Northport HS Lacrosse Player Strives To Rep School & Puerto Rico

NORTHPORT, NY — As a girl who spent the majority of her life growing up in Queens, Jolie Benabe defied the odds when it came to finding success as a lacrosse player.

After all, Long Island is a nationally-recognized incubator for the sport's talent, and the competition is at a significantly higher level compared to New York City. Benabe wanted a taste of that action.

"I would do anything for the sport of lacrosse," Benabe, 17, told Patch.

That's why, in October 2018, Benabe and her family made the move to Northport.

Benabe has since helped Northport High School win the 2019 New York State Girls Lacrosse Championship and represented her Puerto Rico heritage on an international stage.

Not bad for a girl who grew up in Queens, where her mother, Nancy Benabe, said there wasn't much in the way of camps or opportunities to play the sport at a high level.

After Benabe was introduced to the sport in seventh grade, she joined a club called Bombers Lacrosse, where she played for a year and a half. She was then recruited by coaches Joseph Albines and Carvin Ben de Leon of Queens of Lacrosse, a program geared towards boosting the sport's exposure in the borough.

"The inner city wasn’t too big on lacrosse compared to Long Island, so it was very limited for Jolie to play lacrosse when she entered middle school and high school," Nancy Benabe said.

Since John Bowne High School didn't have a lacrosse program, Benabe was limited to playing club lacrosse. After her parents felt their daughter had learned the fundamentals of the sport through her Queens of Lacrosse coaches, they made the move to Northport.

"Long Island is where it’s at," Jolie Benabe said. "The girls here have been playing for the longest. I never got that experience, but I still made up for it by playing club lacrosse and doing stuff by myself."

Benabe, now going into her senior year at Northport High School, started her Long Island career on the school's junior varsity team. However, she was one of six girls to be called up to join the varsity squad for its NYS Championship run. A player who can excel in either the attack or midfield position, Benabe likely got the nod due to her grit, hustle and teamwork.

"I know Coach [Carol] Rose put me on the JV team, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing what I really wanted in life: to be on the varsity team being coached by her. I did literally everything in my hands to just get better."

The bracket culminated in No. 11 seed Northport toppling No. 3 Baker 10-8 in the finals. The school also defeated No. 8 Farmingdale 15-4 and No. 5 Pittsford 13-3 to reach the championship.

"It was the best experience I could have ever experienced," Benabe said. "It was once in a lifetime."

Not every student gets to represent their high school on a large, athletic stage. Even less get to represent their country or heritage on an international level. Benabe is one of them.

It wasn't until Benabe was about to move to Northport when her Queens of Lacrosse coaches realized she was of Puerto Rican descent. They attempted to encourage her to try out for the U-19 Puerto Rico women's lacrosse team. While Benabe was first on the fence due to how time consuming it would be should she be selected, her desire to represent Puerto Rico and help grow the sport in the country won out.

She tried out for the team a year and a half ago in New Jersey. Then, with the U-19 Women’s World Lacrosse Championships being held in August, Benabe was selected to go to Puerto Rico this past June to prove her mettle and that she belonged on the squad that would go to Canada.

From June 12 through June 16, Benabe visited Puerto Rico to practice with the team and perform community service, like helping teach children the sport.

Ultimately, she made the U-19 roster that went to Canada from Aug. 1 through 10. There, Team Puerto Rico excelled.

"We did absolutely amazing and shocked the whole entire audience," Benabe said.

The team went 8-0. The sole reason it didn't advance to the quarterfinals after defeating New Zealand in a 12-11 thriller was because Puerto Rico was an associate member of World Lacrosse and not a full member, according to what tournament media chair Lois Tuffin told the Peterborough Examiner. New Zealand advanced instead despite being edged by Puerto Rico.

Still, Benabe was thrilled with the chance to represent her heritage.

"It’s the biggest opportunity that not a lot of people get to have or experience in their lives. Wearing the name Puerto Rico on my chest means so much to me. I don’t just play for myself or my parents just to watch me; I play for the children on the island. Especially for them to watch me play, that’s an opportunity not only for myself, but for them to actually think about it as, ‘Oh look, if she can do it.' I want to grow the game not only [on Long Island], but [in Puerto Rico]."

With the tournament being held only once every four years, Benabe has played her last for Puerto Rico's U-19 team, at least on an international stage. Still, she hopes that wasn't her last time playing lacrosse for the country.

Benabe recently tried out for the Puerto Rico women's national lacrosse team, with a second set of tryouts looming in November. She'll be competing with other Puerto Rican women who are either going into college or have already reached their mid-20s.

"Honestly, when I was on Team Puerto Rico, I felt like I was home," Benabe said. "It's like a family. It hit somewhere where it never hit before."

The jury is still out on whether Benabe will be selected to represent Team Puerto Rico once again on an international level, though her budding lacrosse career is only getting started. After all, she still has a NYS Championship title to help defend with Northport. Following her graduation, she intends to play at the NCAA level, but she's still undecided as to which college she'll attend.

If Benabe has her way, she'll once again find a way to defy the odds as a kid from Queens and not only land at a school with a good lacrosse program, but one day represent her heritage again.