A Brief History of Lacrosse in Geneva
A video slide show of the History Happy Hour presentation, “A Brief History of Lacrosse in Geneva.”
Historic Geneva is a history museum in the Finger Lakes region of New York State which focuses on the history of Geneva, NY, historic architecture, genealogy, and the area's industry and agriculture. The Society maintains four historic 19th century properties, an archive and library, a museum and runs programs and events related to the history of Geneva and the Finger Lakes area.
This was wonderful! To see my Great Grandfather, Doc Covert and my Dad, Jay B Covert III made my heart happy! My brother also played lacrosse for Geneva High and went on to play at West Point. My son had a stick in his hand from the day he started toddling. He played for the Geneva Youth Lacrosse league all they way through high-school until 2 ACL tears in the same knee side lined him for good. Thank you for this slide show.
I received the “Doc” Covert award in 1974 at GHS and one of the lax gods I mentioned in my comment below was Richie Brown who I believe is your uncle he and Scott Smith and John Natti taught a lot about the game and when John became head coach at Geneva he asked me to join him as an assistant. I coached from 1980-2007 and that allowed me to coach your brother Richie. Since I live across the river from Philadelphia I always try to connect the sixth degree of Kevin Bacon which I think would connect my mother in law Dorothy Ritter as working at West Street with your mother Connie. My wife Jean Gaylord lives on Main Street Geneva and still teaches primary art in Waterloo, she makes the five hour one way trip on weekends and spends summers down here in South Jersey. She has one more year, I hope though she has retired before, and that will give me one more year to coach high school lacrosse. I hope bringing up the past is positive and all your family continues to live happy lives. All the best.
David Gaylord
P.S. Richie Brown would probably remember me as Bobby Orr as I remember him as Georgie Orange Bear, the seventies were indeed strange. Hope your brother remembers me as well.
John, Sorry I missed the presentation at Lake Drum. Great history. Nice to seem many players and coaches that I know or knew.
Thanks for all of your research.
Loved this! Lacrosse was special at HWS and so much fun to follow. Thanks, John
Loved the program and having played at GHS was delighted to see the picture of my senior class of 1974 included. I was awarded the Doc Covert award that year and coached Richie Covert while he was in high school. I coached at GHS from 1980 until 2007. When I moved to southern New Jersey where I coached for West Deptford high school for over ten years I currently coach at Paul VI high school in Haddonfield, NJ and in the summer I coach with the South Jersey Shamrocks. It is my passion and now that I am 68 I hope to continue to pass down the skills taught to me by all the great lax gods of Geneva. I still am fascinated by the black players who played in the armory at a very difficult time in our history. When I lived on Worthington Ave I lived across the street from the White brothers whose great uncle was Mose Kenny sure would love to know about his history. My father Donald told me he was one of the best players he ever saw. If anyone has an history please reach out. Thank you so much after 44 years of coaching I still get excited every year.
Mose Kenney’s newspaper clippings can be found on “Fulton History Search”
How do I access the Fulton History Search ? I am very interested in Mose Kenney and his story. Thank you
You will find the newspaper search function here: https://fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html. It’s not always easy to use. Search for the name of Geneva’s newspaper as “Geneva NY Daily Times” [in quotes] to limit your results to the local newspaper. Make sure you set the search for “all the words”, not the default Boolean.