A Brief History of Brooklands Lacrosse
By Rick Summers
Taken from the article, "Spotlight on Hulmeians" from the February-March 2001 Edition of LacrosseTalk Magazine

Hulmeians LC left behind a piece of their history when they moved from the Memorial Ground in Whalley Range to Brooklands Sports Club in 1993. The ground had been purchased by the subscriptions of parents, friends and relatives of Hulmeians who fell in the Great War, and some traditionalists, those with the longest memories, felt we were leaving too much history behind. The Club committee's decision, to give greater consideration to the future than the past, was a hard one and so it was not without some regret that we moved to Sale.

Since our move, the Brooklands clubhouse has been transformed into the envy of the lacrosse world (and many other sports). It has been completely rebuilt providing fantastic sports and social facilities along with a pool, saunas, weight rooms and fitness centre run by Dragons Health Clubs / LA Fitness. Perhaps this joint development between a traditional sports club and a profit-making fitness centre will provide a model for other clubs.

As far as lacrosse goes, we have access to four pitches plus the use the astoturf for practice and for some matches. Hulmeians continue to run four teams at senior level but crucial to sustaining the senior teams, especially in the absence of future lacrosse-playing Hulmeians from the school, was the setting up of our Junior Development Programme in 1995.

The programme has expanded over the last nine years, in no small part due to the excellent coaches we have been lucky to have from the States. What Mike McCaffrey started at WHGS has been developed by Chris Casey, Jason Andalo, Dave Benedick, Dave Maguire, Mike Camerino, Chris Dusseau, Jim Parton, Buck Sliter, Rick Santoro, Brian Gautreau, Marc Torrey, Jeff Baxter, Jesse Rowley, Megan Murphy, Andrew Slotnick , Kevin McElwee, Cath Parfitt, Ryan Madairy, David Pavlick, James Bishop, Alyssa Trudel, Erin Acone, Nick and Sean Crowley Ryan Chitwood, Johnny Liao, Shannon Burke, Will Ashwell, Tom Simmons and Christina Gibson

This year we have 3 American coaches, Rob Triplett and Tom O'Donnell to coach the boys and Anna Sokol to coach the girls. These coaches have a lot to live up to, but we are sure they will continue to uphold and promote the good name, which Brooklands Hulmeians coaches have in local schools. The results are plain to see with the fantastic numbers of youngsters who continue to join the Club. We are fielding players in U19, U16, U14, U12A&B boy’s teams and U16, U14 & U12 girl’s teams.

Six years ago we changed the club name to Brooklands Hulmeians Lacrosse Club, to reflect the changes of our new location and identity. With the continued success of the Junior programme, this name change signifies the new future and optimism felt in the club. The first team is in the Premier Division of the North of England Lacrosse League, and the A, Extra A and B teams can now look to move up through the Divisions with the influx of Juniors and new members to the ranks. The Ladier team enters its third season im the Northern Ladies league.

A number of junior girls and boys have represented Lancashire. This is an excellent achievement but the Club continues to emphasise a policy of inclusion of all children of all abilities.