Why Palm Beach Central's boys lacrosse team belts the national anthem before each game

WELLINGTON — The whistle shrills.

Base man. Three ranks. Face left.

An operation is being run, but it's not boot camp.

It's an afternoon lacrosse practice and the Palm Beach Central boys team has fallen in line before the second whistle.

Palm Beach Central fans might have known what to expect during the regular-season game against Wellington on Wednesday night.

The rest were caught off guard when, as the customary rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was sung to begin the festivities, other voices joined in.

No, it wasn’t a remix. No, it wasn’t a guest appearance.

The Palm Beach Central lacrosse team, standing with feet perfectly planted on the white line, was singing along with the national anthem.

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This isn’t musical theater; there were missed notes and the timing was imperfect.

But they were singing — and as the final line of “home of the brave” was played, the boys ignored their throats and belted from their diaphragms enough to make any chorus teacher proud.

Let’s play ball, their demeanor suggested, stabbing the air with their sticks to conduct the thunderous applause floating in from the crowd.

“The more people that sang it, the more people that wanted to join in, and now we’re all sounding off,” said team captain Gavin Emerick.

It was introduced as a team tradition from the get-go by first-year head coach William Bauer, who moved to Palm Beach County back in November.

“I like to make men out of them,” Bauer said. “I view it as my job to help them grow up and become men, and as a result, appreciation for the country and where we are.”

While it was his first time moving to Florida, it was not his first time teaching lacrosse.

A player at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, Bauer became a captain in the Field Artillery Branch of the Army — a branch called the “king of battle.” He served for 12 years during the end of the Cold War and was stationed in both the United States and Germany.

Beyond that, he also played and coached lacrosse since the 1970s.

It was while coaching a junior varsity football team up in New York when the thought of mandating his student-athletes to sing the anthem struck him as a way to encourage patriotism and respect.

“I think it’s important for them to have appreciation for the country and consequently show its respect to the fellow former veterans that have died for our freedom,” Bauer said. “And so, therefore, I have them sing the national anthem.”

God, country, family and team have become the four pillars by which Bauer approaches his lacrosse team, and in fact his players know that should an issue arise that involves God, country or family, then absence from the team is acceptable.

But another core aspect of his team is a unified camaraderie that Bauer feels is encouraged by group participation in singing the anthem.

The anthem has been used as a platform for some to display grievances with certain aspects of the United States in recent years but Bauer believes that the anthem represents unity and a sense of patriotism that is undeservingly “under attack.”

“I believe, politically, there is an impetus to try to create division,” Bauer said. “And it’s not good for us, the kids or the country in general to forget the sacrifices made to give to us what we have despite our individual views on any given issue.”

On a more basic level, Bauer’s coaching philosophy facilitates discipline — something Emerick says has been missing in recent seasons — and even a sense of extra motivation.

“It adds another layer to the drive to win the game, Emerick said. “As soon as coach got here, from the very first practice, it was all fundamentals, focused simply on the game. Every time we’d break up, it would be a loud ‘hoo-rah.’”

Emerick says that the team is “millions” of times more efficient on the field, and as a result of Bauer’s leadership, the senior middle says that the team is also far outplaying expectations — even those the players set for themselves.

Sitting at 8-3, Palm Beach Central has an opportunity to make a postseason run.

“We were looking at our schedule, like ‘What could be wins, what could be losses?'” Emerick said. “And it has gone the exact opposite of what we were thinking. Teams we thought we’d get absolutely crushed by, we came out and either barely beat them or we crushed them.”

For Emerick, a playoff run would be icing on the cake.

“Overall, the season has been a lot better than what any of us would have thought," he said, "and it’s all thanks to the new level of discipline and the new level of drive.”  

Alex Peterman is a high school sports reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at apeterman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Central boys lacrosse belts national anthem before each game