By Kim J. Harmon

Feel like reliving past glories on the lacrosse pitch?

Well, then, the first annual Newtown Lacrosse Alumni Day will be Saturday, June 17, at Newtown High School’s Blue & Gold Stadium and anyone ever who laced up the cleats and toted a lacrosse stick in Newtown is invited to play.

“We’ve tried to do this in the past,” said Ken Law, “but now it’s finally come to pass.”

Ostensibly a fundraiser, the festivities are due to open up at 10:30 am with donuts & coffee time at the stadium, including a formal welcome, raffle and fan wear sales. At 11 am, game day walk-in registration will be taken and at 12 noon the Snack Shack will have burgers and hot dogs ready for lunch.

The first game on the slate was to be the girls alumni versus the Newtown High School varsity, but a lower than expected turnout of alumni forced this game to be cancelled. But there will be a young alumni versus the Newtown High School boys’ varsity and a Men’s Open game following that.

“We like this,” said Mr Law, “because its gives people another chance to get back together.”

There is a vast number of alumni to draw on since the sport was brought to Newtown in the late 1980s by the Stampp family. Scott and Todd Stampp both played for Newtown High School while Scott coached the high school team for several years.

Several Newtown lacrosse alumni have taken their games to the collegiate level, such as Chris Body (Western New England College), Casey Kirch (Sacred Heart University) and John Oliver (St. Mary’s College).

Pete Kohut, longtime lacrosse referee, will watch over the action.

“This will be pretty small scale the first time around,” said Mr Law, “but it will be a start. It will be a nice start.”

Any “old timers” worried about the end-to-end action can rest assured as rules have been modified for the games. First, there will be NO body checking and games will be 45 minutes, running time. Also – substitutions can be done on the fly at any time; old men don’t have to run far or hard; laughing at yourself (but not the older players) is encouraged; having fun is mandatory; and there will be unlimited time-outs per half.

If all this sounds like fun and you have yet to register at www.newtownboyslax.com, stop by Blue & Gold Stadium on Saturday morning.