As a teenager, Christopher’s Athletic Director Darren Yafai dreamed of playing lacrosse. He knew the game inside and out, learning all the skills from his father, who had played in Canada. He frequently talked lacrosse with Gary Podesta—the head coach of the Santa Clara University team at the time—during his shift at Nob Hill where he bagged groceries. There was only one thing stopping Yafai from playing—Gilroy didn’t have a team.
It wasn’t until he went to college that Yafai had the chance to experience lacrosse in all its glory. He played for Chico State all four years—alongside head football coach Tim Pierleoni—and fell deeper in love with the game. Upon returning to Gilroy, the desire to start a team burned even brighter. Yafai tried to bring the sport to Gilroy High, but was met with several obstacles. He was told there were already several sports offered, that lacrosse is dangerous and would be hard to insure and there was doubt there would be much interest in it.
When he was named Athletic Director at Christopher, however, all that changed.
Yafai approached then principal John Perelas with his desire to start a lacrosse program and was given the green light.
Game on
Christopher added the program five years ago and was the first school—and so far only—in South County to jump on the lacrosse bandwagon and it’s getting more and more popular with each passing year. What started out as a junior varsity-only team has grown into two squads—varsity and JV—consisting of more than 60 athletes.
“Really the biggest way I’ve seen it grow is the amount of kids that are involved—not only at our school, but all over the place,” head coach Tim Pirozzoli said. “More and more teams every year are popping up, which is great for competition and the availability of games.
That was the biggest thing in the beginning was figuring out where we were going to play. Sometimes that meant we were traveling kind of far, but more and more local teams are coming into the league so that’s a great thing.”
Pirozzoli, a Gilroy native, played lacrosse at the club level at University of the Pacific. Upon his return to the South County, he coached a club team in Morgan Hill. But hearing that Christopher had added lacrosse was music to his ears and having an AD with a background like Yafai’s was just the icing on the cake.
The first game ever played by the Cougar lacrosse team—still just the JV team at this point—was just a nighttime scrimmage against Pacific Grove and R.L. Stevenson. The team had just three weeks of practice heading into the game and it was far from perfect, but to Yafai it was a dream coming to life.
“It didn’t look pretty, but I just remember being giddy with excitement thinking that this was so historic,” the AD said. “There’s Gilroy kids, in Christopher High jerseys, running around playing lacrosse. …That was kind of my real feel good moment was that first scrimmage we ever had.”
Trying something new
Getting the sport at the school was only half the battle. The challenge of recruiting players was and still is a prominent problem. Unlike football, basketball and baseball, most of the athletes have little to no exposure with lacrosse and in turn, they shy away from it.
Such was the case with senior midfielder Dillon Romero. While lacrosse peaked his interested, he decided to stick with golf and football his freshman year. His friends, however, did try it out and were quick to tell him how much they loved it. Romero joined the team his sophomore year and became hooked. In fact, he hopes to continue his lacrosse career with Cal Poly this fall. But if all else fails, he said he’ll continue playing with their club team.
Romero said he’s tried recruiting the underclassmen, but is still met with apprehension. His advice for interested Cougars? Come try it for yourself.
“I’m not that big and I play a position where there’s a lot of bigger guys,” he said. “It’s more skill level than your size, so keep practicing—practice your passes and things like that. Once you have your fundamentals down, the sport comes a lot easier.”
Christopher has just three seniors on its varsity squad, the rest of the team is almost exclusively juniors like Anthony Summit. Summit has played lacrosse all three years and was drawn to it because it differed so greatly from baseball, which he had played his entire life. For him, the greatest challenge wasn’t learning a new sport, but playing teams who have years of experience on him.
“(The challenge is) playing teams that are really good,” Summit said. “Our team works together and we have a pretty good time playing. It’s a lot more aggressive—a lot of contact.”
The season hasn’t gone quite the way Christopher had hoped, but it is an improvement. The Cougars have five wins under their belt this season, the latest of which was a 10-8 win over Watsonville on May 1. As new, inexperienced faces join the squad growing pains are to be expected. The key to success, Pirozzoli said, is getting athletes earlier exposure to lacrosse and Yafai agrees.
“I think the next step is for us to continue to get better as a program, have our guys begin to play at a younger age,” Yafai said. “That’s the next step is for younger kids, maybe middle school kids or even younger, begin to learn the game. Right now we’re in a phase where kids are learning lacrosse as freshman and sophomores. It’d be nice if we could maybe develop a youth program where they can learn at a younger age.”
