The Fastbreak - Summer 2023
SUMMER 2023
World Lacrosse Championships - Ryan Terefenko on Team USA
The 2023 World Men’s Lacrosse Championship is under way in San Diego, California. This is the 14th time the tournament is being played and the 4th time it is being hosted by the United States. The competition commenced on June 21st and will reach its climax with the highly anticipated finals on Saturday, July 1st. The bronze medal game is scheduled for 3 pm CST, followed by the gold medal game at 6 pm CST.
The inaugural World Lacrosse Men's Championship was held in Toronto, Canada, in 1967, and it has been a tradition every four years ever since. However, there was a seven-year gap between the first and second Championships, and the 2022 edition had to be postponed to 2023 due to the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are currently 86 teams across the world that compete at an international level, with 30 of those teams qualifying for the World Lacrosse Men’s Championship in San Diego. This includes countries like Jamaica, Peru, and the Philippines. The tournament uses a unique combination of rules that are voted on by all the nations involved, in order to give all the countries the best chances of succeeding. The tournament also features some of the best professional lacrosse players in the world, including Homegrown senior staff Ryan Terefenko (USA) and Homegrown Summer Camp 2023 guest coach Justin Inacio (Canada).
Terefenko currently lives in Minnesota and serves as the regional program director for Homegrown Lacrosse, as well as running Forge Lacrosse Academy and the Premier Box League with fellow Homegrown senior staff and professional lacrosse player Jeff Henrick. Terefenko has utilized his connections to help bring some of the best professional lacrosse players in the country to Minnesota to help coach at camps and clinics and promote the growth of the game and skill level of athletes in Minnesota. Terefenko also plays in the Premier Lacrosse League for Chrome LC as a short-stick defensive midfielder, as well as the National Lacrosse League for the Halifax Thunderbirds as a transition defender.
Ryan has made large contributions to the success of team USA as a short-stick defensive midfielder. Known as the “Hard-nosed Warrior”, he has made a huge impact on the defensive side and in transition for Team USA. “It’s a huge honor to represent the U.S. and play against all the different countries.” says Ryan.
You may have seen a viral clip of Ryan dodging on team Canada during USA’s impressive 7-5 win in their opening game. In this video, Ryan seems to grab the defender’s stick out of their hands and tosses the stick to the side as he continues his dodge. Here’s Ryans take on the play: “After the play, I felt like Harry Potter and yelled 'EXPELLIARMUS!' in my head.”
Ryan and Team USA will play for the Gold medal tomorrow, Saturday July 1st, in a rematch versus Team Canada. The game will start at 6 PM CST, and can be viewed or streamed on ESPN 2. Tune in to cheer on Team USA!
Homegrown Senior Staff Update
We are thrilled to announce that our team has grown with the recent addition of three new senior staff members. As Homegrown continues to grow and make an impact in the world of lacrosse, we recognize the need for additional support and expertise to ensure that our mission is communicated as effectively as possible. We are excited to have these new team members on board and look forward to the contributions they will make in advancing our vision for the future of Homegrown Lacrosse.
Isaiah Neal
Assistant Director of Leagues and Events
Isaiah is currently an assistant coach for the Tri-Mac Co-op High School Team, where he lead the Tri-Mac offense to its best record in program history. In 2022, Isaiah guided the Farmington boys lacrosse team to its first-ever Boys Lacrosse State Tournament appearance after eight years of coaching high school and youth lacrosse at Farmington. Coaching and playing lacrosse continues to be an outlet for Isaiah where he can enjoy being in the moment, learning from others and growing the game with passion.
Peyton Krause
Director of Marketing
Peyton is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD), where he played lacrosse for four years and was named captain of the team by his senior year. Growing up in Minneapolis, Peyton was a proud member of the Minneapolis Lacrosse team during his high school days at Washburn High. His love for Lacrosse extends beyond playing, as he currently coaches for the MN Chill and the Minneapolis High School Lacrosse Co-op. Peyton is passionate about helping his players grow and become the best version of themselves, on and off the field. He feels that lacrosse has given him a place to be himself, and wants to give that opportunity to current players in the community.
Karen Heggernes
Director of Development
Karen Heggernes has joined Homegrown Lacrosse as the new Director of Development, focusing on raising funds for our service based initiatives here at Homegrown. Karen has been around the Minnesota lacrosse community ever since she started her high school team back in 2005. Karen’s coaching experience ranges from NCAA, high school head coach, travel club coach and owner, as well as many other hats in her years. She is thrilled to be a part of Homegrown’s commitment to sports based youth development and community building. Karen has a passion for all things women and girls sports.
Lakeville North's State Championship Run - Todd Lewis Interview
This spring high school season ended with one of the most electric finishes we’ve ever seen. Lakeville North arose as state champions for the first time in program history, ending their run with two overtime game winners in the state semifinals and championship game. Midfielder Nathan Long came in clutch for Lakeville North, scoring both game-winning overtime goals. In this article, Homegrown’s Director of Teams Garrett Lieb sat down with Todd Lewis, Lakeville North starting LSM, to get his perspective on Lakeville North’s rise to the state championship and exciting finish to their season.
Todd Lewis has been involved with Homegrown for most of his lacrosse career, participating in programs such as MN Chill, Summer Camp counseling, Leadership Development Program, and many other Homegrown Camps and Clinics. We’re super proud of Todd for this achievement, and thankful to have him as part of the Homegrown family. Here is our in-depth interview with Todd:
If you could describe your season as a whole in one word, what word would you use and why?
“I think that word would be adversity because us as a team had a lot of injuries, and setbacks to key players. Especially in playoffs we had the flu running around which kept some key players out in the first game or two of playoffs. I think we overcame a lot of adversity because we were not expected to be in the position that we are now at the beginning of the season. So we kinda faced everything that happened and just overcame it.”
What would you say are a couple of things that were different this year compared to last year, either personally or as a team?
“Me personally, I mean last year I was backing up for an LSM that was All-State, so I didn't see the field as much and was kinda a role player. Everyone has roles to play, but I think this year for me personally I was able to see the field more and feel like I was able to give more to this state run. I think as a team, Last year, we lost in the semi-finals of sections, which was pretty uncharacteristic of Lakeville North because we don't have many super competitive teams in our section, so it was pretty disappointing. In our end of year interviews, pretty much everyone said that wasn’t going to happen again. And so everyone put in the time in the off-season and put in the work to get us where we wanted to go, because that wasn’t the outcome we wanted or thought that we deserved.”
Take me through what your off-season programming looks like at Lakeville North. What do you guys do in the fall/winter to get ready for that state title run?
“We have fall scrimmages in the fall. A lot of our guys play club ball in the fall, so we’re pretty competitive with that. We like to see our guys go out and win it for their own teams as well. In November winter practices start, which is about two times a week. We don’t really have team lifts, but a lot of guys have memberships to the same gym, so we keep each other accountable, and help each other out lifts, talk to each other doing in our programs. Our program is really about keeping yourself accountable, because you don't want to let the team Down. And you want to help the team get to where we wanna go. We all put in the work separately.”
You've talked a lot about accountability, and everyone having a mutual understanding of “this is the work I need to put in to make this season what we want it to be''. Was there ever a specific time or meeting between players or coaches where that precedent was set as an expectation? Or was that something that everyone kinda took upon themselves to make themselves better?
“Again, We had our end of season meetings at the end of last season where you go in and talk to your coaches individually about how your season was and expectations for the next season. I'm pretty sure that everyone that returned, and even seniors that graduated, knew that where we ended last season was not where we should or needed to end this season. So I think right after we lost to Northfield that bus ride home was when we all decided this is not gonna happen again. That we're gonna do what's needed to be done to make the push that we think we can make.”
From what we saw from the outside, you guys seemed like a tight-knit group. Take us through the locker room. What's your team culture like? Are you guys a really close knit team or just a bunch of individuals that came together for a common goal?
"We’re a very close knit team. This is the most fun I’ve had with any Lakeville team ever. Obviously it's fun that we’re winning, but it's like you could tell this team wanted to be together, we wanted to be at practice, and we wanted to see each other outside of practice. And so when you’re playing with a group of guys that want to be there together, getting better and just hanging out, it makes it a lot easier to put in the work. It's a group of brothers, locker rooms are energetic and fun. Everybody’s talking and hanging out together, it's not separated at all."
Was there a moment from this year that you looked around and realized that you could make a run for the state championship?
“I knew that we were gonna be better than last year, I didn't realize we were gonna be this good. Obviously that's what you want. I think even the pre-season workouts and winter league when we were really clicking together before the season even started was when I realized that this could be something special. There were certain games that we played, Like when we played Prior lake early in the season and won by like 9, and that was a big win for us. Going into playoffs we played Edina, and Edina was ranked above us in the MSHSL top ten. We went out and won by 11, which really set the tone for the playoffs and put us where we wanted to be.”
What was it like to win your last two games in overtime? What was the feeling like on the sidelines and in the huddles? Was it tense or was everyone looking around like we got this?
"Every game like that you'll have a little bit of nerves and be a little tense. But even in the state chip, we were down by 3 at one point, but the feeling on the sideline was like we’re not worried about this, we know we can do what it takes to get back to the place where we needed. Especially with Quinn Power at the faceoff 'X', overtime’s obviously stressful but we knew we had the pieces in place to do what we wanted to do and win the game. It was a little tense because the situation we were in but our energy wasn't nervous at all."
You guys had a lot of big names like Quinn Power, that got a lot of write ups on MN Lax hub and Startribune. What was it like playing with those guys and other leaders on your team, what did they bring to the team's culture?
"All of our big name guys were captains, it's nice to have a strong leadership of guys that really put in the work. They can lead you to victory, and lead in practices and stuff like that. Obviously It was really nice to have Quinn at the face-off X, because face-offs kinda overpowered when he’s as good as he is. Austin [Winship] really ran the offense. Whats cool about it is some of those guys that really balled out for us this season, our team didn't have any transfers, so all the guys I played with growing up Ive known them for 9-10 year plus. Its really cool to have guys like Leo who I was playing with since 12u, really help us get there. Especially with Leo [Piscitiello] and his younger brothers, its nice to have a family unit to keep the whole team connected."
You've done a lot of stuff with Homegrown, like MN Chill, Leadership Development Program, Summer camp counseling. Is there any link between the stuff you've learned from HG that you brought to your team culture?
"With Homegrown being about the person you are and connecting with people as well as lacrosse, when you’re on the sideline you can help keep the energy up. I think the LDP part and connecting with your campers helped build relationships within the team and keep us as a tight knit group. Our program is not just the varsity team competing, it’s the JV team as well. So being in counseling and connecting to the freshman and younger guys that are playing up, helping us practice and get to where we needed to go. Homegrown helped me connect the culture of the team, along with the game, which I think was just as important to winning that chip as anything else."
The Indigenous Lacrosse Alliance (ILA) is a new Native community organization that is fiscally sponsored by Homegrown. The ILA works to empower Indigenous youth through the sport of lacrosse. Providing resources, technical assistance, and organizational capacity, the ILA works to expand opportunities for native youth and families to play across Minnesota. The ILA offers a number of programs including in-school PE, TryLax clinics, coaching mentorship/training, as well as equipment donations. ILA’s flagship partnership is with the Brookston Community Center to provide the Lax-4-Life Summer Overnight Lacrosse camp for Native youth statewide.
“Lacrosse is such a huge part of my community, we say our kids are born with sticks in their hands and we learn to play with Seneca coaches and teams. I was honored to be part of the all-Native coaching staff for the Lax-4-Life camp last summer and play a role in kids and families creating positive social and cultural connections to lacrosse, just like I had.”
-Stephanie Zadora (Seneca), ILA Board Member & Coach
“Being a part of the Indigenous Lacrosse Alliance (ILA) is something to be very proud and thankful for. Having the opportunity to learn and teach Indigenous youth about the historic culture of lacrosse, and to develop their skills through the game is an honor. This work for me promotes the values of respect, unity, and tradition while supporting the growth of lacrosse in Indigenous communities.”
-Trent Jacobson (Sicangu Lakota), ILA Coach