By Kim J. Harmon

When Jason Hiruo and Sara Patrick became new lacrosse coaches at Newtown High School this spring, it was almost as if the program had come full circle. Both Hiruo and Patrick were there about 10 years ago – give or take – in the infancy of the boys’ and girls’ programs and now both are back to lead their respective teams into the 21st century.

Hiruo (who scored 39 goals and assisted on 13 others during his career at Newtown) will be co-coaching the boys’ lacrosse team with Brian Henricksen (taking over Scott Stampp, whose family brought the sport to Newtown) while Patrick (who is fourth all-time with 47 career goals at Newtown) will be coaching the girls’ lacrosse team (taking over for Joanne Johnson).

Full circle.

Jason Hiruo

Hiruo first cut his teeth on the sport of lacrosse under the school’s first-ever coach, Rich Allaire, and went on to become a solid offensive force. In 1991, he scored 27 goals (tied for second on the team) and assisted on seven others to help lead Newtown to the state B Division championship game (where it lost).

Hiruo an all-star and an all-state player who went on to play lacrosse at the University of Connecticut. After graduating from UConn, Hiruo received his masters in education from the University of Bridgeport.

But Hiruo has always remained a part of the community. He was a Parks and Recreation summer camp director for several years (invariably, always bringing up lacrosse and giving his campers a chance to learn a little something about the sport), has coached indoor lacrosse clinics, and now is the assistant director of the Newtown marching band.

“Coaching has always been in my mind,” said Hiruo, whose grandfather coached lacrosse at Syracuse, “and since I’d already established myself (in the community) I wanted to come back here and coach. Lacrosse is something they have really begun to develop here and I felt a desire to make myself a part of it.”

Hiruo currently is student teaching in the English department at Newtown High School. His 12-week, student-teaching period is up about the end of April . . . when he hopes to get a permanent spot on the high school teaching roster.

Brian Henricksen

Henricksen came into the sport of lacrosse a bit later than his counterpart. Lured, perhaps, by the history of it, the new coach (who went to Notre Dame High School, where there was no lacrosse program) first took it up as a club sport at Southern Connecticut State University (later also playing rugby there).

Henricksen, now 31, also played for a time at the University of New Haven.

But it didn’t stop there. He came to Newtown a couple years ago as the girls’ freshman lacrosse coach and, last year, became the boys’ junior varsity lacrosse coach. Henricksen, a recreation therapist at the Garner Correctional facility here in Newtown, was also the girls’ freshman field hockey coach.

“It’s been a great experience so far,” said Henricksen. “So many things have happened and I had to learn how to go with the flow.”

Henricksen, who lives in Milford with his wife, Amy, and their nine-month-old child, Logan, has his sights set high already – looking for the Nighthawks to win their pre-season tournament this weekend and, later, reaching the CIAC state tournament.

Sara Patrick

Patrick was the first real offensive star of the girls’ lacrosse program.

Even though she started playing the sport for the first time as a sophomore, she quickly became a goal-scoring threat and set the original career goal-scoring record at 47 when she graduated back in 1994 (scoring 34 of those goals that spring).

Patrick was the forerunner, though, since Carolyn Anders and Kathryn Koonce came along and surpassed that record with 50 goals each. Now Patrick will have the pleasure of seeing one of her players, Caitlin Collier, become the first girls’ lacrosse player to score more than 100 goals in a career.

Collier has 74 now and holds the single-season record of 59, set in 1999.

After a great three-year career at Newtown High, Patrick accepted a scholarship and played five years at the University of Connecticut (she was in the five-year masters program), where she was a captain for two years. After graduating, though, her career in lacrosse did not end.

Right now, she is playing with the Westchester women’s lacrosse team, which plays teams from New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. On top of that, she also will be trying out for the national team again.

And while she is doing all of that, she will be trying to lead the Lady Nighthawks back to the CIAC state tournament.

“I’ve dedicated so much of my life to lacrosse,” she said, “I figured it was natural to coach. I’m extremely excited. These girls have such potential.”