Spending four days at Nike World Headquarters just outside Portland, Ore., immersed in lacrosse with the sport’s superstars sounds like a dream. For 100 high-school players, though, it’s how they spent last week.
Nike invited the top 100 high-school lacrosse players from the Class of 2017 to attend the third installment of The Ride, the brand’s version of a lacrosse clinic and expo. The 50 girls and 50 boys from across the nation, decked out in Nike gear, trained on Nike’s Ronaldo Field with some of the best coaches and mentors in the sport, including:
– Kara Cannizzaro — named the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player when she led the University of North Carolina women’s lacrosse team to win its first NCAA title in 2013
Nike’s new Huarache V cleat promotes speed, flexibility and power
– Kitty Cullen — current Team STX member the first University of Florida player to score 200 career goals
– Bill O’Brien — current New England Black Wolves player and 2014 Iroquois Nationals Team training camp invitee
– Jeremy, Jerome, Miles and Lyle Thompson — brothers from the Onondaga Nation who played for the 2014 Iroquois Nationals team and now all play professionally
Nike split the players into four teams, two girls’ and two boys’, named for the brand’s lacrosse cleats: Vapor and Huarache. Those four mentors, along with a slew of other respected names in lacrosse, watched and coached the high-school players vying for championship trophies on Friday. The Huaraches swept the Vapors with the girls and boys teams both defeating their Vapor counterparts.
And, thanks to Nike, VYPE was there to watch it all unfold. Here are our four takeaways from The Ride.
1. Grow the Game
Nike recognizes that lacrosse has been the fastest-growing high-school sport nationally in recent years, and Nike Lacrosse is stepping up its game. Between The Ride and the lacrosse athletes the brand signed, Nike seems to have a solid footing in the sport, so expect to see more of its presence on lacrosse fields soon.
The U-19 WNT is sporting Nike’s new unis in Scotland this year
2. Suit Up
Nike Lacrosse presented its array of gear inside what it called “The Crease,” an all-white room filled with mannequins and display cases in the Tiger Woods Center next to Ronaldo Field. There, among other jerseys and cleats, the national-team uniforms Nike designed for the United States and the Iroquois Nationals stood proudly. Currently, the U.S. U-19 Women’s National Team is donning the pictured gear in navy and white for the Federation of International Lacrosse Women’s U-19 World Championship in Scotland.
3. Know Your Roots
The Thompson brothers educated The Ride participants about the Native American roots of lacrosse throughout the week.
“I’m surrounded by the game,” Lyle Thompson, the Onondaga Native who won the Tewaaraton Award in back-to-back years at the University at Albany, said at the media welcome. “When we’re born, in our crib we’re given a traditional wooden stick, just to pass the game on.” The sport originated with the Native American Indians around the western Great Lakes, and they played with wooden sticks and a wooden ball at first.
Nike Lacrosse tapped into this origin in revealing the Huarache V, its newest lacrosse cleat inspired by the Thompson brothers. The cleat features a braided “T” that represents the Onondaga Nation, the brothers’ Native American heritage and the braids that frequently hang from their heads. The cleats will be in stores this fall.
4. Ride it Out
“The ride” is a moment in the game when the offense loses the ball and has to defend the opposing team running it down the field. That moment is about speed and teamwork; it’s what Nike built this whole experience around. The mantra for The Ride was “Fast or Last,” and that message seemed to seep into the players’ heads through coaching and mentorship. The high school players at The Ride played together like veteran teammates despite only beginning to play as units a few days prior. Now all that’s left is to take the lessons they learned in Oregon back to their home programs for their final two high-school seasons.
Nike: The Ride was one big lacrosse extravaganza filled with products and practice meant to showcase Nike’s presence in and dedication to growing the sport.
It did.
