The Aim of our Days

“Be who you are and be that well.” - St. Francis de Sales

The word ‘well’ has an ideal assigned to it in every circumstance, a set of actions.

Be a lacrosse player, and be that well.

Be a leader, and be that well.

Be a friend, and be that well.

What does that look like? It takes examples and testimonies to know what ‘well’ means. Great leaders of the past have shown us how to inspire, athletes and their feats are still talked about… and now we aim at setting the standard of what training ‘well’ means, being a community dedicated to something

With that, the You. First brand has been an external reminder to this internal commitment. 

You get better, life gets better. You are the example the world needs. You. It has to be You.

Our ethos impressed on the community at the Cincinnati Lacrosse Academy has been perfect for many reasons. We have seen the apathetic nature of our youth and reject it fully. This trend of floating season to season without an aim or mission. Playing the victim of circumstance to every misfortune and failure. This is radically different from the Academy culture.

The unconscious reaction is not to play the victim, but look at the person in the mirror. Training did not go as planned? You are to blame, and You are the solution. 

Awareness leads to choice, and choice leads to freedom. 

Sports are incredible vehicles for this lesson because they constantly give you choices. As I have shared to the players recently, "this stick gives you freedom, you can pick it up and make something of yourself!” That is what Harrison and I did... UNC would have been astronomically out of reach for us any other way.

At school teachers tell them what to learn, where to be and when… but when you are holding your stick, You, and only You decide how great you can be. 

It is the beauty and lesson of seeing the person in the mirror as a masterpiece and work in progress. You can make the change. 

Looking back to our junior year at UNC we were immersed in COVID and absent of community due to all the restrictions. Harrison and I, with our roommate, thought there still had to be some way to gather, a reason and a way to have connection. We decided to turn our house into a donut shop. Every Sunday we would begin rolling and cutting donuts for an eventual line going from 9:00-1:00PM. Hundreds and hundreds of donuts would be passed out of our back windows and enjoyed by students before the beginning of another week of Zoom U. 

It was great fun and served a problem, but we knew it could not just be ‘gathering for the sake of gathering.’ We looked at causes we could support and were marked deeply by the evil of child sex trafficking. Before then we were ignorant of all facts and truthfully the pervasive nature of it in the world. By the time we stopped we had donated over 23k. 

To this day it is still a cause close to our heart.

Back to the CLA, one of my favorite reframes to our talented players is “To whom much is given, much is expected.” If you can be great, you must be, because someone else wishes they could… but can’t.

And in the spirit of the You. First Project, championing the fight against child sex trafficking runs hand in hand. You can make something great with your life, and you must, because there is a child stuck in darkness who would do anything to be able to dream like you can.

It is inspiring to see our players take on this call - wearing the brand and living out the mission. “Be who you are and be that well.”  Every day the players are striving for this ideal. 

To live well, train well, pursue excellence well, lead well, serve well, walk in friendship well. The world ‘well’ and its application in every circumstance is the aim of our days.

Harrison and I have so much gratitude for the mission and the good it will do. We appreciate your support and look forward to where it will go when it launches September 1st.

The Cincinnati Lacrosse Academy will continue to aim upwards and empower our players to do the same. 

Persevere,

Henry Schertzinger

You First Project, Launching September 1st 

“You can become someone new. You’ll look like your old self, you’ll talk like them, and you’ll still have some of the same tendencies, but you can completely transform in all kinds of ways. You can go from unmotivated to someone who has a strong mission. You can go from having a negative outlook to having a positive one, unhappy to happy, unhealthy to healthy, lonely to your life being filled with people who love you. Believe that you can change. Then change your actions. Then become better. No matter who you are right now.”

15% of net profits will go to support an organization dedicated to fighting child sex trafficking.

https://youfirstproject.com