A Brief History of Brooklands Lacrosse
By Rick Summers
Taken from the article, "Spotlight on Hulmeians" from the February-March 2001 Edition of LacrosseTalk Magazine

Hulmeians LC left behind a piece of their history when they moved from the Memorial Ground in Whalley Range to Brooklands Sports Club in 1993. The ground had been purchased by the subscriptions of parents, friends and relatives of Hulmeians who fell in the Great War, and some traditionalists, those with the longest memories, felt we were leaving too much history behind. The Club committee's decision, to give greater consideration to the future than the past, was a hard one and so it was not without some regret that we moved to Sale.

Since our move, the Brooklands clubhouse has been transformed into the envy of the lacrosse world (and many other sports). It has been completely rebuilt providing fantastic sports and social facilities along with a pool, saunas, weight rooms and fitness centre run by Dragons Health Clubs. Perhaps this joint development between a traditional sports club and a profit-making fitness centre will provide a model for other clubs.

As far as lacrosse goes, we have access to four pitches plus the use the astoturf for practice and for some matches. Hulmeians has continued to run three teams at senior level but crucial to sustaining the senior teams, especially in the absence of future lacrosse-playing Hulmeians from the school, was the setting up of our Junior Development Programme in 1995.

The programme has expanded over the last seven years, in no small part due to the excellent coaches we have been lucky to have from the States. What Mike McCaffrey started at WHGS has been surpassed by Chris Casey, Jason Andalo, the two Daves, Mike Camerino, Chris Dusseau, Jim Parton, Buck Sliter, Rick Santoro, Brian Gautreau and last year, Marc Torrey, Jeff Baxter and Jesse Rowley.

Again this year we have 3 American coaches, Kevin McElwee and Andy Slotnick to coach the boys and, a female lacrosse coach, Cathy Parfitt to coach the girls. These coaches have a lot to live up to, but we are sure, will continue to uphold and promote the good name which Brooklands coaches have in local schools. The results are plain to see with the fantastic numbers of youngsters who have started playing this year. We are fielding players in U16, U14, U12 & U11 boys teams and U14 & U12 girls teams. On some Saturdays we have over 70 children playing our great game...

This year is a most important year in the Club's long history. We have changed the club name to Brooklands-Hulmeians Lacrosse Club, to reflect the changes of our new location and identity. After the integration of members from Sale Lacrosse Club and the continued success of the Junior programme, this name change signifies the new future and optimism felt in the club. The first team is now back in the top flight of English Lacrosse, the Premier League and the A team and Extra A teams can now look to move up through the Divisions with the influx of Juniors and new members to the ranks.