LACROSSE-2023 -LACROSSE-2023- LACROSSE-2023

  As defined by the oxford dictionary lacrosse is “a team game, originally played by North American Indians, in which the ball is thrown, carried, and caught with a long-handled stick having a curved L-shaped or triangular frame at one end with a piece of shallow netting in the angle.” With the help of Paula Steir, our team mom and manager, lacrosse was introduced to Calabar High school in the 2016-2017 school year by Kevin Dugan (an overseas coach), in general devotion one morning, we were all excited to get out and play because we saw it on Teen Wolf which was a popular tv show at the time. In the first gathering we may have had over 30 boys trying out the game to figure out whether they were suited for the game or not needless to say many of them did not return but we retained more than a handful of guys who were invested in the game for one reason or another. In December of 2016 the Jamaica lacrosse association held its annual one day competition known as “Lax fest,” Mr. Dugan who was supervising us at the time, held a speed test, the winners were chosen to get the limited gears they had to offer to play in lax fest. To the persons who were not chosen Mr. Dugan’s message to us was to keep playing the game and to never give it up, he said “the best players in the country years to come may not be the ones who were chosen today so do not be discouraged, take up a stick and still work at it.” Calabar went on to winning their first game ever taking down newcomers Jamaica College 4-3 but losing to another set of newcomers Excelsior high school 3-4. 

January of 2017 our first captain and vice were announced to be John Edwards and Tahiem Steir and without a coach we only had captain’s practices, teaching ourselves all we needed to know and getting better day by day, furthermore, the goals we had were provided by our team manager along with our Gatorade powder for training and matches. Journeying to games on the then brand new Calabar bus Deshawn Fender was our worship leader and prayed we had injury free games and safe travelling to and from our destinations. Missing a formal coach, Calabar high school still managed to enter the Taino cup (the men’s high school league) being the most feared team on the field, it was always a rivalry whenever it’s the green and black out there regardless of who we were playing, and it became a justified fear after the Lions defeated Wolmers boys 8-3, with the support of our principal Mr. Corcho and vice principal Mr. Rowe on the side-lines encouraging us every chance they had. At that time the reigning champion was St. Georges College and though we lost to them in the semi-final, one of their star players told us that Calabar was one of the hardest team they had to face that whole season. In the bronze medal game, we defeated Excelsior high school 4-3 and was commended for our resilience and determination by Mr. Dugan himself. February 19, 2017, the caption under our team picture on Jamaica Lacrosse Instagram page said “Calabar! These young men have not wasted anytime making their presence known at HS LAX CHAMPS. Congrats today's hard-working squad. They fell to defending #TainoCup Champs STGC in the semis but are in the bronze medal game in their first year. Don’t be surprised if C-BAR wins the whole thing next year!” 

In the academic year 2017-18 a shift was coming to Calabar lacrosse, with our captain now graduated we had no idea where the next steps going forward would lead. The vice principal, Mr. Rowe, told us he got us a coach by the name Shane Franklin, a Calabar old boy who was the assistant coach at St. Hughs high school. We had an introductory meeting with coach Franklin and our staff advisor Ms. Wilson who was the senior art teacher at that time. When we got into the grit of training, positions were changed to suite players abilities and would hopefully be the edge to bring us to the finals, the new captain was announced to be Ashani Harvey and vice-captain Raheem Pusey. Dated December 1, 2017, the lacrosse team received certificates of recognition of service to the school for the year 2016-2017 and Calabar went into lax fest beating Wolmers boys and Excelsior high school with players like, Raheem Pusey with a between the leg unassisted goal, getting themselves on coaches scouting radar. Having notable wins over Hillel Academy, Excelsior, Wolmers boys and Jamaica college we advanced to the semifinals against Kingston College on their home field. The match was exactly how you are thinking right now, gritty, rough, low scoring and hard fought, the match ended 6-5 with K.C. scoring their sixth goal in the last 25 seconds of the game, this left us in tears because we were so close to the championship again. The team was down in spirit but still had hope of a medal position for third place against Jamaica college. The big day came third place match up Ms. Paula, Ms. Wilson and a parent or two were out as supporters, we defeated Jamaica College 9-4 and were awarded third place with K.C. being the winners that year. 

Taino cup 2019, we had a year of history making. The season started just about the same as it used to but with some wrinkles, Calabar had a harder scheduling of game days which did not really phase us and we would be hosts to Campion College, our first time ever hosting a lacrosse game which we won as a full team effort in the company of our sixth form supervisor Mrs. Young. After official training was over guys like Raheem, Joel and Ashani would stay back until dark shooting on the goal and developing a sense of field awareness and the sixth sense around the crease, this paid off greatly throughout the season but in one or two matches especially. Jamaica College vs Calabar, venue St. Georges College, JC had us down 7-4 at the half, it was the heroics of our face off guy/ midfielder Tahiem Steir, the ground ball hunting and scoring prowess of Joel Subahwon, the vision and unselfishness of Raheem Pusey and Keino Bennett, the tall stance of Tyrese Findlay our goalie and his defensive unit and the chemistry built outside of training that allowed us to come back and take the game 10-7 in the end. After the game ended, we were seen as the team to beat, the team who will come from behind to take the win, the underdog if you will. Here we found ourselves against K.C. another time we lost but had some highlight worthy plays from the whole team that had the drummers going off and the sidelines energized, little did we know we would have faced them again in the semifinals. As meticulous as the plan to stop our offensive power houses where, they stood no chance against our brick house of a defense and lights out goalie, Calabar lacrosse defeated Kingston College 15-10 making this the first time ever KC would not compete for the trophy and making them the first ever team to score over 100 goals and lose the season. With the support of some old boys, family, and our vice principal we tackled the North Street giants the game was back and forth, quick, tough and with two of the best coaches in the league the game was technical, we came up short of the trophy losing to St. Georges College 11-9. At the award ceremony Joel Subahwon was given the top goal scorer and MVP awards after tallying 54 goals on the season, this made him the first ever player to get both awards in the same season, along with that came the top goal tender award that was presented to our goalie Tyrese Findlay. Raheem Pusey ended that season with 26goals, and 15 assists tallying 41 points on the season and was nicknamed “flair gad” and “greatness” because of the jaw dropping creativity he displayed with each point he tallied. ASA college in Florida made a scholarship offer to Raheem, Joel, and Ashani which they declined and opted to finish their high school education at sixth form. 

Season 2020, a year that began with so much hope to be hit by so many disappointments. At the start of the school year Joel Subahwon was promoted to assistant coach, our most creative player Raheem Pusey transferred to Jamaica College to complete sixth form, was named captain and was one of their leading goal scorers and playmakers. With several guys now not returning to grade 12 nor 13 we had a very small team, though shorthanded at the time we still managed to have one of the best defenders of that season Shemar Allen who came over from track and field, a Meadowbrook transfer Javiere Cooper who saw his friend playing and decided why not and became one of the starting attackmen and scored 2 goals in his first game out. Calabar lacrosse, though title less, was still one of the most feared teams to enter the competition. In a double header against Excelsior and STGC, we played our hearts out defeating Excelsior High school with Johann-Paul Meghie being the top goal scorer of the game and Jesse Robinson with a few assists to his name, however, we ending the day tied with St. Georges college 3-3. In a score differential tie breaker, we ended up edging out St. Georges for third place on the table which meant we would play #2 Jamaica College in the semifinals. By the time we got to semifinals most of the team members were battling injures and feeling pain all over. In a thriller of a game tied at 5-5 with 30 seconds left Raheem Pusey scored to make Jamaica College go up 6-5 which left us to play in the third-place game the coming weekend. The news of Corona virus started to circulate, and we got the remainder of the season cancelled, because of our place on the table we were awarded third place once more. On April 11, 2020, we received the news of the passing of Hughdre Mcghie, he was one of the first members of the team, he started out playing goalie and we lost him to a car accident. 

Post Covid cancellation the Jamaica Lacrosse Association decided to hold a 2022 season and with all the foundation players gone a new generation of players took over. In this shortened season Calabar Lacrosse men went 3 wins 3 losses on the season to advance to the semis, losing to St. Georges College 4-2 but defeating Wolmers boys 7-1 to be the crowned third in the Taino cup competition. The old boys of Calabar lacrosse went on to the University of Technology, Rutgers university, University of the West Indies and even to do music. Ronaldo Williams was awarded a scholarship to attend Chowan University in North Carolina, where plays as a midfielder and is a double major in Biology and Criminal justice. He consistently maintains a 4.0 GPA, a part of the president’s list, an honor student, a leadership scholar, and a presidential scholar. Kimani Danvers was elected president of the student council for two consecutive years and scored our fifth goal against Kingston College in 2018, he completed the university of the West Indies receiving a BSc in economics and statistics, he graduated with first class honours, received WIGUT Bursary from U.W.I. which was awarded for outstanding academic performance and he is now a student at Rutgers University where he is pursuing his masters in economics.Tyrese Findlay was selected to represent Jamaica in the senior men’s qualifiers in Medellín Colombia in June 2022, with John Edwards as an assistant coach. Jesse Robinson and Joel Subahwon were selected to represent Jamaica in the U21 World lacrosse championships held in Limerick Ireland on August 10-20, 2022, where Joel scored 2 goals in his international debut and was given the game ball by the Head coach in addition to that they both received scholarships to attend Westcliff University in Irvine California. The future of Calabar lacrosse is bright, with the selflessness, courage, determination and willingness of the current players to learn and get better there is no question that a championship is coming to 61 Red Hills Road soon and more of our men will be granted the opportunity to spread their influence in the wider life to be for the honor of our school.