From left are Andrew Goldstein, Braeden Lange and Nick Welton at the Courage Game match. (Photo courtesy Goldstein)

During a 2005 segment on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Dartmouth lacrosse goalie Andrew Goldstein uttered the words, “I’m gay, this is me. I’m going to be myself. I’m not going to hide because you like it.”

Goldstein had come out to friends and teammates in 2003, but those were courageous words to speak publicly considering the climate of sports culture at the time, especially team sports.

Goldstein was a two-time all-American lacrosse player and after graduating from Dartmouth in 2005, he was drafted by the Boston Cannons and became the first openly gay team-sport athlete to be signed by a professional sports team.

The following summer he was picked up by the Long Island Lizards and played one season with them before ending his lacrosse career to pursue his Ph.D. in molecular biology.

Sports were a big part of Goldstein’s life as a youth in Milton, Mass., and he grew up playing soccer, football, ice hockey and lacrosse. Before leaving for UCLA to begin his doctoral studies, he returned to his first sport of ice hockey and played with the LGBT team, Boston Pride Hockey.

After arriving in the Los Angeles area, Goldstein joined the L.A. Blades ice hockey team and played with them at the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne, Germany. His return to lacrosse happened in 2013 when he was recruited by the Israeli national lacrosse team where he found himself in the spotlight again.

A year and a half later, across the country in Philadelphia, a 12-year-old lacrosse player came out as gay and found himself struggling with the process. Braeden Lange’s father remembered Goldstein’s story and reached out to him.

“Braeden’s story brought up so many memories about my own experience,” Goldstein says. “I had been through the same struggles he was going through. I had been there.”

Goldstein filmed a video of support to send to Braeden and asked four other gay lacrosse players to do the same. The pair ended up meeting in person in Philadelphia in April.

“When I first met him, we simply played catch with lacrosse sticks for two hours,” Goldstein says. “Meeting him gave all those years of holding it inside a purpose. That I could share that with Braeden meant a lot.”

The game of catch that day sparked a seed that had been planted in Goldstein’s head the prior year by Seattle-based lacrosse player and coach, Nick Welton, who had reached out to Goldstein about starting a high-performance LGBT lacrosse team that would represent the LGBT community and its allies. They then realized they only knew three other gay players.

The idea evolved into organizing a “Courage Game” for Braeden and any other young athlete who deserves to know that there is LGBT support in the lacrosse community. Welton took the lead on the project and brought on Lacrosse All Stars and You Can Play as sponsors.

“It started as an adult pick-up game and grew from there to include kids,” Welton says. “We knew the Division I National Championship lacrosse game would be in Philadelphia so we planned the event for the same weekend in May. We wanted to present the game of lacrosse as it is played.”

Idaho native Welton grew up playing lacrosse, continued in college at Lehigh University and now plays with Cooper’s Lacrosse Club in the Seattle-area. He coaches youth through high school lacrosse at Bellevue.

The resulting Courage Game and the subsequent special on Goldstein and Lange on ESPN’s SportsCenter, was a testament to what can be accomplished through support, community and role models.

“It’s important for young players to have positive reinforcement from older players,” Welton says. “We are planning to hold the Courage Game again next year with the intent to bring on female lacrosse players for a game.”

Andrew Goldstein can be found these days, happily married to husband Jamie Duneier in L.A., involved in his research with prostate cancer and working towards being a professor at UCLA. He is also back playing ice hockey and speaks at high schools to raise awareness.

“The game is where all that other stuff gets left behind,” says Goldstein referring to the power of sports. “I wanted Braeden to know that sports will always be there for him.”

Goldstein will be speaking at the Team DC’s Night of Champions Awards Dinner at the Washington Hilton on Nov. 7.