By Christopher Johnson – Kalihwisaks
This issue’s Volunteer Focus is on Curt Summers, a man whose lifelong passion for the game of lacrosse led him to cofound and volunteer for the now highly successful Oneida Community Lacrosse Program.
The game was introduced to Summers at a young age by his cousin Dan Ninham and he was immediately hooked on the sport. “I grew up playing sports my whole life from baseball, basketball, boxing and all that stuff,” Summers said. “But when my cousin introduced lacrosse he would tell us stories behind it and it was so different from all those other sports. At the time there was a feeling that came with it and I knew there was something more to it when I held that stick.”
There weren’t any organized programs in Oneida for kids to play the game in the 1980s, Summers said, and it wouldn’t be until his high school years that he would be able to join a men’s team and play regularly.
“In the late 1980s to 2000 Oneida had an adult team that travelled to different tournaments throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois,” Summers said. “There came a point after that where a few of our guys decided that we wanted to get the youth involved. So that was what got it started and we would go out and get kids from different parts of the community like Site I and Site II. Shortly after that other Oneida kids from the Green Bay area began to show interest, but it wasn’t a fully organized program yet and we played a more traditional version of the game.”
Up until five years ago he worked with people in the Six Nations area in New York and Ontario, Summers said, which helped him get back to the Iroquois roots and traditional aspects of lacrosse.
Traditionally lacrosse was played by Native American ancestors in games where there may be hundreds of players and the playing field could be miles long between villages, Summers said. Today a traditional game of lacrosse is played on smaller fields but the boundaries that are seen in other organized high school, college and professional leagues don’t exist. There may also be as many as 30-40 kids playing at one time, Summers said, and it is preferred they play with wooden sticks rather than commercially bought plastic sticks which are often referred to as ‘Tupperware sticks.’
“There was a point until about five years ago that our traditional part of the game was missing and that’s the part we’ve tried to bring back and reteach our community,” Summers said. “Prior to that we played a traditional Choctaw form of the game which was probably more brutal than anything we played. They were throwing their sticks down and tackling each other and that isn’t how we traditionally played our game. So I wanted to bring back and teach our kids our formal way of playing the game.”
In 2012 Oneida Community Lacrosse became an organized program and originally featured U-13 and U-15 teams. In 2014, due to the success and growing popularity of the program, U-11 and U-9 teams were added.
“Last year was our first year actually seeing our teams become very competitive with some of the top teams in Wisconsin,” Summers said. “As the program grew it began opening up to the surrounding areas and we began drawing in kids from Green Bay, De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Pulaski and Seymour. So it’s actually providing services for the surrounding communities and a lot of non-Native youth are getting involved as well.”
The whole structure of the game is taught through the traditional form of the game, Summers says, and as a result the kids are gaining an understanding of where the game came from and they are learning a lot of their own history through the game of lacrosse.
“Lacrosse isn’t just a win or lose thing,” Summers said. “Some of the things we teach our kids when they’re out there playing is that this is a reminder of who gave you this game so you’re actually playing for your Creator. A lot of these kids have found something that they can be very proud of because a lot of them play a lot of different sports, but nothing fulfills them like the game of lacrosse does. It really runs through their blood.”
An added benefit of having kids from the surrounding communities join the program is that along with learning the sport they are gaining a better understanding of what the Oneida community is about.
“We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from those parents saying how much this has changed their views and their child’s views of Oneida,” Summers said. “About a week before we went to the national tournament last summer in Lincoln, Nebraska, we had a non-Oneida player from Green Bay whose parents told us he wouldn’t be able to make it to the tournament because his family was supposed to go on a family vacation.”
The player was absolutely devastated because he couldn’t be with his teammates, Summers said, and the team felt as though there was a part of them missing with him not being there. “So the day we left for the tournament he was there seeing us off at Norbert Hill Center with the tobacco burning and the releasing of the eagle,” Summers said. “He was crying but he was there to support us and the rest of the team just gathered around him.
“About halfway down to Nebraska I get a message from his parents saying ‘we can’t do this to him,’” Summers said, “’we’re on our way.’ It was great to see that his parents bought into the program 100 percent. It wasn’t just that he was going to be missing a game but he was going to be missing that unity and camaraderie.”
After a nine hour drive the team arrived in Nebraska, Summers said, and the parents of the non-Native player wanted to surprise the team when they arrived. “So we get to the field and there he was,” Summers said. “Everybody was cheering. It was such a good feeling to know that our non-Native players and families have really supported this program. That just shows how closely knit our families are.”
Summers points out that he is not the only reason the Oneida Community Lacrosse Program has begun to flourish. “It isn’t just me that did everything,” Summers said. “A lot of the credit has to go to the families, the parents and other community members that really stepped up and found that same passion for the game. My brother Butch Summers, Tracy Williams, Jessica Powless, Paul and Mark Ninham and Sid White all played a big part in getting this program up and running.”
Everybody affiliated with the Oneida Community Lacrosse Program such as the coaches, representatives and managers are strictly volunteers, Summers said. The program is kept very cost effective for families and is significantly less expensive than the only other lacrosse program in Green Bay.
The Oneida Community Lacrosse Program team practices are already in full swing, Summers said, but there is still time to get a child registered for one of the program teams if anybody is interested. For registration information or to find out how to volunteer for the program please visit www.oneidacommunitylacrosse.usl.la , or call Kelly Jo at (920) 412-1817 or Curt Summers at (920) 494-7300.
