Nigel Andrews had just been cleared to play for the first time in more than a month when Harvard men’s lacrosse coach Gerry Byrne delivered the news the senior midfielder dreaded.

On March 11, Andrews’ last year as a college lacrosse player ended before it ever started.

“The day Coach Byrne told us our season was canceled was the day I got cleared by doctors to get back out on the field again,” he said.

Andrews had heard rumblings that the Ivy League might cancel spring sports due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which had yet to reach pandemic proportions. He was excited, nonetheless, to suit up for his first practice since suffering a separated shoulder and torn labrum in a preseason scrimmage at Stony Brook. If his body held up in practice that day, he would be available for the Crimson’s conference opener that weekend against Brown.

It never materialized.

“You could see just from the expression on [Byrne’s] face that it was bad news,” Andrews said. “There were tears shed and a sense of things left undone, especially for the seniors.”

Thousands of college lacrosse players across the country absorbed the same shock the next day when the NCAA canceled all sports for the remainder of the academic year.

“It was heartbreaking,” said Gloria Zhao, a senior midfielder for the Bowdoin women’s lacrosse team. “We had so much potential.”

Thanks to CityLax, Andrews and Zhao will have at least one more opportunity to suit up in 2020. Both plan to play in the CityLax Senior Classic in September. The event’s purpose is twofold, providing a platform for college seniors to finish their careers on the field while serving as a fundraiser for the non-profit organization, which provides lacrosse programming for New York City public schools and low-income neighborhoods.

CityLax, which operates also in Albany as part of US Lacrosse’s Lacrosse Communities Project, has tentatively planned to stage separate men’s and women’s games as well as youth clinics at Randall’s Island Park on Sept. 12. Several current and former U.S. national team players have committed to serve as coaches for the event. Reigning world championship MVP Michael Ehrhardt will be there, as will Rob Pannell, Tom Schreiber and Max Seibald.

CityLax will hold its annual benefit earlier in the week at the New York Athletic Club. Postponed in April, the gala accounts for 90 percent of CityLax’s revenue, according to CEO John Moser.

“New York City is still being hit particularly hard, and those school budgets are being slashed,” Moser said. “Our student-athletes are going to need us more than ever when this is over.”

CityLax was founded in 2005, the same year Andrews attended his first lacrosse game. His uncle took him to Philadelphia to see his alma mater, Virginia, play Johns Hopkins in the NCAA semifinals. Andrews idolized Kyle Harrison. It meant something to see a black player perform at that level, especially considering almost everyone else he saw on the field was white.

“As soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘All right, this is the sport I want to play,’” said Andrews, who was in third grade at the time. “I was all in.”

Andrews, who lives in midtown Manhattan, attended a CityLax clinic to get his start in the sport. His family has supported the organization ever since. The relationship continued even as Andrews advanced to play for the Doc’s NYC Lacrosse and Long Island Express club teams, then left for boarding school at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He wore No. 18.

“My whole reason for playing and the type of player I wanted to be was molded off Kyle Harrison. He was the inspiration I had of trying to get better and get to the next level,” said Andrews, who also looked up to Virginia’s star twin brothers Shamel and Rhamel Bratton. “As I’ve gotten older, that has become my goal, to be that mentor to younger black kids and kids of color trying to play lacrosse, especially in the New York City area.”

Without CityLax, Andrews would never have known where this once-foreign sport could take him. He appeared in 31 games in his first three seasons at Harvard. He scored 13 goals last year, including the game winner in triple overtime against Boston University.

The CityLax Senior Classic was partly Andrews’ idea. It came up during Moser’s conversation with the family, who will be honored at the CityLax Annual Benefit.

“I told them there was a sense of unfinished business especially on my team, having our season cut short so unexpectedly. There was a lot of energy of players looking to get back out there and compete one more time,” said Andrews, who is in the NCAA transfer portal and has not ruled out playing elsewhere as a graduate student. “You’re doing it for yourself — one more time on the field — but also giving back to CityLax and their mission, which is especially important now with the pandemic. New York City is not focusing on public schools and after-school programs. They’re redirecting their funding toward fighting COVID-19. It’s leaving these schools and programs underfunded.”

CityLax provides funding for more than 70 middle school and high school boys’ and girls’ lacrosse teams in the five boroughs. Moser estimated that about a third of the families do not have high-speed internet access, which has made the players feel only more isolated while sheltering in place.

Since they’re not on the field together, CityLax hosts Zoom clinics with college and professional players like Cornell women’s lacrosse captain Ellie Walsh and Archers LC and U.S. training team defenseman Matt McMahon, respectively. The conversation frequently veers toward family and academic experiences.

“Most have parents that didn’t go to college. They don’t have reference point,” Moser said. “When they talk to someone who is in the middle of it doing what they love, it opens up the gates.”

Zhao has coached for CityLax since 2017, when it started an affiliate organization in Albany as part of the Lacrosse Communities Project. She’s also the founder of Dreams Albany, a lacrosse program at the Arbor Hill Community Center in New York’s capital city.

A sociology major on the pre-med track, Zhao moved to the big city last summer for an internship at Bellevue Hospital. She’ll return in August when she starts a research position in Northwell Health’s pediatrics department.

Zhao, who coached at a Brooklyn summer camp for girls, had already intended to reconnect with CityLax when director of development Shep Skiff informed her of the Senior Classic. She signed up immediately and started spreading the word on social media.

“We all feel like we have some kind of unfinished business,” Zhao said “It’s really great that CityLax is giving an opportunity for all the seniors to play again, and for a great cause.”