The History of Quinebaug Valley Youth Lacrosse:
In the Fall of 2004, Pomfret resident Rob Morton and Recreation Director Barbara Gagnon explored the possibility of a youth lacrosse program for boys in northeast Connecticut. The pair consulted with Pomfret School lacrosse coaches Jon Sheehan and Rod Eaton. After months of planning, Owaneco Lacrosse was founded in January 2005 and began to play that spring. The name was chosen to honor the Native American origins of the sport and to acknowledge Chief Owaneco, who deeded the land that is now known as Pomfret. The first season of Owaneco fielded two teams and provided instruction to 35 boys. The first three seasons of Owaneco Lacrosse were strictly an instructional program.
2006: a girl’s instructional program was added.
2008: the boy’s senior team played two games against opposing town teams.
2009: the travel program was expanded to provide competition with other towns for the boy’s junior program as well as the senior team. The town of Woodstock could no longer support a lacrosse program, and Owaneco absorbed their boy’s teams, effectively doubling the size of our program. Owaneco provided a quality lacrosse program to over 100 youth in the area.
2010: Owaneco lacrosse became Pomfret Youth Lacrosse (PYL). To expand our travel teams, it became evident that our program reflected the town where the program was based. This made scheduling and program recognition much easier. A Director of Coach Education was added to the program.
2011: PYL expanded to over 130 participants. The girl’s program experienced a resurgence with three distinct programs created. The boy’s junior B program played a full schedule of Connecticut Valley Youth Lacrosse (CVYL) games.
2012: the girl’s program continued to see excellent expansion as over 40 girls joined the program from the local community. The senior girls played a 10-game schedule and competed in several tournaments. The boy’s program experienced continued expansion as 40 boys participated in the instructional/ bantam program as boys had their first opportunity to play against opposing towns. The Junior team jumped to the CVYL A level and performed admirably. The Senior boys finished the regular season undefeated. With the top seed in the CVYL B playoffs, the Senior boys brought home the second league title.
2017: Pomfret Youth Lacrosse (PYL) is rebranded to Quinebaug Valley Youth Lacrosse (QVYL) to show that youth lacrosse players from all the communities in northeastern Connecticut are welcome to join our organization.
2023: The Spring 2023 season will begin approximately the first week of April and run until the middle of June. All teams other than Instructional will practice or have games at least two times per week. The instructional division will practice once per week. Schedules will be set by coaches as soon as registration is complete. Families can expect contact from coaches as practice times and locations are finalized.
We hope to enroll in a minimum of one tournament per team. Details to follow from the team managers. Most tournaments are a single day on weekends. The cost of tournaments is not included in the Quinebuag Valley Youth Lacrosse (QVYL) registration fee.
