The Londonderry School District’s fields were overflowing with young players Saturday and Sunday, June 13 and 14, as a huge influx of people arrived for the New Hampshire Youth Lacrosse Association’s (NHYLA) annual year-end festival.
The event drew teams, players, and their supporters from nearly all segments of the Granite State, and dozens of Londonderry squads partook of the festival atmosphere and intense and fun competition.
NHYLA president Steve Tieland and the many volunteers who made the 2015 festival possible had plenty of work to do before and during the event. But the excitement exuding from the folks involved certainly spurred their efforts on.
“We had a few new things this year,” said Tieland. “The first was we awarded team sportsmanship awards. One was the Doug Maynard Boys’ Team Sportsmanship Award, and another was the Steve Arkell Girls’ Team Sportsmanship Award. The Derry U-9A boys won the Maynard award, and the Plymouth U-13B team won the girls’ award.”
Both of those awards were presented during the festival. And the group’s president was also enthused about announcing his group’s new relationship with a cancer organization.
“The second new thing is that we partnered this season with the National Foundation for Cancer Research and had the festival be a Play4TheCure event, with the teams doing some fundraising for cancer research,” he said.
There were Londonderry teams competing in every one of the age groups and divisions, including the Londonderry Cougars (U-9 boys); the Londonderry Jaguars (U-9 boys); the Londonderry U-9 Vipers’ and Cobras’ girls’ squads; the Londonderry Razors (U-11 boys); the Londonderry Lynx (U-11 boys); the Londonderry Huskies (U-11 boys); the Londonderry Falcons (U-13 boys); the Londonderry Hawks (U-13 boys); the Londonderry Ravens (U-13 boys); the Londonderry U-13 girls; the Londonderry Warriors (U-15 boys); the Londonderry Wolves (U-15 boys), and the Londonderry U-15 girls.