By CHUCKIE MAGGIO
Jahmeir Warfield knew he wanted to sign his letter of intent to play for the Albany men’s lacrosse program in his hometown.
That decision required some patience, as Warfield completed his prep lacrosse career at prestigious Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass. and spent the summer playing in the Upstate Collegiate Box Lacrosse League. His Upstate Armory team made it to the National Collegiate Box Series tournament championship in San Jose, Calif. last weekend.
“Still a little jet-lagged,” Warfield remarked with a laugh.
The travel only delayed Tuesday’s signing day ceremony at East High School, where Warfield officially became the first player from the Rochester City School District to join a Division I lacrosse program. The midfielder attended East until he enrolled at Tabor for the 2019-20 school year and played alongside fellow Division I pledges Will Hoyt (Colgate), Tim McNamara (Denver) and Aidan O’Neil (Utah).
Family, friends, former coaches and East High faculty attended the ceremony, lauding Warfield for his intense commitment to the sport and the opportunities he has earned because of his work ethic.
“I had a good nucleus of players, talented players, that were involved with other sports. They didn’t really take lacrosse that serious,” explained Sean Banks, an East physical education teacher and coach who started the school’s lacrosse program in 2013. “I just wasn’t sure, the commitment level I was gonna have from certain kids that I was starting the program with, and I was starting to doubt whether or not the program was gonna get going… I had serious doubts.
“Then all of a sudden, this tall kid, goofy smile, started coming to my office every day talking about lacrosse. ‘Coach Banks, can we do this, do that? I have a cousin out in Canandaigua and I want to be just like him. And it was just like a bright light that shown on the program. He came at the perfect time… He rejuvenated it. He was the boost of energy that I needed to know I could get this done.”
Warfield, with the mentorship of Arthur Alvut, London Booker and the Roc E6 Urban Lacrosse Alliance Program, became a star. The self-described “crafty, shifty, rangy player” scored in five of East’s six games in 2019, also assuming a faceoff role. He was drawn to Albany, where he moves in a week, after watching Division I career points record holder Lyle Thompson play for the Great Danes.
“I chose Albany mainly for the political science program,” Warfield noted. “They have a really strong political science program and a top 20 lacrosse program as well.”
Warfield aspires to play professional lacrosse after college. He also plans to continue serving as a role model to Black athletes from Rochester who would like to pick up the sport. Though the game’s diversity has improved in the United States, and Black players like Myles Jones and Kyle Harrison have compiled All-Pro careers, Warfield sees there is progress still to be made.
“I’m the first one out so basically, it’s me taking a step to show other kids that you can do it,” Warfield acknowledged. “I was once in that position where I saw lacrosse players and it was often questioned why I played the game of lacrosse. There’s a stereotype in the city of Rochester that lacrosse is a ‘white sport,’ when originally it’s a Native American sport and one of the oldest sports on Earth. So I really use this as my platform to show other kids that it’s possible to be a lacrosse player out of Rochester.”
Warfield’s next stage to grow that platform will be John Fallon Field.
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