Tyrone Bowen-Collateta ‘26

When Tyrone Bowen-Collateta arrived at Pitt-Bradford to finish his education degree, he brought more than his coursework with him. A member of the Seneca Nation of Indians who grew up in Salamanca, N.Y. — just 20 miles from campus, on Haudenosaunee land — he had a story to tell and a game to share. The lacrosse stick, he has explained, is among the first things a Seneca boy receives: a wooden one placed in his hands as a kind of birthright. “Traditionally, when a male is born, he’s given a wooden lacrosse stick,” he says. “That’s how our bond to the game begins.”

That bond became a catalyst. An essay Bowen-Collateta wrote for an English class about the spiritual and cultural roots of lacrosse in Haudenosaunee tradition reached the President’s Cabinet as it considered adding the sport to Pitt-Bradford’s NCAA Division III offerings. He was invited to meet with Athletic Director Bret Butler, served as the student representative in the coaching search, and helped orient the men’s program around the game’s Indigenous origins. Now, having graduated in December 2025, he has stayed on as coach of the university’s new women’s lacrosse team for its inaugural season.

His influence has extended well beyond the field. As a player, Bowen-Collateta introduced his non-Indigenous teammates to the Haudenosaunee roots of the game and helped the team host events like Orange Shirt Day, which honors survivors of Indian boarding schools — an institution his own great-grandfather endured at the Thomas Indian School. When the first-ever Native Student Athlete Summit was held in 2025, Bowen-Collateta attended as a participant, speaking to how Indigenous student-athletes often find themselves the only one in the room. “We often feel alone in a classroom or on our teams,” he said, “because we are often one of a very few Indigenous students who play for our respective sports or institutions.” This spring, he returned to the Summit — this time as a speaker.

The response to Pitt-Bradford’s commitment to the Seneca Nation has not gone unnoticed. At the Summit, Bowen-Collateta reported that fellow attendees were struck by the institutional support his program has received. “Some of the speakers were very impressed with the support that the university has given to building and strengthening our relationship with the Seneca Nation of Indians,” he said. For a young man who once helped raise his younger siblings on the Allegany Territory and chose education as his way of breaking generational cycles, coaching the next generation of lacrosse players on traditional Haudenosaunee land is something more than a job. It is, in the truest sense, the medicine game.