Founded in 1974, Ashbee Lacrosse is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a highly-successful boys’ youth lacrosse program this season. Ashbee was founded by Norm Treinish, who wanted to provide lacrosse instruction for boys residing in Lower Merion Township, Pa.
At the time, the Philadelphia Wings played in the first version of the NLL and were generating interest in the sport beyond its traditional prep-school roots. Treinish, a former college and club player, organized the informal but regular games for the kids of Merion.
As a member of the governing board of that first Wings team, Treinish also arranged for sticks and equipment to be donated. The Philadelphia Youth Lacrosse League was born.
After beginning with less than 10 kids at General Wayne Playground in Merion Park, Treinish moved his league to Bala Cynwyd Middle School in 1976 to accommodate the early growth, with two neighborhood pick-up teams quickly growing into a four team league.
Support in the early days also came from Barry Ashbee, who was Treinish’s good friend and a former Philadelphia Flyers defenseman. Ashbee had played lacrosse as a kid in Canada and was eager to help establish the sport in the Philly area.
When Ashbee died in 1977 from leukemia, the league was re-named in his honor as the Barry Ashbee Lacrosse League. The former Philadelphia Flyer wore number 4, and that number to this day is a retired number in the Ashbee Lacrosse Club.
As a way to further honor the former Flyers’ hockey player, the official Ashbee team colors have been and continue to be orange and black. The first league logo also incorporated Ashbee’s retired Flyers jersey number 4.
Treinish coached a team and oversaw league operations as the organization expanded to form its first middle-school travel team. Norm, or "Uncle Norm" as he was affectionately called by many of his players, had many specific rules for the house league to help foster teamwork and development, such as no more than one player from each team on a ground ball and players must pass the ball over the midfield line.
Treinish’s goal was to give every boy a chance to play. Everything was, and is, designed to make the game fun, fair, and enriching for all kids.
Ashbee Lacrosse continued to grow in size and stature as lacrosse flourished in the Philadelphia region throughout the 80s and 90s, with Treinish working alongside countless volunteers, coaches, players, and parents to grow Ashbee Lacrosse into a model of youth athletics.
Treinish continued his service for 25 years, until passing away in July 2000.
“Norm was everything that Ashbee still is today,” said Chris Mandarino, Ashbee’s director of coaching who began his association with the league as a second grader in the 1980s. “He made it so much fun that you always loved going there to play. He was a wonderful man.”
Through the years, Ashbee has produced countless high school, college, and professional lacrosse players, including the likes of John Christmas, Jordan Wolf, Hall of Famers Billy Miller and Brian Dougherty, and current Duke defenseman Henry Bard.
Many of Ashbee’s current coaches, like Mandarino, are alums of the program.
“We want to keep doing this because of Norm and to keep honoring his memory,” Mandarino said.
Rob Zelinger has been a part of the league for over 10 years, joining initially as the parent of young players, then becoming a coach, and now serving in his third year as league president. He is proud that the league remains strong and active, despite facing some challenges through the years.
“We lost a season to Covid, and one other season due to transitions in leadership, but we never let this organization fade away,” Zelinger said. “We rebuilt it and it’s in a good place.”
Today, Ashbee, a USA Lacrosse member league, offers three levels of participation.
▪ The Clinic Program, with instruction and games for kindergarten and first grade boys.
▪ The House League, with coaching and instruction for players in grades 2-4.
▪ The Travel Program, with competitive instruction, coaching and games for grades 4-8 (U11, U13, and U15 teams). The travel teams compete against other township programs that are part of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association (SEPYLA).
“We have over 150 participants, and our goal is to help these kids love lacrosse and to feed them into the local public and private high schools,” Zelinger said. “We produce some really good lacrosse players.”
