Midfielder Tim Myers is the latest Cavalier to work with Harlem Lacrosse

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — For many University of Virginia men’s lacrosse players, summer is a time for internships on Wall Street. Tim Myers made his way to New York City this summer, too, but in a different capacity.

Myers, a midfielder who’s in his fourth year at the University, spent about five weeks working with Harlem Lacrosse in the Bronx, N.Y.

“It was awesome, and it’s so different from what almost all my other friends did,” said Myers, a graduate of St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville.

When he returned home from New York, Myers reflected on his summer experience in a text to Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany.

“Working with Harlem was the best thing I’ve ever done,” Myers told Tiffany. “It gives such a deep appreciation for all that we have and how lucky we truly are. Seeing how important lacrosse is for the kids is just so powerful.”

Harlem Lacrosse was founded in 2008 by Simon Cataldo, who later graduated from UVA School of Law. Cataldo wanted to use the sport as a vehicle to help at-risk students in New York.

The organization’s stated mission is to “provide opportunities, relationships, and experiences that activate the skills and traits to put youth on a path to success as students, athletes, and citizens.” Over the past decade, Harlem Lacrosse has expanded significantly and now serves more than 1,000 students in five cities: New York, Boston, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

“It’s amazing what they’ve done,” said Tiffany, who serves on the board of the New York branch of Harlem Lacrosse.

Tiffany’s predecessor at UVA, Dom Starsia, is a longtime member of Harlem Lacrosse’s executive board.

“When I started, it was a middle school program only,” Starsia said. “It was sixth- and seventh-graders, basically, and now over the past 10 years the whole program has matured. Now we have high school programs in every city, and we have kids in college. We have kids graduating from college.

“In the beginning there was nobody going to college. And now this year, I think we had 75 kids going to college. Next year we’re on track to have 150 go to college. And so that piece of it has just been amazing.”

Many of the students who come through Harlem Lacrosse programs go on to play the sport in college, Starsia said.

Wyatt Melzer, who played for Starsia, was the first member of the UVA lacrosse program to get involved with Harlem Lacrosse. As his graduation approached in 2012 and he considered his career options, Melzer said, he felt “like I wanted to do something a little bit different and wasn’t feeling lined up with the finance world.

“I remember Dom in a huddle just saying something like, ‘[Forget] Wall Street. Go be a teacher; go be a coach; go make an impact in someone’s life.’ And it sparked my curiosity to keep exploring that, which led to Harlem Lacrosse.”

In the summer of 2012, Melzer heard from UVA lacrosse alum Drew Fox about a fledgling organization called Harlem Lacrosse that was looking to hire its first full-time employee.

“I packed my bags and was living in New York on a couch a week later,” Melzer recalled.

Melzer worked in various roles for the organization for almost a decade, during which time he’d regularly take groups from Harlem Lacrosse to visit Charlottesville. He encouraged UVA players to get involved with Harlem Lacrosse, and among those who did so was Owen Van Arsdale. Van Arsdale spent four years with Harlem Lacrosse, the first two as a program director and the next two as director of high school programs.