SJ Dohrenwend was living in an orphanage when an earthquake devastated his native Haiti; with help from a lacrosse-loving father and circle of friends, he has become one of San Diego’s best high school lacrosse players

By Jim Lindgren – San Diego Union Tribune – May 13, 2024

In sports, earth-shattering moments are commonplace. The temblor story of Torrey Pines’ SJ Dohrenwend, however, is quite literal.

When a magnitude-7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, it sent shockwaves through the lives of Dohrenwend, his adoptive parents and eventually his many friends in the boys lacrosse program at Torrey Pines High School.

Top-seeded Torrey Pines (15-3) begins its quest for a sixth consecutive CIF San Diego Section Open Division championship on Tuesday night with a semifinal home match against No. 4 Bishop’s (10-4).

Ten of the Falcons’ 14 seniors will play lacrosse in college next year.

That Dohrenwend is one of them is downright miraculous

Born in Haiti, Dohrenwend was 4 and living in an orphanage when the earthquake and several large aftershocks rocked Haiti and the Dominican Republic, killing an estimated 250,000 people. A week later, he was hustled out of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, by a San Diego doctor who went through an amazing ordeal just to find his soon-to-be son.

“The whole process was a bizarre series of timing, luck and miracles,” said Paul Dohrenwend, who along with his wife, Donica, had been trying to adopt SJ for over two years. “First of all, we weren’t sure if he was alive or dead. By the grace of God, it turned out he was two hours away from the epicenter at a different orphanage than the one in Port-au-Prince.”

The younger Dohrenwend didn’t speak English — only a youngster’s vocabulary of Haitian Creole, a French-based vernacular language. He certainly didn’t know about lacrosse, but his adopted father did.

Paul Dohrenwend set scoring records at Fairfield Prep in Connecticut, earning a scholarship to play at Georgetown University under coach David Urick. Paul Dohrenwend moved to San Diego, and later became an emergency doctor at Kaiser Permanente.

By age 6, SJ Dohrenwend was playing lacrosse for the Carmel Valley Falcons and later for a club team called RC, short for Rotten Cheeseburgers.

Paul Dohrenwend and Bart Bolt were the coaches. Along with SJ, there are nine Torrey Pines seniors who played for Carmel Valley and RC while attending Sage Canyon Elementary and Pacific Trails Middle School.

When SJ Dohrenwend was in second grade, the whole team marched in a Halloween parade.

“That’s when I knew I had friends here. And for the first time, I belonged,” he said. “We’ve never looked back. Those are my boys. I think we have what it takes to go 4-for-4 in CIF titles.”

A 5-foot-9, 150-pound defensive midfielder, Dohrenwend earned a scholarship to Monmouth University in New Jersey. Coach Jono Zissi acknowledged that Dohrenwend, 18, is “definitely undersized.”

“But what he lacks in size, he makes up for in grit and tenacity,” Zissi said. “He’s really quick, and that helps him a lot. He plays the hardest position in lacrosse.

“Away from the game, he’s one of the most interesting guys around. And smart, too.”

Torrey Pins senior Jason Elliott calls Dohrenwend “the core of the team.”

“Overall, he’s a great player, a great friend,” Elliott said. “He’s very high-energy and funny, but he can be serious, too. He’s going to a great school. He’s going to be a success no matter what he does.”

Said another friend, Jake Sweeney: “We all love him. We call him ‘The Haitian Hammer.’”

Of Dohrenwend’s longtime buddies, Ryland Roach (Massachusetts) and Matthew Mannarino (Rutgers) also will play at Division I schools. Nate Lucera (Roanoke College) and Mark Brown (Babson College) earned Division III scholarships. Sweeney has been invited to walk on at Penn State. Elliott and Nico Karam will play at the club level at TCU. Only one of the nine longtime friends, Nic Cline, declined to play in college.

Still another Falcons player, goalkeeper Andrew Cook, has earned a scholarship to Johns Hopkins, which has won nine NCAA titles since 1974. And Blake Washburn (Tufts University) will play in Division III.

“That’s pretty incredible for any team in the country, especially one from Torrey Pines on the West Coast,” said Zissi, who has won seven CIF San Diego Section Open Division titles coaching the Falcons. “Paul was instrumental in the early development of these kids. I really give him a lot of credit.”

Paul Dohrenwend credits a higher power for the chain reaction that led his son to Torrey Pines.

Paul and Donica, a clinical psychologist, were hoping to adopt SJ when he was 2. A red-tape government in Haiti all but nixed the deal two years later. The Dohrenwends found a loophole in the decision and went to court to finally secure SJ’s adoption. But the earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, destroyed the building that held the adoption paperwork.

Paul and two other Kaiser doctors attempted to fly to Haiti to offer emergency medical care and look for the child in a country of 10 million people … with no phone service and no electricity. The plane they were supposed to take from Florida to Port-au-Prince was grounded with mechanical issues. Paul managed to secure the only seat on a jet headed to Haiti. The other two doctors hitched a ride on an ESPN jet.

After working in a makeshift medical ward, Paul Dohrenwend was told to get in touch with Tim Pearson, who had a knack for processing children out of the country. Amidst all the chaos, Paul somehow found Pearson at the American Embassy. A while later, a Catholic priest showed up at the embassy with SJ on his shoulder.

“No cell service, no power, SJ somehow wound up in my lap,” Paul said. “Simply a miracle of timing and luck.”

The Dohrenwends adopted daughter Wylie from Ethiopia a few months after SJ joined their family. They have three other children: Gunner, 20, Jetta, 18, and Piper, 13. The whole clan played or plays lacrosse — including Wylie, 15, for the JV girls team at Torrey Pines.

SJ Dohrenwend cannot recall most of his short life in Haiti, but he has faced the inevitable what-if question.

“I don’t even know how many times I’ve asked myself that question,” SJ said. “I do know that I’m very lucky. I have no idea what my life would have been like, if I would have even survived to get to the age I am now.

“I’m 100 percent super beyond blessed.”