Shocked, upset, and disappointed are just some of the emotions the Title Nine girls felt this summer when they found out their lacrosse club was sold.

Title Nine, a lacrosse club born in 2011 and began in Mattituck. The club’s pink and blue colors were very unique. The name “Title Nine” originated from the Title IX law which allows any person, regardless of their gender, to participate in athletics. The club’s slogan, “It’s All About the Girls,” correlated to the team name. Director of coaching, Brie-Claire (BC) Sheehy, who has been there since the start of the program, she is excited to combine with E3 for a fresh start and work with Drew Peters. 

East End Elite, better known as E3, started in 2014 out of Westhampton Beach. Starting out as an all boys program, E3 added a girls third through eighth grade program in 2015. When the club opened up to the girls, there were very few teams. Before combining with Title Nine, E3 only had one standing girls team, the 2025s. Now that the program is bigger, there are five different girls teams from the years 2025 to varsity.

BC and her previous partner for with Title Nine, Rob DiGregorio, thought it was time for change after his daughter graduated from the program. Instead of closing the program completely, BC states, “We felt the best option would be to merge with a local established program since it would be a lot of work for me individually. I needed a new partner to run the program with and Drew Peters was our top choice.” 

Many WHB students play with E3 and they shared what they think of the switch. Sophomore Conor Farnan has been playing with E3 since fourth grade. He said, “It is good that the clubs aren’t separate anymore. There are many lacrosse players in WHB, from both Title Nine and E3. Now all under one team, it unifies the WHB community. Combining makes the program stronger, more of an everlasting program because of more teams. I think there won’t be as much competition this year because now we are all under one family and united together.” 

Sophomore Danny Naglieri has also been playing since fourth grade. He said, “Having the girls join will get the word around and it will improve E3. It will be bigger and be more popular, adding more teams. If E3 wants to expand they are having multiple and different types of teams and it will have a positive affect on them.”

  Sophomore Lily Berchin has the same views. She has played on Title Nine since fifth grade. She said, “The changing of the team doesn’t matter to me. The game doesn’t change. We are still under the same coach. Change is good. It was unexpected, but I think it is cool repping the WHB area. I think it will be fun now that the girls and boys are under one name.”

 Considering sophomore Anna Weeks was going to stop playing travel this upcoming summer, she said, “I decided to play this year because last summer was really fun and I feel like this year we are going to come together as a team and have a good season. I’m excited to have fun practices and working hard to win tournaments with new teammates.” 

The girls and boys are looking forward to the upcoming 2020 season with new teammates and are ready to win more tournaments. We wish the best for the new programs at E3 and can’t wait to see where they will go in the future.