By Adam Sherf '23

PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICO ISLANDS - While many collegiate lacrosse players measure their success in terms of their statistics, the unparalleled contributions of Connecticut College freshman Reese Hornstein cannot be found in any boxscore. 
 
As a native of Wayland, Massachusetts and a member of the Camel men's lacrosse program, Hornstein has had tremendous athletic success across hundreds of lacrosse fields throughout the East Coast. However, his greatest success was not on a field in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or anywhere else in New England. As a matter of fact, it was not even in the United States. 
 
A frequent visitor of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Hornstein is no ordinary tourist. While his original travels were due in large part to his mother's work, the objective for such has since shifted. While joining his mother on a business trip during his school vacation, Reese was introduced to Roxann Wake Forbes, the Director of the island's Edward Gartland Youth Centre.
 
When discussing his ambitions to further his lacrosse career, Hornstein was met with a sense of confusion, which he would soon learn to be a mere result of the fact that lacrosse was a foreign sport to the island natives. 
 
Realizing that the sport he has loved for his entire life was not even known by the island natives, Hornstein sought to share his passion with the youth population of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Through persistent communication, he managed to receive used equipment from his hometown professional Major League Lacrosse (MLL) program, the Boston Cannons, and have it shipped to the islands.
 
In March of 2017, Hornstein organized and hosted his first lacrosse clinic for the youth population of the Turks and Caicos Islands. More than a dozen kids, typically between the ages of 10 and 16, were in attendance. 
 
In the time since, he has continued to share his love of the game by hosting annual camps and clinics throughout the course of several scattered spring and summer weeks that he spends on the island. 
 
Throughout the course of the last three-and-a-half years, Hornstein has sought to further expand upon the foundation that he built in 2017. With the help of lacrosse product manufacturers, StringKing and RageCage, he has been able to do so through an increase in equipment inventory, which in turn created an increased opportunity for more kids to learn and play the sport.
 
While many would consider the organizing and operation of such efforts to be far too great a burden to bear on their own, Hornstein has fully embraced the challenge, taking charge of organizing inventory upon an international scale, publicizing his efforts to gain both support and participation, and coaching the island youth amongst countless other business management efforts.
 
However, rather than relishing in his admirable individual efforts, Hornstein credits those who have supported him. This includes his mother who helped him navigate the complex shipping network from the United States to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
 
Unfortunately, the current state of the world prevented Hornstein from hosting camps and clinics this past summer. However, he remains confident that such a setback is by no means the conclusion of his journey, but rather just a mere roadblock in his long-term development of a highly regarded and well respected program that utilizes lacrosse has a source of unity on the global scale. 
 
While Hornstein's accomplishments to date are most certainly successful, he is not yet satisfied as he considers it to be the mere beginning. With hopes of eventually earning the Turks and Caicos Islands a seat at the table of the World Lacrosse Federation, there remains plenty to be done. 
 
While the direct goal of his efforts remains centered around the introduction of lacrosse to the island's youth, Hornstein hopes to brand his efforts as a non-profit organization, which would enable him to receive financial support from larger corporations such as the World Lacrosse Federation.
 
Seeking to write the next chapter of his remarkable journey in bringing the sport of lacrosse to the Turks and Caicos Islands, Hornstein is beginning another new chapter in his lacrosse career as a first-year member of the Camel men's lacrosse program. 
 
Despite having not yet played a game in his new colors, Hornstein has already earned high remarks from both his coaches and teammates.
 
According to head coach Jim Nagle, "Reese has proven himself to be one of the more consistent workers on the team. He is consistently out in front with our conditioning, and he clearly gives his very best to improve everyday he takes the field."
 
To some, lacrosse is merely just a game, but to Connecticut College's Reese Hornstein, it is quite clearly far more than that.