Local pair honored for efforts to promote lacrosse

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If John Seidel and TonyFlaminio weren t willing, who would be?

That was the attitude of the partners five years ago when they decided to join forces to raise interest in lacrosse around the area.

Now their efforts have been noticed on a grander scale as they recently received the Ohio High School Lacrosse Association s Commissioner s Unsung Hero Award that is given to a noncoach who has worked without pay to promote the sport.

Seidel and Flaminio formed the Toledo Area Lacrosse Association three years ago and have watched its membership reach seven boys and seven girls teams.

We were growing to the point we needed some organization, Seidel said. We said, if not us, then who?

When notified he had won the award, Seidel pushed the OHSLA to also honor Flaminio, whom he coached a junior high team with several years ago. When their days of coaching were through, Seidel and Flaminio decided to remain active in the area lacrosse scene by forming TALA. They modeled it after a Cleveland-area organization and began setting up meetings between area coaches to facilitate communication and scheduling.

Currently fielding teams are St. John s, St. Francis de Sales, St. Ursula, Notre Dame, Maumee Valley (girls only), Perrysburg, Bedford, Anthony Wayne, Ottawa Hills and Sylvania (with players from Northview and Southview). Central Catholic will begin a boys program next year. Lacrosse is not recognized by the OHSAA, although many schools consider it a varsity sport.

John and I are doing this for the kids and for lacrosse, Flaminio said. This [award] is way bigger than us. We re trying to promote the game and the sport. We ve been successful in doing that and we re very happy.

Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com