — May 16, 2016. It was the fi rst day for the US Lacrosse staff, now with more than 80 employees, to report for work at our new home in Sparks, Md. I drove up York Road, then made a left turn and there it was — the shiny three-story building that will be the home of US Lacrosse for many years to come. There was one person outside in the parking lot — Steve Stenersen, the president and CEO. Jody Martin, an old hand at US Lacrosse whose title is now senior manager of facilities, proudly showed me the new offi ces, William Tierney Field, the locker rooms, meeting rooms. Susie Chase and her development team raised $15 million from private donors to fund all of this. The offi cial grand opening is Sept. 9-11. I wish all 450,000 US Lacrosse members could be there.
BOOMBAH LACROSSE
— Bill Tanton
btanton@uslacrosse.org September/October 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 15
©JOHN STROHSACKER
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