Men’s Lacrosse Player Mike Pino’s HEADstrong Summer Experience Yields Many Rewards

NEWTON, Mass. (10/15/13) – Lasell College sophomore Mike Pino spent his summer continuing his education and promoting a great cause just like many college students. However the Tewksbury, Mass. native wasn't taking classes for his Criminal Justice degree, he was competing in the Amsterdam Lowland Games as a member of Team Headstrong and continuing his lacrosse education while promoting blood cancer awareness.

The HEADstrong foundation is a national organization that uses lacrosse to promote awareness of blood cancer and provides resources to patients and survivors.  After the summer of his freshmen year, Pino, a Lasers' defensemen was offered an opportunity to play with their national team that was competing in the Lowland Games in Amsterdam in late June. He joined 23 other players from Division 1, 2 and 3, representing 20 different colleges from seven different states to form Team HEADstrong. The team wore lime green uniforms; the national awareness color for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and handed out awareness bracelets and helmet stickers after games. The tournament field consisted of Team HEADstrong and the West Coast All-Stars from the United States along with teams from England, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Holland and the Czech Republic.

Pino flew to Amsterdam, meeting his teammates for the first time after arriving at the team's hotel. The lack of familiarity wasn't a problem according to Pino, saying "The team came together very easily. We all had a lot in common, starting with our love of lacrosse. Plus we were the only Americans there so we had to rely on each other right from the beginning."

HEADstrong was perfect in pool play, going 6-0 before defeating England in the semifinal round and then defeating the West Coast All-Stars to claim the tournament championship. Pino started all eight games in the tournament, playing as the team's long-stick midfielder, gaining valuable experience.

"My experience level went up a lot over the course of the tournament. Playing with guys from Division 1 schools like Towson, Denver and Loyola really helped accelerate my growth. They were all willing to share techniques and tricks they'd picked up throughout their careers, it made it very easy to learn."

Pino found that despite their lack of experience playing together it didn't take guys long to learn the nuances of each other's games and gel as a unit. "Communication was very important for us. It helped guys pool their knowledge to bring everyone onto the same page. The base of knowledge players had and the on-field communication helped us combat the lack of game experience so we could still execute the way we needed to."

Lasell head coach Tim Dunton is already seeing the benefits of the experience in Pin's play, "Mike has really grown so far this fall.  You can see that his experience overseas gave him more confidence on the field and he has carried that into his play at Lasell.  It's only been a small sampling in his sophomore season, but so far, we are very pleased with Mike's leadership and ability on defense this fall.  We are very excited about Mike contributing to our success as a team for the next few years".

Pino is hoping to bring pieces of his lacrosse experience back to Lasell. "The experience I gained was invaluable to me and I like to use it to help mold the group of young poles into the type of guys we need to be successful. The trip was a great confidence booster for me and I'm looking forward to being more of a leader now and to help our program grow."

While most of his time was spent playing lacrosse, Pino was able to get in a little time seeing Amsterdam while exploring the city and seeing the sights. "Amsterdam was very different and people were very friendly. We got to see the Royal Palace in Dam Square, it was a massive but breathtaking structure."

Aside from the games themselves, Pino cited a couple of amazing learning experiences from the trip. "My teammates and I knew a lot of the same people even though I hadn't met any of my teammates before the trip. It showed us how small the world of lacrosse really is. The trip also opened my eyes from the standpoint that there is a lot more out there. It was amazing to see how other people live, eight hours on a plane and I was in a whole new world."

Mike Pino's summer education was grounded in lacrosse but became much more. He got to see different cultures, to learn a little bit about life outside of New England and along the way he was able to spend some time as an educator on an important cause for a national organization.