May 6, 2008 E-MAIL PRINT

Duxbury domination

by Mike Zhe/

(photo: Brian Clark/New England Lacrosse Journal)

(photo: Brian Clark/New England Lacrosse Journal)

Before Duxbury High School was winning five of the last six Massachusetts state titles, and before players like Max Quinzani were flashing the form that would land them at programs like Duke, the real battles were being fought off the field.

Fifteen years ago, buoyed by a growing interest in a new youth program in town, a proposal was made to field a high school team for the first time. It was shot down quicker than a Quinzani shot.

“I thought it would be a slam dunk because of the support we had,” said Burke Walker, who started up the town’s youth program in the early 1990s. “But it was a bad time, budget-wise, and the school committee said, ‘Absolutely not.’ ”

Today, you can’t drive down Route 14 without seeing goals standing in driveways and on front lawns. Participation numbers have swelled, and high school teams across Boston’s South Shore and beyond have games against Duxbury circled on their schedules.

What a difference 15 years makes.

Trying to put a finger on the reason for Duxbury’s success is like trying to stop a flood with a single sandbag. It’s become a sport that’s attracted the school’s best athletes, but also one that’s benefitted from solid coaching continuity.

“Overall, I think we’ve developed depth,” said Chris Sweet, who is in his 10th year as Duxbury’s head coach and 13th with the program. “Our best players now are no better than our best players then, but depth-wise, we’re stronger.”

From Sean Sullivan to Quinzani, and Chris Nixon to Ben and Matt Fuchs, Duxbury alums go on to play for some of the best college programs in the nation: Maryland and Duke and Georgetown and Yale.

When the Green Dragons won a Division 1 title in 2002, it kicked off an unprecedented run of success for this mid-sized school (enrollment 986). Hockey snared a Division 1 title in 2004-05. That fall, the football team won the Division 2A Super Bowl.

The boys basketball team was crowned state champion in 2005-06, and the hockey team won another title the next year. Even the golf team got into the act, in 2006.

The constant? Each team had at least a lacrosse guy or two playing for it.

“When there’s success in a sport, that goes on to other sports,” Duxbury athletic director Thom Holdgate said. “They were kind of the first ones to get over the mountain and win a state championship (in 2002). Since then, part of the reason is the lacrosse kids playing other sports.”

Walker called Baltimore home for 34 years, before taking a new job and moving to Duxbury in 1986. One of the first things he did upon arriving was look for a youth lacrosse program for his fourth-grade son, Justin.

“I assumed I could just do the routine that you did with kids: Drop him off and do my chores,” he said. “But I didn’t do my due diligence. There really wasn’t anything like that close by.”

By 1990, Walker was actively recruiting kids to come try a new sport. He and his son cobbled together a list of the top athletes in town and sent them invitations to attend a $25 fall clinic at Lincoln Field, which would include a free stick.

One of those kids was Adam Ochs, a seventh-grader who had just moved to town with his family from Colorado and was having a hard time fitting in.

“It was culture shock,” he recalled. “I hated it at first. I didn’t like the people. I didn’t like the weather. I heard they were starting up a lacrosse thing but I didn’t want to go to it. One of my neighbors convinced me and drove me there.”

From that first clinic sprouted a 23-member team in the spring of 1991. The next year, there were two teams, outfitted in nice uniforms. The “rebel” sport, as it was known, was steadily attracting good athletes from other sports.

“It was something really unique at the beginning,” said Ochs, who would go on to play at Duxbury High and then collegiately at Air Force. “It kept drawing kids. I remember seeing Max Quinzani running around, 4 or 5 years old with a lacrosse stick in his hands. In middle school and high school there was such a buzz.”

After getting rejected by the school committee, a group of parents and boosters pitched the idea of a privately funded high school program. With that group putting up $12,000 annually, Duxbury fielded a JV team in 1993 and ’94 and a varsity team for the first time in 1995.

“A lot of hard hours were put in by a lot of dedicated people to get the thing going,” said the elder Walker, who is now the coach at Lowell High School.

Seven years later, players were piling on top of each other celebrating a state title. Several of those early players went on to play in college. Those are the guys who may be enjoying this current run of success the most.

“It’s pretty damn cool,” said Rod Leitzes, who played at Duxbury High in the mid-’90s and went on to captain the team at Division 3 Franklin & Marshall. “But it was all Burke. He did the whole thing. He bent over backwards to put it together. And if you talked to him, you wouldn’t even know that.”

“It changed the trajectory of my life,” Ochs said. “It did so much for me. I’m still involved with the sport, coaching my own youth teams, and that’s the reason.”

To the surprise of no one, the Green Dragons opened the 2008 season with four straight wins. From there, they headed to New York state for a series of games.

Scheduling strong, out-of-state competition has been a Duxbury staple. Sweet grew up and played collegiately in upstate New York, and he makes sure there are a handful of games against teams from New York and Connecticut on the schedule each spring.

“I don’t think the kids around this area were exposed to that,” Sweet said. “What they saw was lacrosse in this area. The biggest thing was showing them how lacrosse could be played at that level. Once the kids were exposed to that they saw what level it could be played at and they aspired to that.”

Heading into April vacation week, the Green Dragons had won 77 consecutive games against Massachusetts public school teams, a streak that includes the last four Division 1 championships.

This year’s team is led by seniors: defenders Craig Sullivan (an All-American) and Mike Murphy, attackers Scott Austin and Derek Sweet, and midfielder Grant Marston.

Nobody’s handing the Dragons a fifth straight championship. Xaverian — an overtime loser to Duxbury in last year’s state final — knows how close it came, and Billerica and St. John’s Prep are two other teams to watch in Division 1.

But Duxbury’s still the team to beat.

What a difference 15 years makes.

“Back then, I’d be throwing it around in the front yard with Justin,” Walker said. “Cars would drive by and literally stop and stare.”

They’re still staring at Duxbury now. Just for different reasons.

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