This article appears in the Pacific Southwest version of the May/June edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse today to start your subscription.

Keith Quigley found his passion at an early age. Growing up in sports hotbeds in New York and Massachusetts, he realized the importance of recreational sports in his own life.

Quigley played hockey and lacrosse as a child, and he continued his lacrosse career while studying Recreational Administration at Ithaca College. For Quigley, helping children get involved in sports was at the core of his purpose in life.

Quigley made a life change in 1998, moving to Chula Vista, Calif. — a town just miles from the Mexican border that features a diverse population. It certainly wasn’t the lacrosse hotbed where he had grown up. Far from it.

“I simply wanted to get the game out to the kids here,” Quigley said.

For a decade, Quigley ran after-school programs in 33 different elementary schools around the Chula Vista area. He decided to start his own organization aimed at providing children with limited opportunities the chance to play sports, including lacrosse. He chose the name PUCKidz, short for Positive Understandable Coaching for Kidz.

The driving force behind the organization, which became a nonprofit in 2012, was to make sure kids enjoyed playing sports. Now, it serves more than 600 youth athletes in the area.

“There needs to be more positive environments for kids to play sports in,” he said. “There’s still too much emphasis on winning and losing. I see third- and fifth-graders being screamed at because they didn’t win the game. I’m trying to create a positive, safe, fun environment where kids can succeed.”

Quigley began to implement after-school programs, summer camps and more activities for kids around Chula Vista.

“These kids and families had no idea what lacrosse was,” Quigley said. “Many of these kids have tried or participated in soccer, baseball, football, basketball — the traditional sports — and maybe they’re a little bit behind the ball. You get a stick in their hand and get some positivity in their life, they fall in love with the game.”

Quigley’s PUCKidz program, which is part of the US Lacrosse Urban Lacrosse Alliance, has reached many kids in need of activity, including some at Feister Charter School. PUCKidz has held after-school lacrosse programs for the charter school since 2013.

“The kids love it,” athletic director Joe Guglielmo said. “It’s different from the other sports that they grew up watching. We brought a new world to them to show that they can do something different.”

US Lacrosse also has provided support for PUCKidz. It hosted a Sankofa Lacrosse Clinic at Feister Charter School on Jan. 27 to help children learn more about a growing game in their area.

“This US Lacrosse clinic, it’s a day I’ll never forget,” Quigley said. “Having US Lacrosse come here and run this clinic, it’s been amazing. Walking around and seeing big smiles on the kids’ faces, that all I need. If kids are smiling and having fun, that’s a big deal to me. If you’re not having fun, what are you doing?”

Locally Grown

Los Angeles

US Lacrosse and The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department will implement lacrosse programming as part of the Parks After Dark initiative.  Lacrosse will be introduced at eight participating parks starting in July, with all of the programs coming together for a combined clinic Aug. 4 at El Cariso Park.  US Lacrosse donated five complete sets of soft sticks to help this initiative succeed and thrive.

Long Beach, Calif.

The Pacific Edge Lacrosse Association helped start a new girls’ program in Long Beach. Long Beach Youth Lacrosse will be playing in the PELA this season on a scholarship and was awarded a US Lacrosse First Stick Program grant.

Los Alamos, N.M.

The Los Alamos Lacrosse League is a new and growing league in New Mexico that was awarded a US Lacrosse First Stick Program grant to help establish its footing. This is the first-ever lacrosse program in Los Alamos.

Picture This

Mountain Movement

The High Sierra Lacrosse Foundation began an organized soft-stick, coed P.E. lacrosse program in April 2012, working with US Lacrosse and STX while using proceeds from events like the Lake Tahoe Tournaments in Incline Village, Nev., and Oktoberfest at Squaw Valley, Calif., to fund the initiative. As of March 2018, the HSLF has gifted more than 1,200 soft sticks to more than 30 schools across five different districts in Northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe Basin.

My USL Rep

Judson Stone, Pacific Southwest

A New Jersey native whose love for lacrosse started as a ball boy for Princeton, Stone and his family were instrumental in the growth of the sport in Colorado after moving there in 1990. He became the first scholarship player at the University of Denver and coached at high schools in Colorado and California. Stone oversees initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Southern California and Utah.

How can US Lacrosse help grow the sport in your backyard? Contact Judson at jstone@uslacrosse.org or 410-235-6882, extension 193.