By Guest Contributors

Jun. 6, 2018: In an unusual twist of fate, four players from Bronxville found themselves competing for national titles in the NCAA Lacrosse Championships last weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.

Owen Jones and Ted Forst are members of the Yale lacrosse team, which won its first Division 1 National Championship in school history, beating Duke 13-11. Reilly Walsh is a member of the Duke team, which staged a late comeback in the game but eventually fell to Yale. Duke finished the season ranked #2 nationally with an impressive record of 16-4. In the men's Division 3 championship, Ben Shively played for the Wesleyan team, which claimed its first national title, defeating two-time defending champion Salisbury by a score of 8-6.

All four players got their start in BYLA, and both Forst (BHS '15) and Jones (BHS '14) were members of Bronxville's 2014 New York State championship lacrosse team. Forst, a junior midfielder who finished the season with four goals and one assist, including the final goal in Yale's semifinal game against Albany, was a clutch player in big games during the postseason. A recent winner of the Richard Corrigan-Richard W. Pershing Award for showing the most improvement in a single season, Forst has excellent momentum going into his senior year at Yale.

Ted Forst (#43 on the right). Photo by Judy Holland.

Jones, a senior FOGO, is a member of the most decorated athletic class in Yale's history as three-time Ivy League tournament champions and two-time Ivy League champions and made four NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2018 National Championship.

Owen Jones (in white). Photo by Tom Duran.

Jones attributes Yale's success to its coaching staff and team culture, noting, "Our culture is based on ONE (Only Need Everybody) and our success comes from personal accountability, razor-sharp attention to detail, and a focus on fundamentals that apply both on and off the field. Coach Shay preaches that every guy is as important as the next, regardless of your role on the team, and everyone's role is critical to our collective success."

Walsh, a sophomore midfielder at Duke, was a member of Bronxville's varsity lacrosse team in 8th and 9th grades before transferring to Brunswick. He finished his sophomore season at Duke with sixteen goals and three assists, earning ACC All-Tournament honors. In his freshman year, Walsh finished the season with an impressive twelve goals and seven assists. His high school lacrosse accolades at Brunswick include being named a two-time All-American, a three-time First Team New England, and a two-time Under Armour All-American. This was Duke's sixth appearance in the NCAA championship game, and the Blue Devils claimed the title in 2010, 2013, and 2014 under head coach John Danowski.

Reilly Walsh (#42 on the right). Photo by David Welch.

Ben Shively, a senior long-stick midfielder on the Wesleyan team, attended school in Bronxville through 9th grade before transferring to the Westminster School. Shively finished his career at Wesleyan with seventeen goals and one assist, earning both ISILA All-American Honorable Mention and All-New England Second Team in both 2017 and 2018.

Ben Shively. Photo by Steve McLaughlin.

Shively attributes Wesleyan's success to the groundwork laid by the team, noting, "Being successful requires constant maintenance, both physically and mentally, so that everybody on the team is sharp and on the same page. Winning the championship is the culmination of taking these steps of improvement and recovery for years and years in the making. You realize how much work it took the players before you to get the program to where it is when you arrive, and you have to do your best to add what you can and refine the process so that players after you can build on it."

Pictured at top: Owen Jones (L) and Ted Forst with the championship trophy.

Photo by David Silverman Photography/DSPics

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