National Lacrosse Tournament Held at Gaelic Park

Finally, lacrosse has arrived in the south suburbs! Actually, it arrived more than three years ago when the Oak Forest Park District established it's FURY lacrosse program which now has nearly 300 participants. This past weekend though, the HEADstong Foundation, partnered with Aloha Tournaments, hosted Chicagoland's first major lacrosse tournament as part of it's Tour For A Cure event series. While it is exciting that Oak Forest can brag that their community hosted this event, the true focus of the event was much larger. 

According to Cheryl Colleluori, "Many of us know the game of lacrosse is growing rapidly throughout the country, but unfortunatley so are the rates of occurrence and reoccurrence of blood cancer."  She goes on to state "New cases of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to account for 9.0 percent of the estimated 1,596,670 new cancer cases diagnosed in the US in 2011.  Proceeds from the HEADstrong Foundation’s Chicagoland Lax Getaway have been earmarked for patients and families dealing with blood cancers in the Chicagoland area." For Cherly Colleluori, these events serve as a reality check due to the fact that it was her son Nick who established this foundation before succumbing to the disease in 2006. The Collelouri family continues this foundation today as a promise to their son, brother, and lacrosee teamate. 

“The purpose of this event series is to promote our message and take the proceeds and use them to make life a little better for patients and their families dealing with blood cancer.  Even this weekend the reality of this disease could not escape us, having met several families who attended the event whose lives have been greatly altered as a result of this disease.  We understand the power that we as a sport can have in making a difference and are working diligently to create ways teams from around the country can get involved.  It was great to see so many people who understand the true meaning of this game.” says Pat Colleluori.

“Our laces for Lymphoma are recognized as a symbol of strength, hope and love in our sport that transcends uniform color. We wanted to empower these teams and let them know that they were part of something special. This event was a great starting point for us. It was so wonderful to see firsthand the growth and interest surrounding our game, we are honored to be part of something special in Chicago that programs can rally behind to make a difference.” says Michael Colleluori, HEADstrong Vice President

As an Oak Forest Park District Commissioner, I am proud to have been able to help this organization launch it's inaguaral Chicagoland lacrosse tournament here at Gaelic park. Speaking on behalf of Pat and Michael Collelouri, they couldn't have been happier with the support of our community as well as the staff of Gaelic Park. As for the Gaelic Park facility, Pat stated "This facilty is amazaing and has so much potential. We will be back next year for sure and with a much larger tournament." Pat, who is HEADstong's director of development, see's not only a tournamnet, but a weekend in which local coaches and athletes will be offered coaching and playing clinics presented by NCAA and Major League Lacrosse coaches. According to Pat, "We have the connections to these people and we know they would love to be a part of growing lacrosse in Chicago."

Oh, and by the way, our local 13U FURY lacrosse team went 4-0 with only one goal given up!

Joe Conway

Commissioner

Oak Forest Park District