By Christopher Tremblay

Norwood’s Jakoby Dalton earned himself an opportunity to play with the Mass Bay Colonial’s lacrosse team that will be participating in the Best of Texas Lacrosse Tournament in Houston, TX. Dalton, who is a seventh grader at Boston Trinity Academy, was selected to play with the team from over 200 athletes that represented 125 town lacrosse programs throughout Eastern and Central Massachusetts. 

In order to earn a spot from the selection committee, athletes not only had to perform well at the tryouts, but they also had to submit recommendations from coaches, teachers, and community leaders. The Mass Bay Colonials were not only looking to bring the most talented youth lacrosse players to the tournament, but they also want athletes that could proudly represent Massachusetts on and off the field. 

The 2022 Mass Bay Colonials boys’ team will have 22 athletes representing youth lacrosse programs from 20 different towns throughout the area. According to Colonials founder and General manager Joey Picard, the team is an extension of the community-based youth league Mass Youth Lacrosse and was founded to promote and celebrate town-based lacrosse and the elite athletes that commit to the sport.

Dalton was only one of three seventh graders to earn a spot on the class of 2027, eighth grade team that represented Massachusetts in Houston to compete against the likes of teams from Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri as well as many other teams. The Norwood native has been playing lacrosse since kindergarten when a neighbor gave him some old lacrosse equipment on Christmas Day. 

“I was grateful for the gift and decided to try the sport out,” Dalton said. “I found that I enjoyed it and was having fun doing it. The older kids were fast, and I wanted to be like them.”

Playing in the Norwood Youth Lacrosse League, Dalton can usually be found playing right defense as he likes moving the ball up the field into the offensive attack. When the opportunity came up to try out for the travel team, Dalton jumped.

“It sounded like a really good thing to do, and I figured that I’d be able to make the team,” Dalton said. “I thin that it’s really cool to be playing against a bunch of kids from all over the country.”

The 2027 Boys team will be Coached by Nathan Kittler, who is the head coach at Natick High School and was named the 2022 Eastern Mass Coaches Association Coach of the Year. Kittler will be assisted by Ed McCarthy, a long-time youth and high school lacrosse coach who has been a Mass Youth Lacrosse Coach Education trainer over the past five seasons. Tom Spangenberg, the current Chair of Mass Youth Lacrosse Board of Directors, former president of the board and longtime Dover-Sherborn Youth Lacrosse Coach will also assist the team.

“As a league, we focus on many important facets of the game designed to grow lacrosse and honor its sacred traditions,” Spangenberg said. “The Colonials is one such example of how we are uniting our towns and prioritizing teaching the skills in a fun environment while promoting the importance of character, community, and camaraderie. We are thrilled to bring the finest athletes and coaches from our small community to a much larger one in Texas.”

During the Texas Tournament, the Colonials went 3-1 with three very impressive wins only allowing one goal. Their only loss (8-4) happen to come on their third straight game of the day in 80 degree plus weather against a team that was playing in its first game of the day. The three wins would have gotten the Massachusetts-based team into the championship game against the one team that they lost to, but unfortunately, bad weather put a halt to that. The rains came down quite heavily and flooded a nearby river which also helped to flood the fields leaving the tournament with no place to play.

Having taken part in other tournaments in New England, Dalton was hoping that the Colonials could have come home from this tournament in Texas with a championship.

“It was a great experience and I met a lot of kids who I am hoping to see in future tournaments,” Dalton said “The defense didn’t see all that much action as the offense was so good, but we did our job stopping the opposition when they came into our end. Not getting to play in the championship was upsetting as we wanted to go down there and win it all and bring a championship back to Massachusetts.”