Mike Vorgang is a longtime staple on the sideline at Niskayuna High School. Over his three decade coaching career, he has turned the Silver Warriors boys lacrosse program into not only one of the best programs in the section, but also the state.

“We just need to continue to improve,” Vorgang said. “Our guys need to enjoy this process. They need to come to practice, and practice hard.”

And for the last 13 years, his son, Greyson Vorgang, has been with him just about every step of the way.

“He had been on our sideline, and coming to practice every day since he was about 5,” Mike Vorgang said. “I can probably count on my hands the number of practices he has missed over the last 13 years, and never missed a game.”

It’s easy to see how Greyson Vorgang gravitated toward lacrosse at a young age.

“Going to all the practices and stuff, and going to every game, on the bus with the guys when I was little, it’s just exactly where I want to be. And always what I loved to watch and be a part of the most,” Greyson Vorgang said.

That aspiration has become a reality. Greyson Vorgang is now a senior and dominating on the field for Niskayuna, with his father and coach close by.

“It’s really surreal leading up to it being on the sidelines all the time and watching him, and then him actually coaching me it’s been great,” Greyson Vorgang said.

Mike Vorgang calls the chance to coach his son a gift, and helping develop Greyson Vorgang into a unique player.

“His rhythm and his cadence and his timing are just things that are different from any kid that I’ve ever coached,” Mike Vorgang said. “And he continues to improve, but he does put a lot of time into it, whether it’s with his running coach or in the weight room or him on his own working on his skills.”

All that hard work earned Greyson Vorgang an opportunity to play lacrosse at Denver next year. That continues a long list of players Mike Vorgang has helped reach the collegiate level.

“He’s the reason why I’m here,” Greyson Vorgang said. “He’s the reason why I play. He’s the reason why I do a lot of things.”

“He allows me to be myself, and I allow him to be himself,” Mike Vorgang said. “He does bring back a lot of good insight from the field to the sideline. He does understand the game extremely well, so he does tell me something that’s going out on the field.”

It’s been quite the last dance together for the pair. Niskayuna cracked the USA Lacrosse Magazine Top 25 national ranking this season. But what the Vorgangs and the rest of the Silver Warriors hope is that all of this leads to them making some noise come late May and early June.

“It’s been such a storied program and has had so much success that a state championship is exactly what we want,” Greyson Vorgang said.