MI Lacrosse Club players make an impact in Medellín

Published 3:30 pm Wednesday, August 20, 2025

It wasn’t just a trip that focused on lacrosse, but a journey that featured making connections with others in a city far away from Mercer Island.

For just less than a week in early August, 15 Mercer Island Lacrosse Club high school-aged boys, a coach and a parent chaperone visited the city of Medellín, Colombia, in coordination with the Lacrosse the Nations organization to participate in a service trip about 4,000 miles away from home.

This was the second time that coach Ian O’Hearn has traveled to Colombia on this sort of trip. In August of 2023, the Island club taught lacrosse to kids in Tenjo and helped them with their studies at schools and community centers. Their recent trip featured the same daily activities, which had the Islanders instructing and helping kids in the age 7 to 12 range.

“They use lacrosse as a way to kind of connect the people that come on the trip with the local kids that we’re working with. The real motivating factor is keeping these kids in school,” said O’Hearn, adding that the Colombian children practiced their English with the Islanders during the one-on-one teaching sessions. In turn, the Islanders who take Spanish in school get to use that language with the locals.

On the lacrosse front for the local kids, O’Hearn said that, “It just gets them excited to come to school or the community center every day. It’s all a way to keep these kids engaged in their academics and going to school every day.”

For the Islanders, they also scrimmaged against the Medellín Jaguars men’s lacrosse club team and took part in a pickup game that featured a mixture of Mercer Island and Columbian players on both squads.

When they weren’t playing lacrosse or engaged in schoolwork with the kids, the Islanders and O’Hearn got their hands dirty by turning over mulch at a community center, scraping paint off an outhouse and repainting the structure and more.

O’Hearn said that both trips were amazing. He noted that the initial trip transpired after he saw that former Mercer Island High School (MIHS) lacrosse star Connor Bernal was playing for the Colombian national team since his father is from that country. Everything just rolled from there, said O’Hearn, and the Islanders returned for part two this month in what he called a beautiful city with incredibly friendly people.

“Getting them out of their bubble and seeing another part of the world that’s not quite as comfortable as Seattle and Mercer Island in the Northwest is just really eye opening for them,” O’Hearn said. “Every single person we’ve had on both of these trips were just amazed at what a great trip it was from start to finish.”

MIHS sophomore and varsity player Trey Kile said he had a fun time in Medellín and noted that he enjoyed being involved in a good cause with Lacrosse the Nations.

“It was an amazing trip and seeing the smiles off all the kids faces I taught lacrosse (to) brought an even bigger smile to my face,” said Kile, adding that the trip provided a true team-bonding experience for the Islanders. “Me and all of my teammates definitely made a connection due to helping with lacrosse, but also helping with homework and other classroom activities.”

Rich Law, a MIHS junior and varsity player, said the trip was an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“The atmosphere that I experienced in Medellín is like something I’ve never felt before in a city. The best way I can think to describe Medellín is like Europe during the Renaissance with all new art forms, inventions and hope emerging during that time period,” he said.

While it was fun playing lacrosse with the kids, Law said the Islanders liked “that we got to connect with the kids on a personal level and learn what their lives are like and how their lives are different but similar to ours.”