By Larry Atkins

Dr. Chris Goldberg ’05Ed.D., an accomplished journalist and teacher, has a new goal of creating a lacrosse community in Philadelphia. Goldberg founded and operates PhillyLacrosse.com, which is emerging as one of the top lacrosse websites in the country. The website’s goal is to promote enthusiasm and knowledge of lacrosse across the Philadelphia area.

“The site was created to fulfill a dream I’ve had to combine all the aspects of my professional life and make a positive avenue for lacrosse,” Goldberg says. “I have been a journalist since my senior year in high school in 1978 and love to write as well as gather information and get it out to the public. I also love lacrosse, after coaching it for 10 years and also officiating the sport. Being an educator and seeing the many positives of the sport and what it’s done for so many of my students and players, I wanted to inject as many areas of education into the site as possible.”

Launched in January of 2008, Goldberg’s site covers all aspects of lacrosse in the Philadelphia region. It currently averages more than 2,000 unique visitors and more than 10,000 page views a day. The site gets submissions of announcements, news items, game reports, and photos from members of the local lacrosse community. It covers local high school and college lacrosse teams, youth tournaments, college recruiting news, national lacrosse news, and national and local rankings.

“I mention academics in nearly every feature story—what the student is going to major in when he or she goes to play college lacrosse—and their academic and service achievements,” Goldberg says.

As a former full-time reporter for the Pottstown Mercury and Lansdale Reporter, Goldberg covered sports and local news. He is also a freelance writer, having written for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jewish Exponent, ESPN.com, and SchoolSports Magazine, among other publications.

Goldberg received his Doctor of Education in Special Education degree from Arcadia University in 2005. He has been a Computer Teacher for Norwood School in the Interboro School District since 1998. He teaches lessons that integrate curricular content and computers to students in inclusive classes for grades 1 through 8, as he has taught more than 1,500 students skills and strategies in integration of technology across the curriculum.

Goldberg says, “I went into teaching to help make a difference in the lives of children. I feel very fortunate that I have had very few bad days as a teacher. There is always something new to learn and a student that does something to make it all worthwhile.”

While he doesn’t regret leaving journalism, Goldberg says that his lacrosse website allows him to continue both teaching and writing. “I guess I never really left journalism. I decided to leave newspapers in 1992 and become a teacher because I desperately wanted to make the greatest contribution I could on society and, to me, teaching is the ideal way to achieve that. I became somewhat disenchanted with the direction of newspapers at that time. For me, the move was the right one since I love teaching and I’ve been able to find my new niche in journalism some years later.”

Arcadia has been an important part of Goldberg’s life. His mother, Beverly, graduated from Arcadia University and is a long-time trustee of the University. Two years ago, Chris Goldberg married his wife, Kristen Imperiale, at Arcadia’s Grey Towers Castle.

“Knowing my family history and our connection to Arcadia, you can imagine it was a one-in-a-million event,” Goldberg says. “My wife was actually the one who came up with the idea of being married at the castle on the very day she laid eyes on the place as we first began to date. It was written! The Castle obviously had great meaning to my family; the only sad part was that my father had passed away a year and half earlier. Kristen and I walked down the steps with all 125 people scared to death one of us would slip. There were some hitches, but none that mattered and it was a beautiful ceremony and a gorgeous spring day.”

Larry Atkins teaches journalism at Arcadia.