At a high place at Onondaga Valley Cemetery, Roy Simmons Jr. and his sons plant a tiny hickory sapling in honor of Alf Jacques.

On Valley hillside, bond of revered lacrosse coach, beloved stickmaker lives on in one young tree

Roy Jr., the legendary artist and coach who shaped a Syracuse University lacrosse dynasty, took that ride on a recent Sunday in the company of his sons, Roy III and Ron. They parked on a little road that required an uphill walk on a grassy incline to reach the grave of Alf Jacques, only a few steps from the rustling shade of the old woods on the edge of the property.

“I knew he would be around the trees,” Roy Jr. said of Alf, a thought that reinforced the whole point of this Simmons family mission. They were carrying a tiny potted sapling, a shagbark hickory — the tree from which Alf created wooden lacrosse sticks, the cultural art form that brought him international renown.

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