3. U.S. NAVY PHOTOS BY MASS COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS BILL LARNED
The new contendersThe new contenders
T
he San Diego area is a mecca of recreational sports for off-duty sailors.
From softball to football to golf to basketball, local Navy athletes have
access to a variety of sports. Except lacrosse.
A 2011 Los Angeles Times article cited lacrosse as one of the fastest grow-
ing sports in the U.S., and it’s also widely considered to be the one of the
oldest in North America. Two devoted Navy lacrosse fans are determined to
introduce the game to sailors in the San Diego area.
Last fall, Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Joshua McClendon,
assigned to USS Boxer (LHD 4), and Lt. Cmdr. Jeremy Vellon, assigned to
Navy Region Southwest, co-founded Navy Gold, an amateur lacrosse team
for San Diego County’s military community.
“At our first game, I was truly amazed seeing the players walk onto the
field, in their jerseys, ready to play. Navy Gold went from two guys meeting
at a gym to discuss an idea to a local Navy lacrosse team with 20 players
fully committed to playing a full season of games,” McClendon said.
Navy lacrosse
team enlisting
San Diego
players
Vellon has wanted to start a
team since high school, growing up
in New York City. Initially, he was
seeking others interested in playing
lacrosse and wondered if there were
any existing adult leagues in San
Diego. He found a league, but the
team rosters were already full.
Navy Gold is temporarily part of
a development league that includes
Camp Pendleton and the Ventura
County Bombers. The three teams
will compete against each other for
one season, organize, conduct fun-
draisers and then upgrade to full
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Bill Larned
8 M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 3

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status in the Southern California
Men’s Post Collegiate Lacrosse De-
velopment League.
“We have scrimmaged and played
lacrosse pickup games throughout
the fall and winter,” Vellon said.
“We’re proud to be playing Amer-
ica’s fastest growing team sport
and encouraging positive, active
lifestyles for our members, some of
whom have just returned from over-
seas deployments.”
The Navy team has competed in
two official games so far, losing 9-6
against Camp Pendleton and win-
ning against the Ventura County
Bombers, 12-8.
In addition to playing, Vellon is
president, managing social media
and other networking, and McClen-
don directs operations by schedul-
ing scrimmages and games and
coaching the team.
“McClendon is a natural leader
and excels in his role coordinating
and bringing together the mem-
bers of the team,” Vellon said. “He’s
taken on quite a lot of responsibil-
ity. His obligations and his efforts
go far beyond the duties of a third
class petty officer.”
After Vellon and McClendon
discovered their mutual interest
through Sportsvite, a website for
recreational athletes, they met at the
Admiral Prout Gym aboard Naval
Base San Diego to discuss ideas.
“Over the course of the meeting,
we dreamed up the idea to start our
own team with sailors and Marines
from the San Diego metropolitan
area. The more we talked about it,
the more we realized there were oth-
er people like us, trying to find others
to play lacrosse with,” Vellon said.
Vellon said that one of main rea-
sons for forming the team was to
make lacrosse affordable and acces-
sible to sailors.
McClendon, who grew up in San
Angelo, Texas, and Redondo Beach,
Calif., has played lacrosse since
he was 16 at Redondo Union High
School.
“The first time I ever picked up
a lacrosse stick, I couldn’t put it
down,” McClendon said.
After graduating from high
school, McClendon joined the Navy
www.navycompass.com 9

5. Then and now
What is lacrosse? Where did it come from?
These sailors are engaged in a war on land. They sprint, delivering sharp blows to their
opponents with 3-foot sticks, their body armor thudding with each collision with the
ground and each other, their breathing hurried and spastic. The stakes are high: While
surviving an onslaught of bodily assaults and battlefield tactics, each player has to last
long enough to scoop a rubber ball into a goal more times than the opposing team in
the fleeting amount of time allotted, at an unimaginable speed.
According to author Thomas Vennum in “American Indian Lacrosse: Little Brother of
War,” modern lacrosse players are engaged in a sport that dates back hundreds of
years, before the birth of the United States. In North America, Native Americans may
have played lacrosse in the 12th century as training for battle.
Today, two teams of 10 players wear protective gear and wield wood sticks outfitted
with webbed pockets, using them to carry, catch, pass and finally propel rubber balls
into the opposing team’s goal. Defending players deter opponents by stick checking,
bodily contact and strategic placement on a 110-yard field of play. Lacrosse looks as if
someone took hockey players, put them on a soccer field and told them to catch and
throw a racquetball to each other without ever letting it touch the ground.
The game has evolved from early Native Americans in the northeast training for war
to one of the fastest-growing sports played increasingly by fans at all levels, including
sailors and Marines in San Diego County.
and tried to start a team in Pensacola, Fla., during Informa-
tion Systems Technician “A” school.
“I wasn’t there quite long enough to start a team, but I was
still intent on starting one or playing for one,” McClendon said.
After arriving in San Diego, McClendon met Vellon on
Sportsvite and the two sailors began organizing the team. In
the meantime, McClendon coached a six-week lacrosse clin-
ic in Rancho Bernardo for kids 7 and younger.
“I’ll always enjoy coaching,” McClendon said. “When I re-
tire from the Navy, I fully intend to still be coaching lacrosse.
My longterm goal is to start an official All Navy Lacrosse
team for enlisted sailors that will compete worldwide.”
McClendon pointed out that operating an adult lacrosse
team sometimes comes with duties he never envisioned.
“It takes time and skill organizing practices and coordinat-
ing with 20 or more players’ different schedules,” he said. “I
have to make meetings and practices fit between deployments,
short underway periods, leave and duty. I have to be on my
toes and persistent. I have to make sure people actually show
up to practices to be ready for games.
“But all of the effort has been worth it.”
McClendon and Vellon said they do everything they can to
help Navy Gold Lacrosse players succeed, including cutting
the costs of participating.
Vellon said there is a lot of untapped interest and talent
among service members in the San Diego area.
“When I tell sailors about our team, their eyes light up and
they get excited. We’re hoping more and more sailors in San
Diego who played in high school will show up to play,” he said.
Although the majority of the team is comprised of military
service members, anyone is welcome to join.
To learn more about Navy Gold, email Vellon at jayvellon@
gmail.com. Visit the Navy Gold Lacrosse Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/SDNavyGold. ■
Larned is the assistant editor of Navy Compass magazine.
U.S. NAVY PHOTOS BY MASS
COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST 1ST CLASS BILL LARNED
10 M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 3