PHILADELPHIA — The lacrosse family tree branches from the field to the press box, connecting sports information directors and media alike to the game and the event itself.

SIDs already share a family bond formed from long hours and low pay, but it’s extra taut when they’ve worked lacrosse. That connection helped one prodigal son — the University of Pennsylvania’s Mike Mahoney — and a lacrosse newcomer, NCAA media coordinator Kristen Jacob, pull off this year’s press operation with few hitches. This despite their having a combined nine months tenure at their current employers. But families make things work, even when faced with a houseful of guests — 170 writers, 75 photographers and full TV crews from ESPN and CSTV.

Mahoney worked six years at Northwestern University (just women’s lacrosse) before becoming a Quaker. Before that, the former New Hampshire high school player worked with the sport at Dartmouth College. Jacob was one month removed from being an assistant media relations director at Indiana University, Bloomington, her first full-time job, at a school with no lacrosse.

"We’re both kind of finding our way," Mahoney said the day after the Division I semifinals. "It’s just a lot of little details that someone with more experience would know about.

"(Kristen) will have that experience coming through this year (at Baltimore) and the next time it comes through here (the site has not been decided past 2008), I’ll have a reference as well."

While those reference points will be first-hand, this year’s experience came from other lacrosse SID family members, a group of passionate people who’ve worked many championships and volunteered to assist.

"By this time of the year, a lot of SIDs, they’re reaching the point where (they think) ‘I’ve got a free weekend, I’m going to take it,’" Mahoney said. "Lacrosse SIDs know how much fun this weekend is and that there is a reason 50,000 people decide to do this on their Memorial Day weekend. Having lacrosse SIDs here is a huge help, and since they know the game so well, it takes a lot of the burden off Kristen and me."

Mahoney attended previous lacrosse championship weekends at campus sites as a fan. Despite the layoff at Northwestern, he still has the love.

"I needed to get Kristen down on the field when the goalies punch gloves and shake hands (before the game)," he said. "You want to be there because that’s when you realize how great this thing is. The players shake, they go to their spots, they face it off and it’s go time. It’s one of the best times in college sports."

Does he sound enthusiastic? You don’t have to be a former player who’s an SID to fall into that category. Princeton University’s Jerry Price has volunteered to take statistics in nearby Philadelphia for the past two championships. He comes to this family reunion most every year, oftentimes as a participating SID, other times as a volunteer.

"Had I had this day ‘off’ I would have bought tickets and come here to watch anyway," Price said. "Just coming and being part of the event is a lot of fun. Since ’92 (for Princeton’s first title, when covering as a reporter for the Trenton Times), there’s been only two that I haven’t been to."

Towson assistant SID Tom Judd, who traveled from the Baltimore area to serve as internal press box public address announcer, a post he held both years at the Charm City’s M&T Bank Stadium, talked about the family feeling when asked why he keeps coming back on the summer’s first holiday.

"It is sort of a weird community in that everybody comes together for this event — SIDs, media — there’s some sort of lacrosse bond that people want to get together and make it a bigger event," Judd said. "Everybody (involved) sees the potential for this game to be so successful and grow and grow and grow and be one of the top sports nationally and even, to an extent, worldwide.

"I think people are excited to see the growth and people want to be a part of it and do whatever they can to help promote it."

Dave Rosenfeld of the Princeton sports information office served as press conference moderator during the weekend. Previously, he worked at Loyola College (Maryland), one of the four schools that hosted the lacrosse championships during his years with the Greyhounds. He said he volunteered out of friendship and for professional development.

"Cooperation is the nature of this sport," he said. "It’s getting bigger, but it’s still small enough that you know pretty much any person who is involved in it. People just know each other. Whether it’s media people or SIDs, part of the reason is that you know a lot of the people.

"NCAA championships are the culmination of any sport, so just as players and coaches work toward it, so do SIDs. Any time I get a chance to help with something like this, I’m going to take it."

SIDs who become part of the championship also can help their team adjust to the extracurricular activities, especially if the school hasn’t been this far before. Jason Yellin of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has seen the event from all SID angles. He was host SID at the University of Maryland, College Park. He traveled to the championships weekend with the team when Maryland competed. He volunteered in Baltimore. This year, he was providing the sports information expertise for the Minutemen, for whom he’s worked for two years — and who had never advanced beyond the quarterfinals before this year.

"I acquired a great understanding of how the tournament runs and the procedures and how to handle different situations," Yellin said.

Knowing Yellin had this knowledge, coach Greg Cannella sought his advice.

"It helps tremendously to have someone like Jason," Cannella said. "The best thing he was able to do was condense everything during the week by day. We were able to focus on what to do this day, then move on to the next one."

The SIDs all want to make the event bigger. And it has grown larger then even those involved thought it could. Price admitted that when Philadelphia was awarded the championships, he thought attendance would decrease from the then-record crowds that had flocked to Baltimore, long recognized as the sport’s hub.

"I thought at first they were going to go from having 40,000 to 25,000 and it would be a huge step back," he said. "Then, (last year) not only was there was a great crowd, every game was great."

Judd said the atmosphere reminds him of what it must have been like in the days before the Men’s Final Four became March Madness and what the people who worked with that event at that time felt just before that explosion.

"I think we’re at that step now, making that push," he said. "And I can take pride in knowing I’ve been a part of it."

Mahoney said he’s already thinking of future years.

"I was talking with Tom Judd, and I said, ‘Hey, who’s running the thing for you guys?’ " he said. "I told him that I have a sheet of notes in my pocket that I’d e-mail him a couple of weeks out so he’d have the little details to remember — kind of a head start on what he’ll want to do."

Mahoney won’t be in Baltimore next year, at least not for Saturday’s games. He’ll be at Penn’s Franklin Field, hosting the Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship. But he said he’ll likely drive south for Monday’s championship game.

When he gets there, a new colleague will be waiting.

"I’m already excited about next year," Jacob said.

The family’s grown.