The Woodstick Classic is, by many accounts, the Super Bowl of Long Island lacrosse.

Garden City and Manhasset, Nassau County rivals who are two pillars in the New York lacrosse community, have played at least one game against each other every year since 1935.

Except this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic eliminated all springs sports across New York, making April 18’s scheduled contest impossible. The Woodstick Classic is the nation’s longest continuous high school boys’ lacrosse rivalry, and it’s a day often circled on calendars across both communities.

“It’s sad,” Garden City head coach Steve Finnell said. “It’s a sad, empty feeling for the kids in both towns and the communities that have waited for the opportunity to play in that game.”

Athletes from the winning team are treated like heroes of the town, as young lacrosse players aspiring to play in the game themselves come back year after year to witness the next chapter. Manhasset leads the all-time series 77-61.

“Even when you’re young and in PAL, you’re hoping you get to play against Manhasset,” said Justin Guterding, who attended Garden City from 2010-13 before starring at Duke and going pro. “Even in third and fourth grade and playing against them, you grow that rivalry.”

It’s the rivalry that adds an edge to this game. This isn’t an annual friendly. Although it’s a midseason contest, the on-field product is like what you’d see in a state championship — of which both programs have won several.

“The atmosphere was just incredible,” said Bill Cherry, who coached Manhasset’s varsity team from 2007-16 and the middle school and junior varsity programs from 1975-2007. “It was similar communities. The kids knew each other. When it came to that game, the friendships were off. I compare it to the Yankees and Boston.”

And most years, it’s a playoff preview. From 2011-19, Finnell said the only year his team didn’t play Manhasset in the playoffs was 2012.

“Rarely is there a blowout,” he said. “There are many times when you can throw the record out when one team’s favored. The other steps up to the challenge.”

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In 1932, Jay Stranahan founded the first Long Island high school lacrosse team at Manhasset, which then competed in the Metropolitan-Long Island Lacrosse League.

Stranahan played with Jim Steen on the Nassau Lacrosse Club, and they attended NYU graduate school together. After some persuasion from Stranahan, Steen introduced lacrosse to Garden City High School. In 1935, Steen’s Garden City Trojans became a varsity team. There was already a brewing football rivalry between the schools, so this was a natural progression.

The first lacrosse game between the high schools — located roughly six miles apart — was May 22, 1935. Manhasset won 9-0 and won 12 of the first 14 games before Garden City became a consistent powerhouse.

“We’re closing the gap lately,” joked Finnell, who is just the fourth head coach in Garden City’s 85-year history.

The list of alumni to have played in the Woodstick Classic is as exhaustive as it is jaw-dropping. Jim Brown, often considered the best lacrosse player ever, dominated at Manhasset from 1950-53. (Surprisingly, the teams split the eight games he played in.)

Other all-time greats from Manhasset include Tim Goettelmann, Don Scott, Ryan Young and John Gagliardi. From Garden City, Guterding, Pete Lesueur, Rob Engelke and BJ Prager are among the notable alumni, though the list goes on and one from both programs.

“We talk about the history,” Finnell said. “I think that’s important. Jim Brown is the greatest football and lacrosse player to ever play both sports, possibly, and he’s part of this. There’s a history of it. If we have the trophy, I try to get the kids to look through it, spend some time and ask questions.”

For years, the Woodstick Classic only featured the boys’ varsity teams. Now, it’s an all-day, community event which includes JV programs, the girls’ teams and an alumni game, which raises money for Goettelmann’s charity, Monster’s Kids, which benefits the Pediatric Surgical Operating Complex at Northwell Health’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center. 

The alumni game gives the players of yesteryear, who often come back for the main event anyway, the chance to rekindle their love of playing. Guterding, an attacker from the Premier Lacrosse League’s Chrome LC, has made many on-field memories. The alumni game gave him the chance to make another.

“I had John Gagliardi covering me, which is one of the coolest things,” Guterding said. Gagliardi, 45, was a two-time All-American at Johns Hopkins, a Major League Lacrosse All-Star from 2000-07 and a member of the U.S. men’s national team in 2006.

“He was a great player at Manhasset and a great player in the pros. When I was going up against him, he’s a little older than me, so I tried to take it easy.”

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Finnell experienced the Woodstick Classic as a player, an assistant and now a head coach. He played varsity lacrosse at Garden City from 1988-91 for another legend, Doc Dougherty.

The game always had a certain anticipation, but he’s seen the scope of the event progress since his playing days.

“My junior year in 1990, the game was played on a weekday morning during spring break with no fanfare,” he said. “I think Doug Dwyer, who was an assistant to Doc Dougherty, really gave a good push toward making this more of an event.”

Finnell called the game “fun” as a player but admitted it’s more stressful as a coach. Much of that comes in tempering the expectations of players.

“You had to calm them down during the week leading up to it,” Cherry said. “You didn’t want them to burn themselves out.”

The Class of 2020 will miss their final Woodstick Classic. They’ve played in others, sure, but Guterding said there’s something special about that last ride.

“It is really, really important to me that we won those games,” he said. “When I played my senior year, I think there were about 6,000 people there. My heart breaks for those seniors who aren’t able to play in the game this year.”

Guterding thinks players will “be itching” to get back out there for the next installment. Although the “continuous rivalry” billing may need an asterisk next to it because of the unexpected circumstances of a global pandemic, the atmosphere of the game won’t change.

People will come out in droves. Lacrosse will be played. And both Garden City and Manhasset will fight for supremacy.

“The game is embedded in the history of the two schools,” Cherry said. “Not having played this year, it’s going to be even bigger next year. The feelings will be the same between the kids, but everyone knows they want to see this again.”