Buick LaCrosse Shines at Lacrosse Championship

June 3, 2011 10:54 am ET

The only thing hotter than the weather and the scorching action inside M&T Bank Stadium at the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship in Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend was the sleek lineup of 2011 Buicks outside the stadium and a frenetic shootout for charity.

Scores of youngsters and adults tested their skill and accuracy at the Buick Lacrosse Challenge by firing lacrosse balls at targets for a chance to win free tickets to upcoming championship games. As contestants stepped up to shoot with the hopes of ending up on the leader board,  Buick made a donation to Lacrosse the Nations, a charitable foundation that uses the sport of lacrosse to help educate and feed the world’s poverty-stricken children.

Several former lacrosse stars from Baltimore took in the action after test driving the Buick LaCrosse, Enclave, Regal and the Cadillac CTS Coupe. We met them at the stadium to see how they liked their ride.

“I loved the Buick, it was awesome,” said Sheehan Stanwick Burch, women’s lacrosse analyst for CBS Sports Network, writer for Lacrosse Magazine and a college All-American. “Honestly, it was the nicest car I have ever driven and we’ve had BMWs and Mercedes. It was really just a joy to ride.”

Kevin Doyle, president of Kelly Post Lacrosse, one of the nation’s oldest youth lacrosse programs, and a former college player, said the Buick Enclave drove like a “luxury car.”

“You don’t even know you’re driving it,” said Doyle, who wheeled the vehicle into the heart of the action: a Kelly Post bull roast for players and families.

His wife, Susan Doyle, liked the Enclave’s spacious interior. “Having children, I like more room for them,” she said. “It drove very nicely.”

Lawrence J. Quinn, color commentator for the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team and a Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee, said some motorists rolled down their car windows to get a better view of the Cadillac CTS Coupe he was driving. “It wasn’t because of this face,” he joked. “It was a smooth ride, very stylish. It has all the gadgets you could want.”

Erin Curran, a former college lacrosse player who teaches middle school English and coaches and mentors inner city girls, took several students to the games in a Buick Regal.

“As we were driving home, the children wanted us to drive slowly so that they had more time in the car,” Curran said. “It was so sweet.”