Upstate Lacrosse Tee: Midnight Navy

When you close your eyes, and think of “home”, what comes to mind?

For us, it’s Upstate New York, and to put it quite simply, there really is no place like home.

All of us here at Powell Lacrosse were born and bred Upstate, with many of us coming from a small town named West Carthage. There are lots of dairy farms, plenty of untouched wooded ares, industrial paper mills, and of course, there is a lot of great lacrosse. The area is filled with hard working, blue collar families who pride themselves on their work ethic and toughness. Two feet of snow is just a “dusting”, 30 degrees is legitimate shorts weather, and it’s never too cold or wet to put in the work.

We are extremely proud of our home, how we were raised, and who we were raised around. We couldn’t think of a better place to have started our journey in this amazing game, or in life.

According to history, the origins of our great game started in Upstate, NY. It’s been the preeminent hotbed of lacrosse for well over a century, and perhaps as long as a millennium. Upstate is the home of National Championship programs like Syracuse University, Cornell, Hobart, Cortland, LeMoyne, Nazareth, Herkimer, and Onodaga. Upstate can also boast about national high school powerhouses like West Genesee High School, the supremely historic lacrosse hotbed that is the Onondaga Nation, the iconic Carrier Dome, all of Section 3, and some of the old Empire State Games’ most successful and strong regions.

Along with all these amazing teams, places, and programs, Upstate has also been the proving grounds for so many of our sport’s greatest players. The all-time NCAA points record holder, Jason Coffman, is a Carthage product. He scored 455 points for Salisbury while winning a couple of rings with the Gulls. The D1 all-time leading scorer, Lyle Thompson, is another Upstater sitting at the top of the game right now. His family’s roots in the game, and in this beautiful land, go back as far as anyone can know. Syracuse’s all-time leading scorer, Mikey Powell, also grew into himself as a player and man living Upstate. He is one of only a few players to EVER be named a four time first team All American, and was the first male player to win the Tewaaraton Award twice.

Upstate is also home to absolutely legendary lacrosse figures like Roy Simmons Jr., Mike Messere, Todd Curry, John Desko, Travis Cook, Ryan Powell, Casey Powell, and Dan Hardy. All of these stewards of the game love Upstate New York, and continue to live the lacrosse life to the fullest, as they push the game forward, and onwards to a new generation.

Whether you are a fellow Upstater or simply a fan of lacrosse, join us in paying tribute to the most historic (and we’d argue the best!) region in all of lacrosse with the Upstate Lacrosse T-shirt. The game started here, and it continues here.

There is no place like home, but for us it’s a little more specific, there’s no place like UPSTATE!