The Jacksonville lacrosse story started with a broken promise. Thirty-four years later, Dave Rock tells it today as one of promise fulfilled.

Rock, 53, is the owner of Dave’s Gourmet Paletas — a charming eatery in Fairfield, Connecticut, that serves frozen treats handcrafted from fresh local fruit in a style that originated in Mexico. A serial entrepreneur and married father of two who made his fortune during the dot-com boom and most recently served as the senior vice president at a magazine subscription agency, Rock made the decision during the pandemic to leave corporate life and open the artisan ice pop shop.

“Pure joy on a stick,” the company’s Instagram bio says.

Four rows down feed, amid posts of mango chamoy and sea salt caramel popsicles drizzled in chocolate and topped with coconut flakes, there’s a screenshot from the ACC Network on Feb. 13 showing dozens of lacrosse players in green jerseys embracing next to the solemn group in white and a score bug beneath them.

JACKSONVILLE 14 DUKE 12

“I’m at the grocery store,” Rock’s wife, Elisabeth, had texted earlier that Sunday evening. “What do you need?”

“Get home now,” Rock finally replied. “We won.”

Later, he texted Dolphins coach John Galloway.

“This is because of you, John,” Rock texted. “Because of what you did.”

In typical Galloway fashion, he replied immediately and deflected the praise like one of the 1,735 saves he made in 11 seasons as a professional lacrosse goalie.

“No it wasn’t me,” the sixth-year head coach messaged back. “You did it. You built it.”

GALLOWAY WASN’T WRONG. While most people associate the beginning of Jacksonville lacrosse with the university’s 2008 decision to start NCAA Division I men’s and women’s programs there, the true origin story starts 20 years earlier, when Jacksonville recruited 25 men to comprise a varsity team that never got off the ground.

Rock, then a brash kid from Long Island, burst into the office of Bob Merritt, the director of admissions. “What’s up with the team?” Rock asked. “We don’t have one,” Merritt replied. “But you’re going to start one.”

“I am?”

“Yes. If not you, who?”

And so Rock set about launching his very first startup: the 1988 Jacksonville men’s lacrosse club. He plastered the 240-acre campus with signs and organized a meeting in The Valley — a thoroughfare between the dorms and other university buildings marked by steep and seemingly endless concrete steps. They’d put a makeshift field there, lined according to the specifications Rock researched in the university library. He cold-called area soccer and basketball referees to ask if they knew anything about lacrosse. Most didn’t.

Rock’s parents, Alvah and Susan, purchased porthole mesh jerseys for the team, which otherwise wore mismatched shorts and paid its own way to compete against Florida, Florida State, Miami and others.

That year, the Jacksonville yearbook published a piece about “this fast-moving, hard-hitting sport” next to a team picture with that classic 1980s lax vibe — the 25 players sitting, kneeling and standing in three rows behind two sticks forming an X across the brim of bucket helmets.

“Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in America today,” Rock is quoted as saying, “and hopefully JU’s JAX LAX will become a force in southern lacrosse.”

Rock couldn’t help but remember that line the first time he stepped foot in the $1.8 million Jacksonville Lacrosse Center for its grand opening Feb. 15, 2019. Walking through the double doors, his eyes were drawn not to the huge fluorescent-lit JU suspended from the ceiling nor the four-screen video array board situated in front of the black leather couches, but rather the five words embossed in a forest-green collegiate font on the soffit between them.

LACROSSE CAPITAL OF THE SOUTH

Eight months later, the Rock family made what Jacksonville athletic director Alex Ricker-Gilbert called a “transformational” gift to the university. It included naming rights to the state-of-the-art building that would henceforth house the lacrosse teams.

The Jacksonville Lacrosse Center became the Rock Lacrosse Center aka “The Rock.” At around the same time, Jacksonville announced it would discontinue its football program to reinvest in its 18 other teams. D.B. Milne Field got a makeover and became Rock Stadium, marked only by lacrosse lines — they’ve changed some since 1988 — with “Jacksonville Lacrosse” and “Rock Beach” stitched permanently into the synthetic turf.

IN THE HAZY AFTERGLOW of the biggest win in Jacksonville history, Galloway sought out Max Waldbaum.

“Nobody believed in me,” Waldbaum said as they hugged.

The Dolphins made believers out of everyone that Sunday, defeating No. 3 Duke 14-12 in Durham. Waldbaum, the 6-2, 230-pound transfer from Tufts, scored four goals and added two assists for Jacksonville, which went on a six-goal binge and survived a late comeback by the Blue Devils. A Denver native, he also scored four goals the previous week in a narrow loss at Johns Hopkins.

“He’s changed our program in a lot of ways,” Galloway said afterward during a surprisingly subdued bus ride back to Duval. The Dolphins had to prepare to play at Mercer less than 48 hours later. “He plays a 2v1 ground ball drill like it’s a game against Duke. His competitive edge and his want to prove himself is so clear.”

Alex Ricker-Gilbert hated missing that game. Six years ago, Jacksonville made the then 28-year-old one of the youngest athletic directors in the country when it promoted him to the position. Now he’s a senior vice president.

Galloway, a year younger than him, was his first hire.

“I couldn’t get up to the Duke game, and it absolutely crushed me,” said Ricker-Gilbert, who recruited Galloway in part because of a Duke connection. He worked under Duke’s deputy AD, Troy Austin, when the latter was the AD at Longwood. Austin put Ricker-Gilbert in contact with senior associate AD Art Chase, who worked closely with the Blue Devils men’s lacrosse program as a sports information director. Chase recommended Galloway, who got his start in coaching as a volunteer assistant under John Danowski, whom he’d later play for as co-captain of the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. team.

Handsome, articulate and fit as a whip, Galloway presented a persuasive case for Jacksonville’s potential as the southernmost destination in Division I men’s lacrosse — even if Galloway himself had second thoughts.

Sure, Jacksonville had its moments previously under Matt Kerwick and Guy Van Arsdale, like a triple-overtime win over nationally ranked Denver in the Dolphins’ inaugural season back in 2010, a convincing victory over Navy in 2012 and finishing as regular season co-champion of the MAAC in 2013. But the team managed just 11 wins over the next three seasons and still operated out of the storage closet of a vacant dorm on the other side of campus.

The Jacksonville women, meanwhile, ascended almost immediately to national acclaim, making the first of seven NCAA tournament appearances in 2013 and twice setting NCAA records for scoring offense under head coach Mindy McCord and her husband, Paul, a lacrosse power couple.

In the last part of Galloway’s interview, university president Tim Cost, a Jacksonville graduate who played baseball at the school and was previously an executive at Pepsi, drove him around the campus with its half-mile of riverfront property, majestic oaks and not much else. Cost projected what the place would look like in 5-10 years, including new academic and athletic facilities, renovated dorms and the addition of a law school downtown.

After stewing over the decision near the arrival gate at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, Galloway, an assistant at Providence at the time, accepted the position.

“Everything they promised has come to fruition,” Galloway said. “Looking back now, it was the smartest decision I’ve made. But it was certainly a leap of faith.”

Thirteen days after Jacksonville defeated Duke, Ricker-Gilbert took his own leap of faith — into a mosh pit of 40 sweaty lacrosse players at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium in Denver, where the Dolphins downed the Pioneers 11-9 en route to their first-ever top-10 national ranking.

The Lacrosse Capital of the South over the Lacrosse Capital of the West. Denver, which won the NCAA championship in 2015, provided the blueprint for how to build a title contender at a small private liberal arts school in a desirable albeit non-traditional lacrosse location. Recruit nationally. Embrace transfers. Hang onto homegrown talent. Schedule bluebloods.

Denver had mountains. Jacksonville had the beach.

“I said to myself after Duke, I am not going to miss another opportunity to see us win a game like that one,” Ricker-Gilbert said. “I needed to be there for what could be another critical landmark in this program’s ascension.”

Jacksonville beat Air Force the next day, making it five wins in 14 days — a whirlwind two-week stretch and the longest winning streak in team history.

WHEN GALLOWAY RETURNED TO THE ROCK that Tuesday morning and set down on his desk the cheesecake squares his wife, Christina, made for the team, one of the players came into the office to show him a video of Jack Dolan leading JU down steps past a snow embankment at Denver, the 88 flag draped over his right shoulder.

Galloway didn’t recruit Dolan, who had already committed to Jacksonville when he was hired in June 2016. Fourteen months later, Dolan, an All-American midfielder from Columbus, Ohio, reported to the university as part of a mammoth 21-member freshman class. Only three remain.

There’s Jeremy Winston, Galloway’s first recruit. They met at a prospect day, Galloway’s first day on campus. Winston, a Dallas native, said he could feel a sense of brotherhood in the program despite the newness of the coaching staff which for a brief period included Casey Powell. He could have played college football or both sports elsewhere. “But those guys treated me like family,” he said.

Then there’s Dixon Smith, also of Dallas, who had already visited Jacksonville before Galloway’s arrival and verbally committed to the program shortly after his hire. “Coach Galloway’s just a big dreamer. I’m a big dreamer,” said Smith, who lives with Dolan in Jacksonville Beach about 20 miles from campus. “I was not a highly recruited guy at all. This program just fit my personality. It is a gritty startup.”

And then there’s Dolan, who entertained multiple job offers before deciding in early August to come back for his MBA and one last go around with the Dolphins. “If I’m going to start something somewhere, I’m going to finish it there,” Dolan said. “I’m not going to jump ship.”

Dolan’s performance in practice the week before Denver earned him the 88 Player of the Week honor and the right to carry the flag onto the field. The green banner attached to a lacrosse handle has the jersey No. 88 superimposed on a faded background of the Dames Point Bridge over the St. Johns River. Images of Corey Lovrich fill out each eight.

Co-captain of Jacksonville’s first varsity team, Lovrich died in July 2012 of colon cancer. He was 21. A decade later, the Dolphins still break down huddles with his favorite saying, “Win the day.” His jersey has a permanent place in the locker room. The team’s fundraising arm is called the 88 Club.

On March 16, 2013, the day Lovrich’s No. 88 was retired, Cameron Mann scored late in regulation and then in overtime to lift Jacksonville to an 11-10 win over Siena. Mann visits the team every fall to speak about his former teammate and the values he represented — about his grit, his positivity and his commitment to others.

“We never let his legacy die,” Smith said.

Galloway sees a lot of the same qualities in Dolan, Smith and Winston, who has played with a heavy heart ever since his father died suddenly from an infection Jan. 18.

“That’s why we do this right there,” Galloway remarked after seeing the video. “They’re my why, the fifth-years.”

Jacksonville has leadership in spades. Its 60-man roster includes nine graduate students, the remaining six of which all transferred into the program at some point in their careers. Galloway says former Maryland defenseman Colin Hinton should be a surefire PLL draft pick. Waldbaum and goalie Luke Millican, who started as a freshman at North Carolina before suffering a season-ending injury and never regaining the role, have been revelations this year.

There’s no big-school bias, either. Galloway’s top two assistants, Tyler Granelli and Chris Perzinski, both come from the Division III pipeline. One of this year’s graduate transfers, Reid Smith, who played high school lacrosse at nearby Ponte Vedra, competed for Florida State’s club team. After Lynchburg’s coaching staff visited on the way to the IMLCA convention in Orlando, Galloway and company decided to start charting shots the way the Hornets do, adding a sabermetric element to their weekly preparation.

Galloway’s coming of age as a coach has coincided with that of his first recruits and what Winston called “a player-led culture,” an accountability that was reinforced after a letdown loss to Utah on March 6.

Jacksonville responded by beating its next two opponents — both on the road — by a combined 38-10 margin. Then the Dolphins thumped St. John’s at home 25-4, the most prolific scoring performance in team history. Last Saturday, they held on for a 13-12 win over High Point in a back-and-forth Southern Conference battle that included a 75-minute lightning delay.

Prior to this year, Jacksonville was 1-25 all-time against nationally ranked opponents. The Dolphins are 2-1 against such foes this season and at 9-2 overall have already eclipsed the school record for wins. Ranked No. 9 in the latest Nike/USA Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20, Jacksonville can achieve another milestone Saturday when it hosts No. 17 Richmond. The Dolphins have never beaten the Spiders.

Rock imagined what he might say about this team years from now when people ask him about the origins of Jacksonville lacrosse. “This is the team that popped, that broke through. Forced entry,” he said. “There’s been a lot of knocks on the door. This team has all the pieces.” 

This article appears in the April edition of USA Lacrosse Magazine. Join our momentum.