The captain and leading scorer for the City Honors rugby team, Lexi Erdolino led her side to a strong showing in Western New York and Tier II of the Girls HS National Championships, but that isn't fully why she's our Player of the Month.
Erdolino also epitomized the best of the rugby family in looking outside herself.
"Lexi has an amazing drive to be great," says City Honors Head Coach Matt Frank. "She uses her own time off the practice field for training to make herself stronger, faster, and better at rugby. When she is not training for rugby she works in a pizzeria so she can afford to go to rugby camps and hire personal trainers. Her goal is to one day be a capped USA Eagle."
A lofty goal, but we're just happy to see her do well and be mindful of the world around her. On May 14 an 18-year-old man entered a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, NY, shooting 12 people, of which nine, tragically, died. According to reports, the assailant targeted his victims because they were African American.
The attack hit the city hard, and occured just a couple of blocks from the City Honors rugby team's practice field. Quickly Erdolino wanted to do something.
"I think everybody in the city of Buffalo was affected by this," Erdolino told GRR. "I just knew maybe there was a way I could help."
This shooting happened in a not particularly affluent part of town, and Erdolino resolved to started a campaign to raise money for the local food pantry—hoping to help families while they wrre grieving. This done during the end of semester and as she and her team was preparing for nationals. The campaign spread and several teams at the national tournament donated.
"I just wanted to help the people of my city," she explained. "And then to find out that some of the teams at Nationals were donating, that was amazing."
