Hester lacrosse history times six

COLUMBUS — David Hester, of Norwalk, and his son, Scott Hester of Columbus, visited The Ohio State University recently to leave their signatures on a construction beam destined to be part of the new women's/men's lacrosse building complex and field. The complex, being built on the OSU campus this fall, is scheduled to open in February 2023. Both father and son played varsity lacrosse for OSU — one in the early days (1955) and one more recently, 1980-1981. Today, after retirement as an engineer for EPA, Scott Hester is in his eighth year officiating middle school and high school lacrosse matches. Scott's son, Ryan Hester, played high school varsity lacrosse, and at OSU he plays club lacross (ranked 6th in Division 1), plus is an assistant lacrosse coach at McCord Middle School. Another son, Mark Hester, played club lacrosse at Purdue before it became a varsity sport. He played midfield, but took over the goalie position which he learned quickly and well, honored as MVP for two years. After graduation, Mark, a ROTC student with the Air Force, was stationed in California where he was on another club team, ending his career with a broken neck and his hopes of being an Air Force pilot gone forever. Mark's son, Brad Hester, was voted a high school All-American lacrosse player for the state of Virginia, was recruited and played for Hobart Upstate New York. He then played at Florida's Jacksonville University in 2009-2010. After college, he stayed at Jacksonville and became the school's goalie coach. He has been a goalie coach for Niskayuna High School, just outside of Albany, N.Y., for almost 10 years, and coached the team to a state championship in 2015. Brad is now a goalie coach at Albany Power, a club team to showcase lacrosse talent for college recruiting. Mark's daughter, Caitlyn Hester, was a highly-honored high school goalie in Northern Virginia, recruited to play for OSU women's lacrosse in 2011-2015. That's six Hesters who ended up playing lacrosse, probably seldom or never heard of in Norwalk back in 1950. It all started at OSU in the 1950s, when some guys on campus talked about being in a new sport called lacrosse — already hot on the east coast and in California.