By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Hopedale’s Blake Moxim first picked up a lacrosse stick at the tender age of two when his father gave it to him as a Christmas gift. According to Moxim, his dad (Eric) had played the sport and wanted his son to enjoy it as well. Around the age of five he joined the youth lacrosse program in Milford and had his dad coaching him throughout his youth days and into high school.

“My father wanted me to play the sport he enjoyed so much,” Moxim said. “I loved the sport but I continued to play it not for him but myself, the game came naturally to me.”

The Hopedale resident began playing the game as an attacker and being one that appreciated the art of scoring goals he continued with the position. As a seventh grader he found his way onto the Blue Raiders varsity team and although only playing a few games that year he was able to score his very first goal for Hopedale. Two years later as a freshman he found himself as a starter for the Hopedale varsity squad. 

“As a seventh grader I was only 11 years old and playing against kids who were 7 years older than I was. I was half their size, but I was skilled,” he said. “Playing 18-year-olds definitely helped me to improve my game. They were good, but I had been playing the game for awhile and my skills allowed me to keep up with them on the field.”

Entering that freshman campaign Moxim found himself very nervous and did not know what was going to happen and where he would actually play. The Hopedale Coach (who was also his dad) put him on the first line.

“At first people were saying that I was playing on the first line because my dad was the coach, but I put that theory to rest when I had a great season,” Moxim said. “I not only played for the high school but I was playing club lacrosse with the Coyotes out of Medway, travel lacrosse in the summer and fall and indoor lacrosse during the winter. I was a year-round lacrosse player.”

As a freshman starter Moxim had a breakout year, one in which he was named Central Mass Rookie of the Year and by his junior year, one in which he scored 100 points, the Blue Raiders attackman was sitting on 289 career points and on track to eclipse 500 points.

That season also lead to the first of three straight years in which he would be named to the All-Star team and found himself in the top five in points in Central Mass all three years ass well. In 2018, as a sophomore, he would be anointed the Central Mass Offensive Player of the Year. 

With baseball being a huge draw in Hopedale during the spring season, not many athletes gravitated toward the newer sport of lacrosse. Moxim remembers that they only have 14 kids on the team and they were in the best shape of their lives because they neve stepped off the field. 

“It was rally hard to sway any of the baseball players to come out for the lacrosse team,” he said. “The football players who played in the fall would take a chance at the sport for something to do in the spring.”

Looking to up his point total during his senior season and leave his legacy at Hopedale, Moxim and many athletes throughout the state would soon find out there would be no season.

“MY senior season I as super excited. We had a killer season the year before and really thought that we were going to be involved in a special season,” Moxim said. “Unfortunately about two weeks before the season was to begin we were told the season was going to be put on hold due to Covid, but it never did come back.”

Moxim was devastated that his senior year was cancelled, but at least his lacrosse career was not over. The Hopedale athlete had already committed to play lacrosse at Division 2 Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) in Harrogate, Tennessee.

“I had wanted one more year of high school lacrosse with all my friends, but that was not going to happen. At least it was not closure on my lacrosse career as I had already committed,” he said. 

With Covid ravaging the area Moxim spent his time lifting weights hoping that he would eventually get back onto the field with his high school buddies and when he realized that it was never going to happen he began anticipating the end of the summer when he could head down south to play lacrosse for LMU, a school in the middle of nowhere that still had sports despite Covid.

When he originally got to Tennessee the lacrosse team was supposed to be one of the best teams in Division 2, but half the team got suspended because of bar fights and a bunch of other players quit soon after that leaving the team with about 20-some-odd players.

LMU would not win a game that year and Moxim was beginning to question his choice and was not enjoying the game he had so dearly loved. Then during his sophomore year just five games in he injured his hamstring and lacrosse had left a very bad taste in his mouth.

During the rehabbing he decided to transfer to University of North Carolina Charlotte.

“I was ready for a big school atmosphere,” Moxim said. “LMU was only about 2000 people and was high school Esque where everyone knew everyone else’s business.”

Moxim was so done with LMU that he had a teary-eyed conversation with his father about the end of his lacrosse career, but little did he know that his transfer to UNC Charlotte was about to change his life. Moxim had no idea that the school had lacrosse, he was just wanting to get out of LMU as fast as he could.

Somehow the coaches at UNC Charlotte knew about the success that Moxim had on the lacrosse field and they tracked him down to play club lacrosse.

“At first I wasn’t into playing club lacrosse, but it was nothing like the club lacrosse I was used to back home,” he said. “The Coaches were awesome, very welcoming and wanted me to play; it was what I needed and fell in love with lacrosse all over again.”

Playing for UNC Charlotte Moxim, who came from a little high school in Hopedale Massachusetts, was named Conference Player of the Year, was third in scoring and helped his team rise into the top eight in the nation. He was also considered one of the best attackman in the country.

Following graduating Moxim decided to stay in the Charlotte area to start a non-profit organization for kids that couldn’t afford lacrosse equipment or to play the game. By doing this it was a way that this Hopedale High School athlete could give back while trying to grow the sport.