Jason Cooke: Excited to cover the world of lacrosse in New England

I eventually had to make a choice. Playing two sports in the same season was never going to last forever.

Sorry, baseball purists. You’ve probably heard this tale one too many times.

Yes, I was the kid who traded in his jaded baseball bat for a shiny new lacrosse stick. Baseball was often slow and boring for my 12-year-old self. And that’s coming from someone who was a catcher and was still actively involved in every pitch.

I was a hockey player at heart. To me, lacrosse seemed like hockey on grass. Pass, shoot, score. Seemed easy enough.

I was mistaken. I obviously lacked the immediate footwork, stick skills and lacrosse IQ that my teammates had been tailoring for years.

But I eventually found my way. It didn’t take long for lacrosse to become more than the sport I played when the sun came out in the spring to stay in shape for the looming hockey season.

I was a four-year player in high school — technically three due to COVID — and each spring reminded me just how much I loved lacrosse. I was not the best player on the field by any means. But I found joy in hitting the turf with my teammates.

I was then met with another choice. As for how my disjointed lacrosse career ended, I ultimately chose hockey. While Division 3 college lacrosse was a possibility, I pursued a college hockey career with a season in the junior circuit.

It was then that I realized I was perhaps a better writer than I was a hockey player. I began freelancing for my local newspaper at the Tewksbury/Wilmington Town Crier, and I fell in love with telling the stories that surrounded sports.

I covered anything I could, including high school, college and professional sports as a freelancer with the Lowell Sun and the Boston Herald and, most recently, the Merrimack Valley Conference as the editor of Valley Sports Daily. I even spent some time working with Seamans Media covering Maine high school hockey and baseball.

So when an opportunity presented itself to become a full-time writer at New England Lacrosse Journal, it felt like a full-circle moment. I found myself picking lacrosse after all.

I am thrilled to join such a talented team of writers at Seamans Media, where I will be focusing on boys coverage around the region. There are so many questions I wish I knew the answer to when I picked up a lacrosse stick for the first time in middle school. Whether it be understanding the ever-changing club landscape, navigating the world of college recruiting or simply how to stand out in this competitive environment, it is my goal to keep you informed.

There might be families out there grappling with the myriad of decisions I made along the way.

I know I made the right one.

Hopefully this time, it won’t upset my baseball coach.