BCSN's Coverage on The Wolfpack
The Blade's Coverage on the Wolfpack
​
Wolfpack offers lacrosse option to area players
​
STEVE JUNGA
The Blade
MAY 9, 2023
​
If you are interested in playing boys high school lacrosse in northwest Ohio and your school does not currently have a program, you may wish to consider “Running with the Pack.”
​
Although the Ohio High School Athletic Association lists 149 schools with boys lacrosse programs from its 800-plus total membership, there are 11 current boys teams from the state’s northwest district — four at the Division I level and seven in Division II.
​
The Toledo Wolfpack, led by head coach and program organizer Luke Walters, offers access to the sport for boys from area schools that do not currently field lacrosse teams.
​
In its third year of existence, the Wolfpack program this season has brought together players from 14 different high schools, offering lacrosse in a club-program format, with players paying a fee of $90 to participate.
​
“I decided to call them the Wolfpack,” Walters said, “because that's basically what we are — a bunch of kids from different schools. It grew from there. We play about 14 to 15 games a year, and we have a mix of players coming from all over the place.
​
“To get those players here, and to get them all motivated, it's all based around having fun. We make sure that we have fun at all the practices and, even if the games are tough, we make sure we end on a positive note. Really, it’s based around making sure we have a good time.”
The Wolfpack plays close to a full regular-season schedule of games in the spring season, but because it is not officially an OHSAA member school program, the team is not eligible for postseason tournament play.
​
Walters, a 1995 graduate of St. Francis de Sales High School, created this club team as a rekindling of a previous Wolfpack program that was originally established in 1989.
​
In fact, Walters played lacrosse for the Wolfpack in the days before St. Francis established its own lacrosse program. That early Wolfpack team combined players from St. Francis with players from other area high schools. And, more than two decades before the OHSAA officially sanctioned a state lacrosse tournament, the earlier version of the Wolfpack won an Ohio Division III state championship.
​
What led Walters to resuming the Wolfpack club-team program was a family dilemma.
His son, Jack, attends Rossford High School, which does not offer lacrosse. Jack, a junior, played for the Wolfpack the past two years, but this season was sidelined by a knee injury.
“He played youth lacrosse in Perrysburg, but he really only had a few options after that because Rossford doesn’t have a team,” Luke Walters said of Jack. “He could either play travel lacrosse, which is pretty expensive, or he could play indoor. “But indoor is just drop-in lacrosse, and you’re on a different team every time. You’re just mixed in with other players, and you don’t get that camaraderie that you do with a normal team.”
​
Walters has 22 players on his roster from schools in the northwest Ohio/southeast Michigan area.
Five Wolfpack players are from Central Catholic, which discontinued its boys lacrosse program after the 2019 season. The only other schools with multiple players on the team are Whitmer (two), Toledo Technological Academy (two), and Monroe (three).
​
Included on the roster are one player each from Ohio schools Rossford, Lake, Maumee, Otsego, Sandusky Perkins, and Ohio Online Academy, and Michigan schools Adrian Lenawee Christian, Britton Deerfield, Gibraltar Carlson, and Carleton Airport.
​
If there is a common thread among the Wolfpack players, especially those from the portion of the team who reside well outside the immediate Toledo area, it is that — based on their willingness to commute – they have a strong commitment to the game.
​
Aaron Welch, a junior from Perkins, travels the farthest at around 61 miles, a trip he makes for games and three-times-per-week practices with parents John and Heather Welch.
​
“I thank my parents for everything, because they’re the ones that bring me here for every game or practice,” Welch said. “They were looking on Facebook and happened to find [the Wolfpack info]. My first summer team was Black Swamp Lacrosse, which is also out of Toledo. From Black Swamp Lacrosse we learned that Wolfpack existed for kids who don’t have lacrosse at their high schools.”
​
Owen Plum, a sophomore at Britton Deerfield, travels over 30 miles to practice and play with his Wolfpack teammates.
​
“I started playing in Sylvania when I was in third grade,” said Plum, whose family resides in Blissfield. “My school didn't have it, so we had to start looking for a place I could play. We found this team, and ever since I’ve played for them.”
​
“There's a lot of nice people on the team and I get to meet people from all over. I'm making friends from a bunch of different places.”
​
Christian Prater, a senior from Lenawee Christian, drives close to 40 miles to Toledo to participate with the Wolfpack.
​
“I wanted to do lacrosse in the spring, because I had nothing else to do,” said Prater, who played soccer at Lenawee Christian. “I found this organization in Toledo and started playing two years ago. I like the quickness and physicality [of lacrosse]. I also like this team a lot. Everyone here knows how to communicate, and it is very systematic. It’s not just one player doing everything.
“I play simply because I enjoy the sport. I like playing with the team. They just like to have fun. The group changes, but I’ve known some of these guys for a while now. We get along really well, and we work well together when we play.”
​
Much closer to the team’s practice location at Pine Glen Park — which is located behind the parking lot to the Knights of Columbus Hall on Secor Road in West Toledo — are the five players from Central Catholic.
​
One of the Fighting Irish contingent is junior Layton Marsh, who was the special-teams long snapper last fall for Central’s Division II state-championship football team.
​
“It’s been a great opportunity because, without it, I wouldn't be able to play at all,” Marsh said. “The district [Start] where I live doesn’t have a lacrosse team either, so there is no other opportunity. It’s been a blessing really.”
​
With each season the Wolfpack has gained more stability as a program.
​
“One of the biggest challenges with putting this together is all the work that's put in in the background,” Luke Walters said. “I’m constantly reaching out to the youth organizations in the area, going to youth games, meeting with parents of kids who don’t have a high school to play at.”
​
That part of the battle seems to have been won, but other challenges remain.
“It’s a non-profit,” Walters said, “so it’s keeping up with all the state paperwork for that, and making sure we have all the proper equipment ordered, and keeping everything in order. Then, it’s getting hold of schools and scheduling games. Two years ago, when I was trying to schedule games for the first time, none of the ADs felt like talking to me.
​
“I was able to get my foot in the door at a couple places, and once I got my foot in the door, I could show the other ADs that, ‘Hey, we play this school and this school. We’d be more than happy to come to your place.’ We run a clean program, and we just want to have a place for the kids to play.”
First Published May 9, 2023, 12:23pm