St. Louis Park Lacrosse Association

It all started in 2006 and the Hopkins Lacrosse Team was accepted into the Minnesota State High School League. Hopkins had been running a joint program with St. Louis Park and the two schools had been playing together for years. The move to Varsity status meant the St. Louis Park players could no longer be on the Hopkins team. 

At the time, Hollywood and Dave Dodds had been coaching the Hopkins program and they wondered what would the park players do?

Something had to be done. Where would Olsen, McLoone, Shandley, Brinkman, The Brothers Valenzuela, Reynolds, Dvorak, Twardowski, Baker and Doctor play? 

In a late night conversation in Dave Dodds’ Kitchen, the decision was made.   Dodds and Hollywood would leave Hopkins and Coach the new start up team. A Sunday trip to Home Depot turned out to be one of the best things to happen to the new coaching staff. It was at Home Depot that Hollywood and Andrew Peschong would bump into each other. The former teammates at St. Thomas quickly started talking lacrosse and Park’s new team. Pesch was in. The coaching staff was set, all that was needed… Players. The above mentioned guys promised to recruit and Hollywood petitioned the MBSLA for admittance. We were granted a team.

With Barry Doctor as the team’s first president, Park took the field. On April 18^th, 2007 St. Louis Park played its first lacrosse game.  While the outcome would not be the win Park was looking for, it would showcase one of the greatest single game performances on record. Benji Shandley would score the Orioles first ever goal and continue to score 7 goals and chalk up 1 assist in Parks first game. St. Louis Park would have to wait until May 2^nd when it would beat the St. Paul Celts at Cedar Manor to capture the first ever Varsity win. While it was a great year, the team would struggle and finish 5 – 10 in its first season.       

The new year would get off to a good start, and the team began to gel. Offensively the Dvorak / Shandley / Reynolds combination proved too much for most teams. Pesch’s defense solidified with McLoone & Diego Valenzuela  and the league’s top goalie Ernesto Valenzuela did not disappoint. 

The team opened up the season hot, scoring goals and playing hard but would struggle mid-season with the #1 ranked Champlin Park and Buffalo. But Park would dig deep, win the remaining conference games and capture in their second season a conference title.

It was time for the playoffs and Park had home field advantage. In the opening round they would beat Hastings and sneak by Blaine in the Quarterfinals. This would set up a State Semi Final match against Andover, the #2 ranked team in the League and a heavy favorite.   The game would start and Andover would take an early lead, only to see Park fight back and tie the game up in the 4th quarter.   Park would force over time and deep into the 2nd overtime and arching pass would find Brandon Reynolds and he would send Park to the State Championship Game.

The Orioles would meet the undefeated Champlin Park Rebels in the Finals.   The number #1 team in the state was confident and feeling good about their chance to capture a championship. But they did not expect to encounter a team of destiny. Park would start out the scoring and trade the lead with Champlin all night. A 3 goal performance from freshman Art Elmer and incredible team defense lead to a 4^th quarter 7 – 7 game. With under 2 minutes remaining Brandon Brinkman scored to give Park the lead. Could the Defense hold? Yes. As time expired the Park faithful swarmed the field and hosted the MBSLA State Championship Trophy (finishing 15-5). St. Louis Park was a champion and as Coach Dodds would say “The boy got the girl, the boy got the girl”.

Graduating 15 players from the State Championship squad, most would have considered this a rebuilding year. Park would start off hot, snapping up wins with the devastating attack trio Bergeron / Kyle Johnson / O’Keefe and the sharp shooting Art Elmer. Lighting up the score board the team would position themselves for a shot at the conference title.   While the Defense played well the Offense struggled and Orono would win and take the conference. A season ending injury to Max Bergeron meant Park would enter the playoffs without their leading scorer. 

In Park's opening playoff game they would draw Hastings, and in a close game Park would hang on to win 6 – 5. Next up St. Paul. St. Paul had beat Park in the regular season and walked into the game with a 13 – 1 record. What transpired was a Lacrosse upset that allowed the Orioles one more shot at Orono. Park would play in their second straight Championship Game.   The team would fight hard, and pushed by Oriole nation, give Orono everything they had. But the fortunes would not favor Park, a late drive would fall short in the final seconds and the Orioles would fall 7- 8. With heads held high after a great post season run, Park claimed 2^nd place and a 14-7 record.