Lacrosse has seemingly always been an intrinsic part of Garden City. Events like the Annual Jay Gallagher Tournament, which attracts teams from around the country, has brought a nationwide vibe to the village on an annual basis. In the Garden City Public School District, the Trojans’ excellence between the lines wound up having the boys team win the state championship and get named the nation’s top-ranked team in 2011 while the girls team was also crowned state champions that same year. So it’s reassuring to know that since 2006, Bob Jahelka and Michael Winkoff have taken a vested interest in getting younger kids involved in lacrosse via the duo’s For the Love of the Game (FLG) organization.
Apparently all the hard work and dedication is paying off. Not only have four of the players who went through the program wound up on the Harvard University squad, but the 2019 and 2018 FLG Select teams won championships in the Crimson Classic Youth Lacrosse tournament they recently competed in. Best of all is the fact that one of the primary tenets of FLG is not only developing athletes on the field of play, but in the classroom as well. It’s that rare program that actually churns out actual student-athletes, not what often passes for this at a number of institutions of higher learning.
— Dave Gil de Rubio
