Germain Ngaba is a multi-sport athlete at Cardinal Spellman. He is a soccer and football star at the Bronx school, but lacrosse was still foreign to him as a sophomore.
“I first heard of lacrosse last year after football season, never seen a stick before,” the now junior said. “Seeing it on T.V., I thought it was a boring game because it was slow.”
Ngaba only started playing after he was approached by then lacrosse head man and current assistant football coach Kyle O’Donnell. O’Donnell told him it would be a good way to stay in shape for football, where Ngba is a star running back and also the team’s kicker. He gave it a try and was surprised how much he enjoyed it.
“I saw it in real life; it was fast and fun,” Ngba said.
There was still a steep learning curve. He had to learn the rules and skills of the game, especially with the stick. Current Pilots coach Joe Hollaran, an assistant at the time, said that if they took 25 players that season as a JV team, Ngba was the 25th his first year.
That didnt deter him.
“He was good at it so he was excited to keep working on it,” Hollaran said. “He was one of those guys you have to kick him out at the end of the day or he will just stay there playing wall ball.”
The 5-foot-8, 175-pound Ngba has done a complete transformation this season. He is one of Spellman’s best and most important players. At midfield he moves through defenders with the same speed, precision and strength he does backfields in the fall. Ngba still needs to work on his shooting, but he has become a consistent scorer for the Pilots, who are 1-4 overall and 1-3 in their first full varsity season in CHSAA Class A.
“Now he is one of the most relied upon kids on the team; that’s not how it would have been a few years ago,” senior Marc Greko said “He had never heard about the sport of lacrosse until he saw it at school. It’s amazing how quickly he picked it up.”
Ngba takes pride in the work he has done to imrpove. With another summer to go and full season and half left, there is still room for more improvement. Not bad for kid who didn’t know what lacrosse was a year ago.
“I took a whole summer with a brand new stick and I practiced at it,” Ngba said. “Now my shooting is better. I’m not going to say I’m really good, but I’m better.”