Attention Lacrosse Parents,
Since the Beach Bums try out on Sept 30th we have had a major development. The LI Beach Bums Girls Lacrosse Club has merged its program with the girls program of the LI Riptide , The Ripcurls. The newly combined girls program will use the LI Beach Bums name! Greg Antolini and Tim Harrison will still be totally involved in running the new organization but we will be adding new directors from Ripcurls. Riptide directors Tim Dunn and Joe Guiliani will lend their support to this newly merged girls club and Jim Scheidel and Scott Mullins will help run the New Beach Bums. Since these two girls lacrosse programs have similar mission statements and are located in nearby neighborhoods on Long Island, we decided that instead of just sharing a similar philosophy we might as well join forces and create a stronger club.
Both clubs have a belief that girls do not need to travel 5 weekends every summer to play competitive lacrosse. Nor does travel lacrosse need to be overly expensive to play. We came to believe that by combining our programs we would be able to supply a fantastic lacrosse experience to over 200 families and do it without having to break their wallets.
The partnership between the Long Island Riptide and the Long Island Beach Bums lacrosse clubs will allow the Beach Bums to focus its energy on the girls side and the Riptide to do the same the boys side. These two groups will continue to work hard to provide lacrosse that is not only affordable but that is very competitive.
The NEW Beach Bums will be fielding teams in the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 age groups; the 2013 Beach Bums will have the following teams:
2016 - one team
2017 - two teams
2018 - one team
2019 - two teams
2020 - one team
2021 - two teams
There are a few open spots at some of these age groups so please contact us if you are interested : beachbumslax@hotmail.com
One thing that for sure is that none of the things that have made these two programs special will change. Hands-on leadership and dedicated coaches (we will feature 4 current LI varsity HS head coaches and several current and former D- 1 players). We maintain a commitment to make sure lacrosse is still FUN ! These are kids playing a game and that often gets overlooked.
Some things will change. Cost will be $800 for all girls grades 5-9 but you will play in 5 tournaments instead of only 4. Grades 5 thru 8 will do 1 overnight event and the 2016 team will do 2. The 4th grade group (2021) will play 3 local events at a reduced rate.
Additionally there is some fitness training included in this cost. Practices will no longer just be in Babylon, we will now have access to field space in Islip. More fields mean more time to practice.
We will grow from 4 teams to 9 or 10 teams overnight and we will use this to continue to expand our core base. There may be some growing pains the first year but we do not believe any of these pains will hinder what we have always tried to do. With the landscape of girls travel lacrosse ever changing, both organizations felt that if we combined these two local established programs into one larger program we would be able to compete at all levels while maintaining the smaller "family" feel that we have all enjoyed in past years.
If anybody has any questions please don't be afraid to call me Greg Antolini at 516-971-1680 or Jim Scheidel at 631-335-1760.
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