La Salle boys’ lacrosse coach Steve O’Donnell, a major in the Rhode Island State Police and a founder of Next Level Lacrosse, talks to his players during a game against Barrington last year.

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The Providence Journal / GLENN OSMUNDSON

LINCOLN — Ten years ago, three years before lacrosse became a Rhode Island Interscholastic League-sanctioned sport, Steve O’Donnell and Ernie Votolato formed a northern Rhode Island youth lacrosse team.

They started out with only five applicants.

“Now we have more than 400 athletes competing during the summer,” O’Donnell said.

Not only have they provided a program that promotes and teaches the sport, it helps youngsters build lifelong friendships that they might not otherwise would have had. O’Donnell, along with fellow coaches Mark Chafee and Dave Kemmy, have put together an under-17 All-Star team called Next Level Lacrosse that is helping put Rhode Island lacrosse on the map and getting several players across the state noticed by Division I college coaches.

The Next Level Lacrosse team, whose season ended last Tuesday, went 14-2-2 this summer and won three of the four tournaments that it competed in.

“We won the Extreme Lacrosse tournament in Groton, Mass., and the New England All-Star Challenge at Umass-Amherst. We are the only [Rhode Island] team to win that tournament twice. Last week we won the Ipswich (Mass.) Lacrosse Games.”

O’Donnell, Chafee, and Kemmy have been coaching this group of talented lacrosse players, who come from seven Rhode Island high schools and 13 communities, for four years.

Two years ago, when they were in middle school, the Next Level Lacrosse U-13 team went 21-0-1 and won the Junior Olympics.

“All of the kids are becoming better players,” O’Donnell said. “They are a great group of kids and the parents are great, too. Every year they come back. They are only freshmen and sophomores now, but next year they are going to get noticed by a lot of college coaches.

“The kids come to practice every day, which is rare in the summer time. They are easy to coach. They all know each other pretty well because they have been playing together for four years. They know the system that we run and they have been very successful.”

The team was led by Mike Kemmy (Bristol/La Salle Academy), who tallied 19 goals and 17 assists for 36 points. Walker Chafee (Wakefield/PCD) was next with 23 points, followed by Dan Serina (Portsmouth/Portsmouth), who tallied 21 points, and Conor Morgan (Little Compton/Portsmouth) and Ben Willett (Portsmouth/Portsmouth) who each tallied 15 points.

Riley Kinnane (Little Compton/Portsmouth Abbey) had a dozen points and Ryan Poirier (Warwick/La Salle) tallied seven.

“The team played very solid defense,” Dave Kemmy said. “Tim Lyons (Charlestown/Bishop Hendricken), Larry Gallogly (Wakefield/Hendricken), Hilbert Stearns (Little Compton/Portsmouth) and Mitchell Green (Portsmouth/Portsmouth Abbey) all had strong summers. Goalies Morgan Green (Portsmouth/Portsmouth Abbey) and Thomas Hammatt (Portsmouth/Portsmouth) were outstanding in the cage.”

Next Level Lacrosse outscored its opponents, 100-53.

Other players who had significant contributions included Eric Vargas (Riverside/PCD), Justin Coleman (Providence/Portsmouth Abbey), Adam Crimmins (Middletown/Portsmouth Abbey), Jon Augustine (North Scituate/La Salle), Brad Carlson (Barrington/Barrington), Justin Salinger (Warwick/La Salle), Cody O’Donnell (Smithfield/La Salle), Vito Capuano (Greenville/La Salle) and Jeff Jaquith (Warwick/La Salle).

“The goal is to hopefully get the kids to play somewhere in college, and to make friends with kids from other schools,” O’Donnell said. “The kids play at different schools, but a lot of them have become friends for life. We are exploding nationally with the help of Mike Pressler (Bryant men’s lacrosse coach). He runs camps all summer at Bryant. We played teams all over the country this year and it is a good showcase for Rhode Island lacrosse.

“This group has been very good since they were very young and they are getting better and better.”

roblee@projo.com