For Patty Colhoun, watching the Boothbay Region lacrosse’s first varsity season reminds her of when she played the sport five decades ago. Colhoun learned the game at a 36-student, seventh and eighth grade school outside of Philadelphia. 

Back then, the field wasn’t divided into thirds preventing defensive players from entering the offensive zone. The field still has a goalie’s crease and two additional circles near the cage. And the players no longer line up around the center circle to start a half or follow a goal as they did decades ago.

‘When I played, everybody could run the whole field now they have those funny shaped circles, but I don’t understand why,” Colhoun said.

The equipment has also changed dramatically. Today’s players wear more protection.

“All we had was a stick and pair of sneakers,” Colhoun said. “I see players wearing goggles. The sticks can throw and catch either right-or left-handed, and I saw a girl wearing gloves the other night, but that might’ve been because it was cold.”

Colhoun regularly attends the Seahawks’ home games. She has enjoyed watching the Seahawks post an 8-2 record (as of May 26) putting them in fifth place in the Class B North Heal point standings. She especially likes how the team moves the ball around.

“They’re real good! I love how they pass the ball. Other kids run straight down the field. These girls pass the ball and use each other to move the ball. I like that,” Colhoun said.

Another difference between the present and past game are the sticks. In Colhoun’s day, the lacrosse sticks were commercially made only for right-handers. This proved problematic for Colhoun, a southpaw.

“It would’ve been more fun to play with today’s sticks and use both hands,” Colhoun said.

Colhoun played three scholastic sports: lacrosse, field hockey and basketball. Field hockey sticks were also made for only right-handers. Her schoolgirl athletic experience resulted in her as an adult playing another sport — golf — right-handed by choice.

“People told me changing back to playing sports left-handed would be too difficult so I stuck to playing everything right-handed,” she said.

Something that hasn’t changed is the small yellow ball. It is still hard. Colhoun played one lacrosse match as an attacker before requesting to play defense.

“I played one game as an attacker. I didn’t like it because you had to shoot that hard ball at people so I changed to defense,” she said.

Colhoun continued her athletic career in college. She graduated from Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire. Colhoun received All-New England Field Hockey honors during her college days.

She graduated with an associate’s degree in science, but in college, her main focus wasn’t academics.

“I went for the sports,” she said. “Sports was more important because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” Colhoun said.

After college, she spent five years working as a research assistant at two Philadelphia hospitals. She later married and moved to Iowa. She began coaching girls’ basketball in the Hawkeye State after her daughter was born. This would be Colhoun’s second experience with the game known as six-player basketball.

As a player in the late 1950s, Colhoun played a special brand of basketball designed for girls. Six-player basketball featured three forwards who played on the offensive end and three guards who played on the defensive side. And after a basket, both teams lined up around the center circle for a jump.

“I coached my daughter for two years,” she said. “Back then we didn’t think about playing five-on-five basketball because that’s all we had. But it was a bizarre sport.”

After her marriage dissolved, Colhoun returned to Pennsylvania. She took a job as the site director for a historic Port Washington, Pennsylvania property. The estate — located outside Philadelphia — was donated by Anthony Morris, a Quaker pastor and Philadelphia mayor. Morris built the the 300-plus-acre estate as a summer residence.

“It was another people-oriented position. My careers, drug research for humans and managing the estate for visitors, were both people-oriented,” she said.

During her goddaughter’s wedding, she met her future husband, Dick Colhoun. They married and bought a home in Damariscotta. Over the years, Patty Colhoun has been active in the Boothbay Region YMCA. She started in 1992 as a Y volunteer. She served on the Y’s executive board for six years, ran the silent auction for four years, and is the only person to serve as the annual fund drive’s chairman for two consecutive years.

Colhoun describes the local YMCA as the community’s focal point.

“My thinking in serving as the annual drive’s chairman for two straight years was it would be a disaster if the town didn’t have (the Y). It serves all ages, and if we didn’t have it, then kids wouldn’t have a place to go.”

She is also a rug hooker and member of the Southport Rug Hookers. Colhoun also serves on the St. Columba’s Episcopal Church’s vestry.

After Dick Colhoun’s death in 2003, she sold the Damariscotta home. She established a scholarship in her husband’s late son’s name, Rick Colhoun, at Kents Hill School in Kennebec County. Rick Colhoun was the chairman of the Kents Hill board of directors before his death.

“I write the scholarship recipients and they write back. I will attend Kents Hills’ graduation this weekend and look forward to having lunch with them,” she said.

She also regularly attends Boothbay Region High School basketball and field hockey games.