Winthrop Youth Lacrosse Founder Pushes for Miller Field

Founder and head coach of Winthrop Youth Lacrosse, Rich Cifuni, urged the School Committee to make quick progress with Miller Field, at the Monday night School Committee meeting. Expressing his concerns for the low enrollment in the program and the lack of movement on the field being fit for availability, Cifuni urged committee members to get moving and start proactively looking at rates, times, and field maintenance so everything is figured out by the time it’s ready to be utilized. Parents are discouraged by having to commute all over the state for the weekly games, and over the past two years this has caused a drop in enrollment.

“I’m asking the committee to hone in and focus on whatever needs to be done to get our kids on the field,” said Cifuni. “I understand that no one guaranteed us a spot this spring but we all thought it was a good bet to be on the field. I’m strongly encouraging you guys to make it happen.”

Cifuni also brought up the fact that the field belongs to the community as a whole and that coaches and parents have contributed tons of hours to the Winthrop Youth Lacrosse program over the years.

There are only four Sundays that Cifuni would need the field for his players, however; there is hope for more in the future. The first game is scheduled for the first Sunday in April. Cifuni has been dubbed as the “Father of Winthrop Lacrosse,” having founded the increasingly popular youth program nearly eight years ago. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Community Service Award, as a result of the outstanding work that he did for the youth lacrosse program. The launching of the youth program has evoked the rising success of the high school boys lacrosse program. Winthrop Youth Lacrosse has athletes ranging from first through eighth graders and their season runs from March to June.