DALTON, Mass. — As coach of Wahconah Regional High School's state championship boys lacrosse team last year, Joe O'Neill helped put Berkshire County on the map in the sport.

 

But coaching "field lacrosse," as he calls it, was not even on his radar until fairly recently.

 

"Wahconah lacrosse is the only field lacrosse I coach," O'Neill said this week. "I've been coaching box lacrosse for the last 12 years."

 

This weekend, O'Neill will coach the Paper City Oaks into the North American Box Lacrosse League Championship in Chicago.

 

The Holyoke-based squad earned the right to represent New England at the regional championship on Aug. 13 in Roxbury.

 

The squad that O'Neill and co-General Manager Charlie Edwards bring to the Windy City includes three former Wahconah standouts: Jeremy Girard, Devin Lampron and Billy O'Neill. Lampron and O'Neill played on that 2022 state title team.

 

And the Oaks' program includes many more Berkshire County athletes, including one who will be back on the high school field in the spring.

 

Among the players listed on the Oaks' "unprotected" roster this summer (and inactive for this weekend) are: Wahconah senior Rylan Padelford; Wahconah alums Logan Newsome, Trey Massaro, Austin Ovletrea and Jonah Smith; Pittsfield's Devin Walker, Eric Miller and Matt Davis; and Henry Eustis of Great Barrington, who played on the cooperative team at Lee High.

 

But the Oaks' branches extend far beyond the Berkshires or even Western Massachusetts.

 

O'Neill explained that the team's three main recruiting bases are in the 413, the Albany, N.Y., area and the Akwesasne Reservation on the U.S.-Canadian border in Northern New York.

 

"This is the first time I've ever been able to actively recruit players," O'Neill said. "It's been new and fun for me."

 

Last year, Joe O'Neill coached and Billy O'Neill, a rising senior at Wahconah at the time, played for the NABLL's Cambridge Nor'Easters in Eastern Massachusetts.

 

"This year, there were some teams in Canada calling Billy to see if he wanted to go up there," Joe O'Neill said. "I said, ‘Hey, do you want us to make a team here?' "

 

And with the pair's connections in the box lacrosse world, they were able to start attracting quality players.

 

"Billy's played for one of their teams in the reservation over the years, and some of the guys I had coached from around here also played up there," O'Neill said. "Their friends came down here to play with us."

 

O'Neill explained that box lacrosse is big in Canada, where the sport originated in the 1930s as a way for hockey rink owners to generate revenue in the summer.

 

Still played on hockey rinks — the Oaks call Holyoke's Fitzpatrick Rink home — box lacrosse also features five runners and a goalie. And although it looks a lot like field lacrosse, there are important differences.

 

"It's a much, much more physical game," O'Neill said. "We don't pick standing still. It's kind of more like a lineman in football, where you hit [the opponent] and move a little on your picks. The goalies wear a lot more padding.

 

"It more closely resembles hockey. Because of that, you'll have field lacrosse superstars who can barely play the indoor game. Very, very few Americans play at a professional level in the indoor game."

 

Likewise, box lacrosse players who transition to the field game bring certain skills that help in the sport's outdoor version.

 

"That was what you saw with Wahconah when we won the championship," O'Neill said. "Billy [O'Neill], Caden [Padelford] and Rylan [Padelford] in part all grew up playing box lacrosse on the reservations. Devin Lampron, as he started getting older, he started coming and playing more box lacrosse with me.

 

"Box lacrosse is different. It's lacrosse, but it operates more like a hockey culture in terms of the unwritten rules and the things that happen when you break those rules."

 

With its players drawn from all over the Northeast, Paper City had to figure out how to come together as a team. Right after the high school season ended in June, the program ran a weekend training camp. Then it played a couple of games before getting into the regular season.

 

O'Neill said lacrosse can be an expensive sport to pursue at the highest level. A family can pay anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 for a summer of competitive field lacrosse.

 

"Our No. 1 goal this year was to not charge the players anything to play," he said. "They'd have to cover expenses for travel and food. But myself and Charlie Edwards spent a lot of time on the phone and meeting people face to face, and we got local businesses to support us.

 

"We typically got enough fans to cover three-quarters of our game day expenses. And after all our home games, a [Holyoke] business, Griffin's Cafe, was good to the guys. After every home game, we'd go to his pub, and he'd order pizza for the guys. The local support down there in the regular season was amazing."

 

The Oaks also got support from a number of Berkshire County businesses, including Washington's Always Growing Landscaping, Dalton's Berkshire Dream Home Real Estate and Pittsfield's Herrick Mechanical, Champlain Masonry and Camp Arrow Wood.

 

"When we won the [New England Championship], we had a meeting with the players, families and friends outside the rink and said, ‘Get ready to go out and do some fund-raising,' " O'Neill said. "I set a goal of $75 from each guy, and they've done a good job. The guys have to figure out how they're getting [to Chicago] and find their rooms. Once we're done with fund-raising, we'll disperse the funds equally among the guys out there, so the team is subsidizing their travel.

 

"I'm driving out with a few of the team members and one of the other coaches to help cut costs."

 

As for the 10-team tournament itself, the Oaks figure to be competitive at the national level. O'Neill said that, historically, New England and upstate New York have been among the top divisions in box lacrosse. This summer, Paper City's Camden Smith of West Springfield has led NABLL in goals (38) and points (59). Oak's goalie Dreyden Jackson of the Akwesanse Reservation is third in the league in saves with 212.

 

Last year, the New England champion, the Maine Northmen, made it to the NABLL Championship Game in Columbus, Ohio.

 

That Maine squad, by the way, advanced to the 2022 NABLL tournament by beating the Cambridge, Mass., the same team Billy O'Neill played for and Joe O'Neill served as an assistant coach … and the same team the Oaks beat in this month's regional final.

 

"It was one of those things where we knew them because I was with them last year, and they know Billy," O'Neill said. "They know some of my tendencies. It was a good game.

 

"Lacrosse is a small world, so you end up competing against your friends all the time."

 

The Paper City Oaks open the season with two pool play games on Friday night before starting bracket play on Saturday. The NABLL Championship concludes on Sunday afternoon. The games will be televised on YouTube. A tape of the Oaks' New England Championship win is available here.