ROSEVILLE, Minn. — When lifelong New Yorker James Miceli moved to Minnesota 11 years ago, he soon realized his love for lacrosse was a rarity in the state of hockey.
But wanting to continue the sport he had played since childhood, Miceli joined a club team, eventually coaching at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and then at the Blake School, a prep academy in the Minneapolis suburb of Hopkins.
That’s when he realized the gear he and his players were using hadn’t advanced much from his childhood days on Long Island, with aluminum sticks instead of the high-end composite materials standard in other sports.