When Coconut Grove dad Stefan Gruber went looking for a lacrosse club where his young son could play the sport with kids his own age, he was told there weren’t a lot of options.
His son Sebastian had been playing lacrosse with the Miami Stone Crabs in Pinecrest, but a schedule change – and Miami traffic – made that all but impossible for the family.
Rather than give up on a sport he had played in high school, Gruber reached out to his former coach for suggestions. Together, they hit on a possible solution – a lacrosse club for families and kids in Coconut Grove.
Gruber and Billy Rieder – a fellow Coconut Grove dad – put the idea into play, launching the Stingrays Lacrosse Club in November 2023 for their sons and other kids.
Since then, the club has grown to include 20 to 30 players split between two teams – one for younger kids and a second team for kids ages eight to 10 – and seven coaches, four of whom are paid.
“What this program has become, having all these players and resources at our fingertips, is about as rewarding as it gets,” Gruber said. “We get to have all of our friends and kids come together to play a great sport; it doesn’t get much better than that.”
The Stingrays practice twice a week, play a couple games in season, and end with a tournament in May where they compete against other youth lacrosse teams in South Florida.
“It has been the most welcoming and engaging community that my son has joined,” Staci Kurnit, the mother of a Stingrays player, told the Spotlight. “The dads that are running it are so invested in the kids, and my son is really enjoying and growing with it.”
Kurnit is one of many parents who show up at almost every practice, lining the sidelines and barking encouragement to their children. Corey Dyer, another parent, also raves about the program.
“It’s a great atmosphere with a bunch of coaches and parents that just enjoy the game,” Dyer said. “It is awesome to see my son out there being so active. He started two months ago, and he loves it.”
As the club has taken off, Gruber and Rieder have worked to build the program with uniforms, merchandise and an impressive coaching staff.
The coaching staff includes Gruber, his brother Zac, and Rieder – all volunteers – as well as a player and a coach from the University of Miami, and a pair of coaches from Gulliver Prep.
“The fact that my son can play lacrosse with his closest friends, in the community he lives in, and with coaches that care so much about the players is just amazing,” Kelly Sullivan, another team mom, told the Spotlight.
Gruber said he’s encouraged by the growth of the club, and the sport’s growing popularity in South Florida and elsewhere. Lacrosse is a team sport for men and women that will return to the Olympics in 2028.
Gruber was born and raised in Coconut Grove, but growing up Gruber said lacrosse was unorganized and had little structure. Now, he believes the sport is starting to take hold in the area.
The South Florida Youth Lacrosse League lists 11 member clubs on its website, most of which are in Broward. There are two league clubs in Miami-Dade – the Stone Crabs and the Tacolcy Raiders in Liberty City. Other local lacrosse clubs include Brother’s United and Mad Dogs, which runs a program for beginners on Key Biscayne.
Harry Evans, a recent Columbus High graduate who coaches the Brother’s United lacrosse team, said awareness of the sport and student interest have grown since he played youth lacrosse.
“When I was younger, everybody was like, do colleges even have lacrosse teams? I didn’t realize I could play college lacrosse until my sophomore year of high school,” Evans said. “Now, I’m coaching kids that say they want to go to Notre Dame or Maryland to play college lacrosse. That mindset was never around five years ago.”
Gruber’s former coach, Jim Delang, whom Gruber calls the “Yoda” of South Florida lacrosse, agrees. “When I was coaching in the early 90s, there were 10 high school lacrosse teams in Florida. Now there’s 250,” Delang said. “That’s an insane increase in 30 years.”
Delang was the head lacrosse coach at both Gulliver Prep and Columbus, but now coaches at Palmetto Middle School. He admires what Gruber and Rieder have created.
“One thing about lacrosse, you either love it or you don’t. I think what has happened at the Stingrays is the kids and the parents absolutely love being around each other and playing the sport,” Delang said. “The brotherhood of the sport is probably the biggest part of it and it’s pretty cool what they’re doing.”
Gruber agrees, but he says he’s not done yet. He has a daughter who would like to play so he’s now looking to expand the club.
“Next step, we want to start a girls group,” he said.
Editor’s note: Families who are interested in learning more about the Stingrays can contact the club by email at [email protected].
As an educator at Plymouth Preschool in the Grove, I know many of these children as former students. This sounds like a great program for children in the Grove!
Lacrosse is a wonderful sport. In the mid Atlantic it is the most popular sport and where many lax teams are present. Kids play from the age of 5 in hometown leagues of which many have been started by powerhouse players from West Point (Rick Rider) and Syracuse (Dave Prossner). Our son played from the age of 6, had clinics with Gary Gait, traveled to England on an exchange trip with Beckenham Lacrosse Club, played at his boarding school, and played Division 1 at Delaware. The boys learn discipline and lifelong skills as they do in all sports. It’s fun to watch and here in Florida where one can play year round, the sport is perfect. Also, there are many scholarships available for excellent High School and college opportunities. I thought the vacant fields in the West Grove along Grand Avenue would be perfect for lacrosse fields. Maybe even baseball, too. Our goddaughter played at Middlebury and became an All American. It is a wonderful sport!