GIRLS

PETE HOFFMAN AND VARINA LIN couldn’t wait until their daughters were old enough to start playing lacrosse.

Hoffman, originally from upstate New York, had grown up playing the sport and continued as an undergraduate at TCU on the club team. Lin played on the Division I women’s team at George Washington University.

Both parents of Mockingbird Elementary students targeted 2022 as the year they would start a lacrosse team for their daughters and other young girls in Dallas.

But the COVID-19 pandemic altered their plans.

Hoffman and Lin’s families lived nearby. Around October, they were going stir crazy.

“So we went over to Mockingbird Elementary, and we trained our girls, and we had a really great experience,” Hoffman says.

While Hoffman had coached kids in sports before, he relied on Lin for her experience as a former player.

“Men’s and women’s — completely different rules. Completely,” Lin says. “I mean it is two different types of sports.”

The next week, a daughter of one of Hoffman’s acquaintances came to play. They kept training the girls for a few weeks, and then the parents started talking about getting the team started.

It was earlier than Hoffman expected but still possible. In just over a week, he built a website, made social media accounts and reached out to more contacts to invite more girls to play.

They held a clinic at Glencoe Park for girls in kindergarten through second grade who were interested in lacrosse. Of the 32 who signed up, 24 decided to join the two teams: one for kindergarteners and one for first and second graders.

Neighbor Kristy Mathot, who played lacrosse in high school, saw a social media post about the clinic and knew she wanted to get her daughter, then in second grade, involved right away.

“I was so passionate about the sport myself, and I wanted her to find something that she could be passionate about,” Mathot says. “She hadn’t really found her sport yet.”

Now, just three years after Dallas City Lacrosse began, the program has grown to include more than 100 girls in kindergarten through fourth grade who are zoned to Dallas ISD schools or those in the Lake Highlands High School feeder pattern. Next year, they’ll have a team for fifth graders.

Alex Fergus, whose daughter was one of the first 24 to join the organization, says the team gave the girls something safe to do outside during the pandemic, and it has helped them grow their confidence.

Plus, it’s provided young girls an opportunity to participate in a sport not offered by their schools.

“We’ve got over 100 girls who never would have picked up a stick,” Fergus says.

There are about 15 adults on staff of the nonprofit organization, and most of them are women.

“I’ve had several moms who have said, ‘You know, we just really love the fact that there are strong female coaches and leaders and role models, because so many other sports are led by dads,’” Mathot says. “And no discredit to that, but it’s just a really unique community, a unique league.”

Do ğ an Dattilo, one of a few male coaches, has two daughters playing for Dallas City Lacrosse. He says he tries to stay off the field as much as possible so the players are led by women.

Dallas City Lacrosse plays teams from the suburbs and nearby private schools, such as Hockaday and Episcopal School of Dallas. But with so many teams, it was hard to schedule games for each one.

The solution was what they call “play days.” Held at Woodrow Wilson High School, the play days brought other teams to our neighborhood to compete, with games scheduled one after another.

“It’s just amazing to watch these girls play, the first year playing, never having picked up a stick, never having heard of lacrosse,” Lin says. “And then all of a sudden, they love the sport. They want to play. At practice, they’re always asking for more time.”

To learn more about Dallas City Lacrosse, visit dallascitylacrosse.org.

Our Neighborhood

By PATTI VINSON

Gestures big and small

Finding kindness in our neighborhood

Put down your phone. Turn off the news. There’s good out there, people. If you need your faith in humanity restored, check out these tales of kindness — some big, some small — that happened right here in our neighborhood.

Neighbor Sujata Desai is a recipient of unexpected grace. On a cold and rainy December night a few years ago, Desai was out with her husband and two young children when their car was rear-ended. They had been waiting a couple of hours for police to arrive when a woman came out of her nearby house to see if they were OK and if they needed anything. She allowed the children to use her bathroom and gave them hot cocoa as they waited. “To this day, I think about her kindness … in the dark with total strangers,” Desai says.

Another neighbor, Kirsten Schlein, has a story that proves even during the most difficult times, folks can set aside their worries and think of others.

“During the worst of COVID, I stopped at Sprouts after work. I’m a health care worker — I was in scrubs, tired and I’m sure I looked like absolute hell,” Schlein says. “The person in line in front of me paid for all my groceries, gave me a potted orchid, thanked me and swiftly left, just giving me enough time to get out a thank you. I’ve thought about that often and how that empathy and kindness are so impactful.”

Diane Birdwell, a teacher at Bryan Adams High School, tells of an encounter that proves good begets good.

“Last winter, I ran into the Dollar General on Ferguson at Highland Road because I needed a half-gallon of milk. That was all, but you know how you see other things? Well, I had an armful of stuff, and I was standing in line when the woman behind me was about to drop a few things she was holding. I put my stuff down on the counter and caught her items for her. No biggie. I’m checking out, the total is about $13, and that woman reaches past me and puts it on her card! She was just grateful that I helped her. After a stressful day at BAHS, it was like having a touch from the wing of an angel.”

Another similar story comes from 80-year-old Abby Bush. Recently, she was paying the tab for herself and a friend after breakfast at Chubby’s on Northwest Highway.

“I handed the cashier my credit card, but she handed it back and said, ‘The young man behind you is paying for your meal.’ I was overcome with surprise and gratitude, and I got all emotional and choked up,” Bush says. “All I could say was, ‘Thank you, thank you so much, sir!’ Then as we were leaving the restaurant, I said to him in a faltering voice, ‘I want a hug.’ He didn’t hesitate to give me a big hug. We said good-bye and wished each other a good day.”

Neighbor Lauren Ortega recounts a memorable run there. She was shopping with her two toddlers, one of whom was still nonverbal and prone to overstimulation.

“Without the communication aspect, he would have epic meltdowns quickly that I would then have to attend to,” she says.

This particular day, all went surprisingly well until checkout time. The line was long, and her son began having a meltdown, flailing and screaming, prompting his tearful, frightened brother to join in.

Ortega remembers she was on the floor “trying to wrangle” her son, when help appeared out of nowhere.

“All of a sudden, these two kids, high schoolers they looked like, walked up,” Ortega says. One steadied the cart while the other started reading a magazine to the crying toddler, giving Ortega the chance to deal with her other child. The two helpers pitched in at checkout and walked the mother and children out to her car, where they loaded up the purchases.

One handed Ortega a bottle of water and wished her a good day.

“I was so thankful I started crying, and the other one gave me a hug and said that they babysat often for a family with twins, and they understood how it was. They wouldn’t let me pay them or give me their names. They just said to pay it forward one day when I could.”

Alicia Love has her own good Samaritan story. A few years ago, she and her then-small daughters became stranded at CVS at Lovers and Greenville due to car trouble. A middle-aged woman approached and asked if they needed help. Love explained she needed a ride for herself and her daughters to Autozone at Park and Greenville. The stranger offered a ride, explaining she was on her lunch break.

The car part purchased, the woman gave them a ride back to their car at CVS. “God sent me a guardian angel that day, and I’ve always wanted to find her and thank her again,” Love says.

Another East Dallas neighbor, Oliver Butler, has a story of compassion that inspired him to action.

“When Ingram’s Doughnuts at Abrams and Northwest Highway was in the old spot with the drive-thru, I pulled in behind Harry, who is the homeless gentleman who can be seen around there,” Butler says. When he saw Harry walk away with a bag of food and a coffee, he was curious and asked the Ingram’s owner about the exchange. “That’s Harry,” the owner told him. “We help him the best we can.”

Butler shakes his head. “I was so moved! Floored! It was inspiring — so much so that since then, we have smoked and given away turkey breasts at Thanksgiving. I gave the first one to the lady at the doughnut shop. What do you think she did? She made sure Harry got a big portion!”

We’ve all had these moments of grace. Pay it forward, neighbors. Let’s keep it going.

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