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Emily Hawryschuk entered the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 31, 2023, with the eight of the largest lacrosse organizations in the United States. Shortly after sixes lacrosse was added to the 2028 Olympic Games, those entities joined forces.

The ratified agreement, Elevate28, promises a mission to double the country’s participation in lacrosse from 2 to 4 million annual players by 2028. USA Lacrosse CEO Marc Riccio rang the closing bell as trailblazers in the lacrosse world smiled around him. Yet among countless legends, including Gary Gait, Hawryschuk was most touched by the kids from Bronx Lacrosse.

“We had a couple kids who were there, and to see their faces light up was awesome,” Hawryschuk said. “Going back to the growth of the game, it was really monumental in that aspect.”

Since Hawryschuk — Syracuse’s all-time leading scorer — graduated in 2022, she’s contributed to the exponential growth of women’s lacrosse. Her training academy, 51 Stars Lacrosse, offers workouts to kids in the Rochester and Syracuse areas — the ancestral land of the Haudenosaunee, the creators of lacrosse. Hawryschuk leaps at every opportunity to play or teach lacrosse, and it’s all in service of giving a larger platform to the game she loves.

Her latest venture is a roster spot in the Unleashed All-Star game, featuring the best women’s lacrosse players in the world playing Olympic-style sixes lacrosse on Feb. 17.

Over the past 18 months, Hawryschuk has committed all her time to lacrosse. Last year, she served as an assistant coach for Niagara and now serves in the same position with Rochester Institute of Technology. Simultaneously, she’s sought out new opportunities to play organized sixes and box lacrosse for Team USA.

Although she was drafted in the first round by Athletes Unlimited, Hawryschuk didn’t pursue the women’s field league for contract reasons. Instead, she wanted to maximize her time coaching in her community.

Her training sessions include small and large group training, focusing on different lacrosse techniques. In the Olympic discipline, every player must play offense and defense, emphasizing the importance of knowing the fundamentals.

Cole Ross | Design Editor

“There’s so much energy around showcases and all those events, but training is where you get better,” said Princeton alum Rachael DeCecco, the Vice President of Lacrosse at the PLL. “To be in your town training kids, that’s the really quality time that you’re getting with these kids who can learn how to be a great player, but also make those relationships.”

Naturally, Hawryschuk’s first-ever coaching connection turned into a lifelong friendship. When Sam Swart was a senior at Archbishop Carroll High School (D.C.) and already committed to Syracuse, Hawryschuk coached at one of her clinics.

“Right then and there, you could tell we were going to be great teammates,” Swart said.

The pair dominated on the field, and their bond is “more family than friendship” off the field, Hawryschuk said. In their hearts, Swart and Hawryschuk are still the same kids who clicked instantly seven years ago, Swart said, driven by a constant desire to improve.

When Team USA announced plans for a women’s box lacrosse team to compete in a worldwide tournament this summer, Hawryschuk reached out to Swart immediately. Gait, who coached both at SU and is from British Columbia, Canada — where box originated — trained the women’s players with a few weeks of box lacrosse each fall. She and Swart have a photo playing together at SU that they plan to recreate in their Team USA box jerseys.

“It was always one of my favorite memories from each fall,” Hawryschuk said of playing box at Syracuse. “The IQ, skill, physicality of the game is something I always enjoyed doing.”

Prospective players needed to sign up for one of the three ID Camps in New York or New Jersey from May through Aug. 2023. Swart and Hawryschuk attended them all, determined to make the practice group “Team 1,” which they did last fall. Since this is a completely new discipline for the women’s game, they were more like training sessions than tryouts.

Assistant coach Crysti Foote said Hawryschuk was one of the first people to impress the coaches her first time out and has steadily improved each time Foote has seen her play. According to current Syracuse women’s head coach Kayla Treanor, Hawryschuk has the potential to be the best box player on the US team because of her physicality. Foote echoed that sentiment, explaining Hawryschuk’s stick work and physicality are the ideal combination for box lacrosse.

She’s also been selected for two of the three Super Sixes events, including a four-team tournament in Canada last October. Hawryschuk helped Team USA take home the gold, winning 8-7 over Team Canada in the final. As time ticked down in the gold medal game, Hawryschuk ran the clock out, then chucked her stick into the air before celebrating with former Syracuse teammates Swart and Nicole Levy.

“All three of us from Syracuse can finally say that we won, which was awesome,” Hawryschuk said.

The faster-paced sixes game allowed Hawryschuk to refine her offensive skills and introduced her to the defensive side of the ball. Playing attack at Syracuse, Hawryschuk never played much defense apart from riding clear attempts.

Hawryschuk is a disruptive presence – a ball magnet on both ends who wreaks havoc in transition. Because of that, Foote said Hawryschuk can excel among the best sixes players in the world.

It’s been a long time coming for Emily Hawryschuk ⏳

A photo posted by pll

“Over the course of the weekend, I saw her physicality shine, being able to get to goal,” Foote said. “She might have been missing shots in the beginning, but by the end of the weekend she was able to finish and really help our team win that gold.”

Given Hawwryschuk’s significant sixes experience, DeCecco instantly thought of her as an impact player when putting the Unleashed All-Star teams together. DeCecco said sixes is “made for someone like (Hawwryschuk).”

Hawryschuk has gained valuable professional perspective on the Olympic format and is sharing that knowledge with the next generation. It’s important work because finding skilled and committed youth coaches for women’s lacrosse is difficult, Foote said, even in a hotbed like Central New York.

But with more avenues for the game to grow, fundamentals are vital to the next generation and players like Hawryschuk are the best teachers.

“It’s the playing, but it’s also the career building,” DeCecco said. “If you want to be a paid women’s pro lacrosse player and build a career out of it, it wasn’t going to happen for me and it may not happen for Emily because of the timing and where she is. But the girls she’s coaching, that’s the dream.”

Hawryschuk may not be able to make a living just by playing lacrosse — lots of male professionals still can’t. But the skills she’s learning in these new disciplines could help the kids she’s coaching get to that point.

“All I want to do is share the game of lacrosse with the younger generation and play it as much as I can,” Hawryschuk said.

Published on February 15, 2024 at 1:06 am

Contact Wyatt: wbmiller@syr.edu