“I was a straight-up lacrosse junkie.”
This might sound like something Pookie from New Jack City might say, but it’s actually from Dr. Fred Opie, a man who loves lacrosse like it was a drug.
For him, lacrosse became the vehicle by which he toured through the trials of life.
Most Black athletes have resumes featuring traditional sports such as football, basketball, track and field or baseball. Rarely do you see lacrosse and hockey.
But that’s exactly what’s Dr. Opie’s featured.
His journey began after his parents moved north from Ossining in upstate New York to Croton-on-Hudson, NY, where his mother was from. That gave his family more opportunities and more exposure to more things, such as sports like soccer, lacrosse and hockey.
He fell in love with hockey in the 5th grade and played it through middle school as a club sport. He also picked up lacrosse, which he felt was an easy transition because of the hand-eye skills required in both.
But as he approached high school, he recognized his path resided not on the ice but on grass.
“Ice hockey I loved,” Dr. Opie told me. “But I knew I couldn’t play it at the next level.”
So he turned his attention to lacrosse.
He played throughout high school and then in junior college at Herkimer Community College in upstate New York. He was recruited by Syracuse and played for the Orange in 1984 and ’85, where they made two NCAA Championship appearances, falling to another lacrosse powerhouse, Johns Hopkins, both times.
Yet that wasn’t an end to his lacrosse career. Instead, it was just a part of his journey.
Freeport, The Rucker Of Lacrosse
Back then, lacrosse wasn’t a nationally popular sport like football or basketball, so it needed a place to showcase the talents of its best players.
While basketball had the Rucker in Harlem, Lacrosse had the Freeport Summer League in Long Island.
For those who don’t know, Long Island was, and is, a hotbed for lacrosse talent. And the Freeport Summer League was home to the best of the best, an event that enabled players to build a rep in the sport.
If you were talented, you could play at Freeport regardless of age or level. For Dr. Opie, this was his measuring stick and the place that both confirmed his lacrosse talents and proved that he belonged.
“That was the affirmation I needed to let me know I could play,” said Opie.
And play he did.
He and his friends would pile in his car and make the 90-minute drive to Long Island in order to test their skills against competition from places like Rutgers, West Point, Hobart, UVA and Long Island.
“I was a straight-up lacrosse junkie,” said Opie. “We would get into my white chevy impala and drive 90 minutes to play in the Freeport League.”
That’s dedication.
But when you’re that good in a sport that isn’t as welcoming as other ball sports, you do what you need to in order to prove that you belong.
That includes fighting your way in.
His experience, and clashes, at Freeport sharpened his focus and dedication to the sport. Going up against top-notch competition increased his desire to be better and pushed him to prove his talents through his game.
Freeport is one of the main reasons why he became a two-time NJCAA All-American defenseman at Herkimer, won club championships with the Long Island Hofstra and Maryland lacrosse club teams of the USLCA, earned All-USCLA honors twice and why he was named to the U.S. National Team in 1990.
But while he loved the sport, it also brought him a sadness that Black athletes in traditionally white spaces can relate to.
Persevere
“If you’re a Black man in America, there’s a paranoia you have to have.”
That paranoia helps Black men recognize situations and see them for what they are, even when it’s hard to accept.
For a Black man in a traditionally white sport, that paranoia made Dr. Opie aware and tough, both mentally and physically.
He called on those traits many times during his lacrosse career, particularly during his time in the indoor lacrosse league when he dressed for only two of the fourteen games.
That was shocking and baffling for a player who made the U.S. National Team and was a starter and All-Club player in the outdoor league.
While he wouldn’t call it blatant racism, he knew it was something. Yet without the protective shell he encased himself in, he might not have made it through that frustrating period where the sport he loved was taken from him.
His turmoil and frustration are reminiscent of a story Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson relayed this past week during her Senate confirmation hearings.
She detailed her brief encounter with an unknown Black woman at Harvard during a time when she debated her place at the school. As she walked by her, filled with distraught and doubt, the woman leaned over to a young Jackson and uttered a single, emotional and uplifting word.
“Persevere.”
That is what Black people must do in traditionally white spaces, and Dr. Opie’s experience in lacrosse is no different.
He excelled on the field, where the goal is to win as a team. But off of it, he was alone.
“Off the field, I was lonely. I just didn’t feel a bond with my teammates off the field.”
If you’ve been in his shoes, you understand.
It might be a different taste in music or a preferred social setting. It might be a difference in the food or drinks of choice.
Or it might be because the color of your skin comes back into play when the uniform is removed.
That’s a reality Black athletes face when there aren’t many who look like them on their team.
Unlike football or basketball, that’s a reality most Black lacrosse players face and must endure in order to play.
The Life Lessons of Lacrosse
Lacrosse is not an uninviting or exclusionary sport.
As it’s spread to other states and is introduced to new communities, it continues to diversify in regards to complexion, gender, income bracket and education level.
We see it in youth leagues in Harlem and the Bronx, where kids are thriving on the field and carrying that success to the classroom.
At Bronx Lacrosse, the program has contributed to the success of students in the South Bronx. According to the organization, 100% of their eighth-grade participants passed all four major core classes and graduated middle school on time.
That’s extremely impressive for an area that is one of the poorest in both the city and the country.
Yet that’s the power of lacrosse, and one of the many reasons why more kids in areas like the South Bronx are participating in the sport.
“This is a sport that’s played by a majority of white people, and if you’re coming from an area of a diverse background, it can present an opportunity that basketball probably can’t, because there’s so many kids that play basketball,” said Bronx Lacrosse founder Dan Leventhal.
Lacrosse provided that opportunity to Fred Opie, and it helped him open doors that would shape his life and provide him with the lessons he needed to forge a path of success both on and off the field.
But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have its faults, one of which is how it works with inner-city kids.
According to Opie, success is deemed as getting these kids into top boarding schools, which means taking them out of their environment and basically forcing them to forgo their cultural identity in order to play.
That, said Dr. Opie, is a systemic change that needs to be made, particularly in urban environments where more city high schools need the proper funding and resources to start and maintain lacrosse programs.
Yet lacrosse is no different than other sports when it comes to social issues; they all have them.
But what it gave to Dr. Opie crafted him into the person that he is today, and for that he’s grateful.
“I’ve always loved the sport,” said Dr. Opie. “It gave me courage, self-esteem and discipline.”
And those gifts are definitely addictive.
