Team USA 84-man player pool

The 84 man player pool has been established for the next iteration of the USA's national outdoor lacrosse team. The pool will be cut to 40 and then eventually to the ILF mandated 23 man roster. It is interesting to note that neither Casey [pictured] nor Mike Powell are listed, although Ryan is still eligible.

Most of the guys on the list played at the top [Cuse/UVA/UMD/Hopkins/Duke] tier of college lacrosse but there are a couple of notable exceptions in division 3 players Stephen Berger [WAC] and Eric Martin [Salisbury] and division 2 player Tom Zummo [NY Tech]. All 3 of them are big time players in the MLL.

It is impressive that Brian Dougherty is still in the running even though he graduated from UMD 13 years ago but what is even more impressive is that Dman John Gagliardi is still being considered. I mean, let's face it, goalies can stand around for much of the game and they don't have to be in tip-top shape if they are naturals [like Doc]. Dmen are expected to be able to cover the best offensive players in the game and in order to do so, they need to be in top condition. Gags is something special in that respect because he has always been a beast but his skill and precision with the longstick never ceases to amaze me. For further proof [and the opportunity for young dmen to learn some new skills!] check out this video from Maverik and Lax.com:

http://www.lax.com/story.phtml?story=2233

It will be interesting to see where the team ends up in terms of roster but so far the 84 men selected are skilled athletes that will represent the USA with pride and determination. A lot less repeat players were selected and that makes some sense considering what happened during the last world championships where the US lost to our neighbor to the North.

To see the entire list: http://insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=198911

Chapman's uniforms - SWEET.

Check out Chapman's Uniforms with the link below.. I dare you:

http://laxmagazine.com/multimedia/photos/2008-09/030209_michiganchapman_dirkdewachter

proof that horizontal stripes don't always make you look fat.

weekend review

What a weekend! Princeton beat the Hop liked I said they would. Cornell bested Army in the final minute on a Max Siebald goal. He doesn't get as much hype as some others in the college game but he is as good as or better than any middie in the college game right now. His swim move is evocative of Rabil, just a couple inches lower. UMd looked solid against Duke but their offense is a little stagnant for a team that is supposedly loaded with talent. Both Catalino and Yeatman tend to hold the ball a lot and post up which really slows the game down. None of the Terp first line middies are that impressive although they are all fast and play well together. This team needs something additional if they are going to be contenders. Gtown lost to St. John's in Queens and it was the first major win for this 5 year old iteration of the SJU program.

There weren't any major upsets in the D3 or D2 ranks and my call that Colorado College would beat Lynchburg was embarassingly wrong considering CC lost by 15! All of the typical players kept rolling although the NESCAC teams won't really start playing real games for another week. Montclair State came back from a 6-4 deficit in the 4th to beat Hartwick 7-6 in Jersey. Big win for the MSU squad. Merrimack scrimmaged Weselyan and Merrimack could really be the surprise team of D2 this year. They have an experienced bunch of kids, the coach believes in them and they were able to solve Wesleyan's zone which speaks to their ball movement and unselfishness. Look for Merrimack to do well this year. RIT beat Adelphi by one showing the difference between the 2 divisions is, as usual, not that much.

On a side note, I played in my alumni game on Saturday in 3 inches of snow and had a great time out there. We lost 9-7 with only 16 players to a bunch of kids who are actually in shape. If there is one thing I learned, it is that I simply do not recover the way I used to... ah, getting old!

Photo of Wick-MSU game.

Weekend UPSET predictions!

So, here goes nothing! I'm going to pick one Division 1 game and one Division 2 or 3 game as my upset special of the week and this week I've picked...

Princeton over Hopkins, 9-7. I like Princeton's D, they have a new goalie with a limited amount of scouting available on him, have a healthy midfield and still have Coach Tierney prowling the sidelines. Hopkins is still very good and could easily make a NC run this season but it is early and they are replacing some serious firepower on offense in Rabil, Peyser and Huntley.

On the Division three side of things I'm going out on a real limb with a Sunday tilt between Colorado College and Lynchburg. Lburg is still highly rated but I think this may be the season Where CC really makes an impact... plus they have fantastic helmets. It is a real risk considering CC play Washington & Lee the day before but maybe that will just get them ready to roll even more so... like I said, I'm out on a limb here.

PotD - Weekend Preview Cuse-UVA

This PotD comes from: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/broadband/photoedge/blog/2008/03/lacrosse_faceoff_classic.html

The image really sums up the intensity of 'Cuse-UVA tilts and this weekend is shaping up to be another classic. Enjoy!

Best Lax Player in the WORLD!

You always get an interesting response from laxheads when you ask them who the best player in the world is. Right now, my answer would be Mark Steenhuis of the Buffalo Bandits. He plays forward and transition in the NLL and is a point scoring machine. He had 17 points against the Toronto Rock last week on 4 goals and 13 assists. Both the 17 point mark and the 13 assists are NLL records for a single game. He is leading the league in points at this point in the season as well.

The 28 year old Canadian is not that tall [5'8"], not that big, but he runs hard and he can do it all day. He takes a lot of punishment and can dish it out. He's a shifty righty who can flat out fly and wants it more than the other guys. On top of all that, he has some of the best hair in the entire NLL since Tom Ryan cut his dreads.

Although I cover outdoor lacrosse primarily, I really do like the NLL and think Steenhuis represents the best they have to offer.

Great success in Boston for new NLL franchise

Gone are the days of the Green, Black and Orange, gone are the days of spandex shorts and huge hockey jerseys yet the Boston Blazers are back and showing the rest of the league how to do things right. Considering the economy and their expansion status, the Blazers are drawing good numbers and winning games. They are doing so by asking their players to make a real commitment. A lot of players in the NLL and MLL don't live where they play, show up for games and are on the first plane out of town after the game is over. Not so in Beantown. The players live near one another, hang out off the field, play a lot of lax and are really trying to get the larger Boston community interested. Read the whole article to hear the whole story:

http://www.laxmagazine.com/nll/2008-09/news/022509_blazers

An approving nod of the head to NESCAC legend, NLL legend and Dreadlock legend[even if he eventually cut them off], Tom Ryan, for leading this team to success both on and off the "box".

You know Lacrosse is booming when...

British soccer articles even mention the sport. Lacrosse is still a relative unknown in England compared to Rugby or even American Football yet Henry Winter decided to include a lacrosse reference to highlight the physical nature of one player's actions:

"Chelsea had known they would not have it all their own way in midfield when little Mauro Camoranesi began flying into challenges, flattening Ashley Cole and Michael Ballack in quick succession. With a short ponytail straight out of St Trinian’s, Camoranesi needed only a lacrosse stick to complete the image."

St. Trinian's is a made-up private school for girls in the UK. Evidently, they play lacrosse, are violent, spoiled and cheat like crazy. Basically, this writer is calling Camoranesi a lacrosse playing girl, which must be a compliment since in actuality, he is a soccer playing man.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/chelsea/4807014/Chelsea-striker-Didier-Drogba-repays-Guus-Hiddinks-faith.html

Re-birth of the bag!

Earlier this week, I said that the bagged out lacrosse pockets were dead. This picture of Boston Blazer Dan Dawson says, "we aren't done with bags in the NLL, homes!"

Hood's first win in FIVE YEARS... that much sweeter!

Check out this article from Lacrosse Magazine about Hood's first win in 5 years:

http://www.laxmagazine.com/college_men/DIII/2008-09/news/022509_hood

HeyLaxMan's most sincere well wishes go out to Dan Rocker, his family and the entire Hood lacrosse program in hopes of a full recovery and return to action for the Junior LSM.

PotD - lax down under

Wembley Wolves and East Fremantle Blues match up in Western Australia.

Bryant proving they belong immediately

Bryant has done a great job early on this season after making the jump from Division 2 to Division 1. They have started the season at 2-1 by losing to UVA, crushing Sacred Heart and with a win over Dartmouth in NH. Mike Pressler has obviously done a great job at Bryant and he is an outstanding coach but the real man behind Bryant's early success is Zach Greer. He will only play there for one year but it is the most important; the first year as a Division 1 team.

Now, Pressler will lead the team for years to come and is leading the team now but the impact that a player like Greer can have on a team can not be underestimated. When Greer practices, he practices hard and sets an example as to what a Division 1 practice should look like and how high the intensity level has to be. He showcases what kind of athlete you need to be, he has experienced the best the college lacrosse world has to offer and knows what it takes to reach that level. Coaches always say to lead by example and Pressler has to be thrilled to have a guy like Greer doing just that.

ZG is putting up points when the team needs them most [as evidenced by his run-squelching goals against Dartmouth], keeping Bryant competitive in big games while being unselfish [against Virginia] or lighting it up [against Sacred Heart] when playing an opponent Bryant feels it should best. http://insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=198213

Bryant won't make the tourney this year no matter what because of their D1 probationary period but Greer has to be in the running for PoY regardless because without him, I sincerely doubt Bryant would be doing nearly as well as they are now. On a side note, it seems like Greer is still using the Gait Triton even with Bryant Lacrosse being sponsored by Brine.

Oglethorpe to add lacrosse!

No, Oggie Oglethorpe is not quitting hockey and moving to lacrosse. Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA is adding lacrosse in 2010 for the 2011 season. They will join Colorado College, Hendrix, Sewannee, Southwestern [2010 season] and Birmingham Southern in the SCAC [Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference]. One more team and the conference will start receiving an AQ at some point! It is an exciting moment in time when our great sport is expanding so quickly to areas that 10 years ago had never even heard of lacrosse.
For now, the coach will be the schools's Athletic Director, Jay Gardiner, who played lacrosse at McDaniel College and graduated in 1979.
http://www.theweekly.com/news/2009/February/23/Lacrosse.html
Oglethorpe's mascot is the Stormy Petrel. That's almost as cool as the Power Gulls of Endicott or the Polar Bears of Bowdoin!
http://www.oglethorpe.edu/athletics/Petey/

the death of the Bag.

In recent years there was an epidemic hitting lacrosse fields all over the country: bagged out pockets [as a d-man, I actually used one myself for a little while! it is a little embarrassing but I wasn't exactly a "finesse" guy...].

The use of draw strings had become prevalent in the club, college and high school levels. The college game in particular was really suffering because [more so than high school or club] the college game is one of possession evidenced best by Princeton and Hopkins' respective styles of play. Obvious exceptions that jump to mind are UVA and 'Cuse who like to run n' gun, however, the majority of teams outside the top tier will slow it down when they play competitive games. The drawstring-aided bags and pinched heads came together with this slow-down style of play and when combined with the refs' inability to check for violations to create a perfect storm involving REALLY deep pockets and lots of them.

The rules were changed and now refs do a lot of stick checks throughout the course of the game. Drawstrings were made illegal and touching your pocket after a ref asks to see it is being watched carefully as well and will result in an infraction. These new rules have really improved the quality of the game.

I have seen better passing, more takeaway checks dislodging the ball, more turnovers, more excitement and better shooting and I give all of the credit to the new rules and the refs as well as the Rules Committee for making the changes. Next year, the pinched heads will fall by the wayside [to a certain extent, at least] and I think we can expect to again see even better passing, more accurate shooting, great takeaway checks and a lot of up and down due to turnovers. This will increase the pace of the game as possession is never assured.

Will these moves increase scoring? I don't know that yet and think it could go either way but I would much rather see an up and down style of play that results in a 8-6 game than a 13-10 game where a couple of the top players just held the ball until they weaved through 4 players and scored from 7 yards out because no one could knock the ball out of their stick.

We don't need to get back to the days of wooden sticks and short shorts but we have gone too far away from what made the game great: passing, lots of running, back and forth battles, ground balls and a certain amount of uncertainty. The rules will reward the better players the most by allowing the game to be one of creativity and not technology but we will all reap the benefits because the product on the field will be that much sweeter.

MUSIC! why not?

Below you can find what I have been listening to lately. Does this have anything to do with lacrosse? Not really, unless you want to make a sweet, sweet warm-up tape and you're a risk taker. Here is the list:

Eagles of Death Metal - Cherry cola
Yelle - Je veux te voir [trust me, it is awesome]
The Ting Tings - We started nothing
The Presets - Yippiyo-ay
Le Tigre - Deceptacon
The Dandy Warhols - Minnesoter
Daft Punk - High life
Buju Banton - 6 million ways to die
Hot Chip - Over and over
Spoon - Jonathon Fisk
The Sounds - Hurt you

weekend review

Duke's blue helmets are simple as are the 'Gate's jerseys but I'm a big fan:
http://www.lax.com/story.phtml?story=2226
as you can see, Colgate seems to be here to stay and while Brandon Corp is the real deal, he has some work to do in order to be in the running for PoY.

I watched the Maryland-Georgetown game and I must say that I was not that impressed with Maryland even though statistically the game was pretty even. Maryland's offense seems a little stagnant as they take too long to set up dodges and then dodge slowly allowing the defense to adjust. Georgetown did an excellent job of not forcing slides. Defensively, the Terps looked a little slow and Brian Farell had an awful day for someone who is supposed to be a top level d-man. I guess I'll reserve judgement though, seeing as only a tenth of the season has been played. Barney Ehrmann looked really good down low after a season at LPM and could be the best defender in the country based on what he did against ND transfer and current Terp Yeatman.

Hopkins-Siena was fun to watch for the first half but JHU showed they were simply the better team in the 2nd... which is fun to see if you are a Hop fan! Also, I liked the Captains' "C" on the Hop jersey... like I said, they will do something classic with their uniforms. Their helmets were all traditional but well-designed.

Surprise of the weekend: HAS to be Harvard over Duke IN DURHAM, NC. Harvard was the kind of team that people thought could be a top 20 team but the jury was still out. Definitely expect to see them ranked this week. Congrats to my buddy, Charlie Congleton, the goalie coach at Harvard!

Then again, the surprise win of the weekend could also go to a Division 2 squad as Belmony Abbey [a recent addition to the lax world] bested perenial power Limestone 9-8 in OT. Jedd Gardner had 4 goals, including the OT game winner.

Big Scorers: Bryant won their first D1 game 22-8 over Sacred Heart. Zach Greer finished up 11 points as 6 of those 11 came on goals and 5 on assists. Also dropping 11 points was UVA's Garret Billings who did so on 8 goals and 3 assists in a 20-10 thumping of Stony Brook.

The D2/D3 side of things: Whittier lost to D2 NDNU 7-6 in the battle of Cali. You can be assured it was a tough, hard-hitting game. Salisbury keeps rolling with ease, 'Noke and OWU won convincingly. Stevenson was picked to be a real contender this year but they only bested Widener by 1.

MCLA: AZ State season is suspended

http://www.laxmagazine.com/college_men/club/2008-09/news/022009_asu

Arizona State's club lacrosse team has been suspended until August 2009. All of this info could change as the investigation seems to be ongoing and the appeals process is not finished but there are some very interesting issues that this case brings back up, much like the somewhat similar cases in the past at Hartwick and St. Lawrence.

-Student-Athletes need to be more careful and stick to the rules more so than non-student-athletes. Their sport depends on it!

-ASU's lacrosse team has been suspended. Has ASU ever suspended a fully funded athletic program for a similar violation? After all, it's ASU we are talking about here, you know this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

-What can we do as lacrosse players to dispell the notion that we are all just a bunch of party animals? Do we need to follow Petro's code of conduct for his Hopkins boys?

-Has college become too much about partying and activities and not enough about academics? I'm an elitist NESCAC guy so you know my personal answer is "yes".

Sorry to leave Hey Lax Man! at such a low point on a Friday but that's reality!

Tewaaraton Watch List

When the Tewaaraton Watch List comes out at the beginning of the season I always look down the list to see who from Divisions 2 and 3 is mentioned purely out of interest. I know they will never win the award but it is always interesting to see who is regarded as one of the best in the country. Doug McIver of LeMoyne is listed as the sole D2 representative and that makes sense considering the Dolphins recent success. One the D3 side of things I was not at all surprised to see Kylor Berkman listed considering he plays for Salisbury, they won the NC last year and he was the D3 Player of the Year.

Joining Berkman were Eric Hagarty and Nick Cosco who BOTH play for Endicott. Now I know that Endicott is a really good team that has improved year after year but I find it hard to believe that they have 2 of the 3 best players in the entire Division yet they have never made a final 4 or even beaten a TRULY top tier team. This last point could be argued but the fact is they haven't won anything truly meaningful and neither of these guys even has an outside shot of winning the Tewaaraton unless Endicott goes undefeated and wins the NC game by 10. I don't think that is going to happen.

I'm not REALLY complaining about these selections because both Hagarty and Cosco are outstanding players on an excellent team but I do think they should spread the wealth a little more or just don't include D3 players on the watch list, especially kids who would never win the award in a million years. It seems silly and arbitrary and does nothing to lend any sort of credibility to the award.

Hopkins 2009

Check out this article on the Hopkins squad for 2009:

http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2009/02/19/NewsFeatures/As.Lacrosse.Gears.Up.Reporter.Shares.The.Experience-3639758.shtml

It focuses less on individual players' abilities and more on the team as a whole. I think that it is interesting to note that players do not wear hats inside, have to hold doors open for others, must sit in the front row of their classes, have dinners together and none of them are in fraternities. It seems like Petro is really grooming these kids to be upstanding men but the following one section gave me pause,

"Pietramala also does not hesitate to throw a player out of practice if he feels he's not playing up to standard, and he has no qualms whatsoever about using whatever language necessary to convey his point."

I don't have any problem with kicking kids out of practice for not performing, especially at a school like Hopkins where lacrosse is clearly a top priority for everyone involved. However, the use of "whatever language necessary" does not match up with Petro's expectation that these young men hold themselves to the highest standard in all aspects of life. When I hear a coach [at any level] constantly spewing cuss words, I instantly lose respect for them because they are relying on the lowest common denominator to get their point across instead of doing so eloquently and intelligently and thereby setting a good example. There may be a time and place for F bombs but if you use them constantly you are doing yourself a disservice by taking the easy way out, you are doing your kids a disservice by acting in a hypocritical manner and you are doing our great sport a disservice because you resemble a baseball manager kicking around the dirt instead of a lacrosse coach molding our next generation of great men.

This is not a Hopkins diss or a slant aimed at Petro in any way shape or form. No one is perfect and everyone gets angry from time to time but Hopkins is the top example of academic, high-character players and winning traditions and because of this we expect more from them. I would like to applaud coach Pietramala and the Hopkins program for putting academics first, instilling good character in all of its players and for doing so all while being a top flight program... now if they could only clean up their language!

Division 3 Poll thoughts...

The preseason poll has been published on laxpower.com for over a week and it is now time to start working on the 1st regular season poll. As a pollster and commenter on Laxpower.com I go by the online handle: Wheniwasakid...

Salisbury won their opener against Scranton convincingly, even though they were down 3-0 at the beggining of the game. I know it is still very early but if a team like Scranton can go up 3-0 on the Gulls then this may be one of those years where Salisbury isn't the hands down favorite... just the most predicted to win the NC.

Whittier put up 2 solid wins but did so against teams that aren't exactly considered contenders.

In the only other d3 game as of 2/19, Mary Wash doubled up on VA Wesleyan, 16-8. MW could definitely pick up some top 20 votes for that early season win but my feeling is that we will need to see more from them if they really want to cement their spot as a top 20 team.