Jeff DiVeronica

@RocDevo

Someday, years from now when the first lacrosse team from the city raises that Section V championship block, they might mention 2017 as the year it all started again in the Rochester City School District.

East High is fielding the first varsity team in the city since the 1970s. It’s a boys squad of 22 players that includes students from East, Leadership Academy, Northeast and Northwest College Prep, Wilson and World of Inquiry. With 15 freshmen and four sophomores, the Eagles are very young, so they’re playing some varsity teams from smaller schools and scrimmaging varsity squads from bigger schools.

“I think it’s a sport we can excel at in the city,” said East’s head coach Sean Banks, 40, a physical education teacher. “It’s like basketball on grass.”

The 1994 Webster graduate tells people lacrosse is really a combination of basketball, soccer and hockey. It's also a team sport, and the city is getting a big assist from Rochester’s indoor lacrosse team. Knighthawks players Brad Gillies, Dan Lomas and Luke Laszkiewicz are on Banks’ coaching staff and on Tuesday the National Lacrosse League club donated a boatload of equipment — Under Armour cleats, sticks, pads and gloves — to be used by the Eagles and other city teams playing at levels beneath varsity.

“It makes us all really feel special, to be honest,” said Marquis Reed, a junior at Northeast. “It’s such a competitive and energetic and full-of-contact sport. It’s a fun sport.

“We’re blessed to have our own team.”

The partnership between the lacrosse team and RSD has received financial support from Diamond Packaging and its owner Karla Fichter. Giving back is nothing new for the local company, which was founded in 1911. In fact, corporate giving is a staple of Diamond Packaging’s corporate values. “We sponsor causes that are important to our employees,” said Fichter, whose company also has hosted high school players in a suite at Knighthawks games. “As a woman-owned business and part of a Proctor & Gamble diversity group, it is really exciting to be a part of something like this.”

In addition to the East varsity, there are two city modified and two JV teams this spring. The “mod” squads are mixed, meaning boys and girls can play. “Our goal is to bring in modified and JV for girls next year exclusively,” said Carlos Cotto, athletics director for the RCSD.

The East squad actually started as a modified team in 2014 and has graduated to varsity. It has been the culmination of ROC E6, a sports-oriented non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Arkee Allen, a former two-time state champion wrestler at Irondequoit.

It began as a summer camp for city kids interested in wrestling. But after the morning session kids wanted more.

“We have no place to go after lunch, so we’re coming back,” Allen recalled kids saying.

His thought: We can’t have them wrestling all day, so he asked for help from his friend, Art Alvut, who was his brother in the Big Brother/Big Sister program and also a former college lacrosse player.

In 2005, 28 kids were in the camp. At its peak, 128 players participated. This year the number is 80, but it could grow. The program now runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings at 6 p.m. at School No. 33, 500 Webster Ave. It’s open to elementary age children through high school, and here’s the best part: It’s free.

It started April 1 and goes until mid-June. How can you join? “Just show up,” said Allen, 40, a Columbia University graduate who is the director of community engagement for a nonprofit foundation.

No equipment is necessary.

“This is one of the biggest areas in the state for lacrosse,” Cotto said, “so bringing it in was key to provide our students the same opportunities.”

Finding new ways to engage in a new sport in the spring helps, he said. “We’ve looked at studies and students that play multiple sports have a higher attendance rate, a higher GPA,” Cotto said. “It creates a balance between academics and athletics.”

Cotto’s son, 8-year-old Xavier, is in the ROC E6 program, which Banks knows will be a critical feeder program for school teams.

“It’s very exciting right now,” Gillies said of the varsity squad. “Obviously these guys have a chance to really build something special here.”

Banks said having the Knighthawks players around builds morale.

“It makes them really want it. They feel appreciated,” he said. “They have professional athletes working with them each day, building relationships.”

Banks never played lacrosse in high school. When he moved from the city to Webster as a 15-year-old he saw players swinging sticks in the spring and didn’t know what it was. He picked it up at Monroe Community College after being recruited to play by then-coach Craig Rand.

“Once I played, I felt like I missed out (in high school),” said Banks, an assistant football coach at Webster Schroeder in the sport he played in high school.

He’s happy city kids won’t ever feel the same way and appreciates the Knighthawks helping so much with their time and money.

“You have $120 Under Armour gloves for lacrosse,” he said of what his players will now wear. “It makes them feel good. It makes them feel like a legit program.

“I looked at this (program) two years ago as something that’s going to take 10 years to get (up to speed),” Banks said. “With the Knighthawks’ help, this has propelled us to get a varsity program faster than we thought.”

JDIVERON@Gannett.com