The 2018 FIL Men\u2019s Lacrosse World Championship took place this summer in Netanya, Israel from July 11-July 21. Across 10 exciting days, a total of 46 nations competed for the championship title, making the 2018 tournament the largest of all-time. Among those competing nations were Australia and Puerto Rico\u2014and wearing those nations\u2019 jerseys were two of Trinity-Pawling\u2019s very own. Ryan Spark \u201906 was in the goal for Australia; Tomas Rodriguez \u201915 played defense for Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience was unreal,\u201d shared Rodriguez. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be playing lacrosse at the international level and representing Puerto Rico was such an honor.\u201d Rodriguez earned his spot on the roster for the Puerto Rican national team last year. A defenseman in his junior year at Pace University at the time, Rodriguez also had 2 years of Division 1 lacrosse at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) under his belt. He was one of 23 players selected for the Puerto Rican national team.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying for Puerto Rico was completely different from playing for a school or a town,\u201d Rodriguez explained. \u201c23 of us were representing thousands of people. We weren\u2019t just playing for ourselves\u2014we were playing for all those who played before us and anyone who will play after us. We received support from the entire island and it was incredible. That feeling is something that I\u2019ll always carry with me whenever I suit up.\u201d<\/p>\n
While in Netanya, Rodriguez heard from Trinity-Pawling faculty member and Athletic Trainer Emily Tucci. \u201cMrs. Tucci is the best!\u201d Rodriguez began. \u201cShe reached out to wish me luck and put me in touch with a T-P alum who played for Australia\u2014Ryan Spark \u201906.\u201d The next day, after his game against the Iroquois, Rodriguez noticed Australia taking the field to warm up. \u201cI ran over to the goal and asked the guys if any of them went to Trinity-Pawling. The smile on Ryan\u2019s face was a dead giveaway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the two players had never before crossed paths, Rodriguez felt an instant connection. \u201cThat\u2019s what T-P does for you. It builds this incredible brotherhood and support system. There\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n
Both Rodriguez and Spark finished in the Top 10 at the World Championship. Australia finished fourth overall. Puerto Rico finished eighth, with wins against Japan and Germany, and made history as the first-ever first year program in the tournament to make it to the Top 10. And to top it all off, both Spark and Rodriguez were able to meet on the world stage and realize just how far the Trinity-Pawling brotherhood goes. \u201cThe entire tournament was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d concluded Rodriguez. \u201cI consider myself so lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 2018 FIL Men\u2019s Lacrosse World Championship took place this summer in Netanya, Israel from July 11-July 21. Across 10 exciting days, a total of 46 nations competed for the championship title, making the 2018 tournament the largest of all-time. Among those competing nations were Australia and Puerto Rico\u2014and wearing those nations\u2019 jerseys were two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-august-2018"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"46 NATIONS, 10 DAYS, 2 TRINITY-PAWLING ALUMNI ON THE FIELDS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2168,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions\/2168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitypawlingthequad.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}