If the rain doesn't stop - we're in trouble !

Must be nice being at a big school that takes lacrosse serious and has the facilities to support the sport. I'm sure Richie Meade never has to call his players and cancel practice because there is 3 inches of mud on the field. Hoover high school has a sport grass turf stadium that is not used nearly enough. Our lacrosse team will get to use the turf only 6 times over the course of the next 3 months and we'll have to pay for it. In the meantime, we are practicing on a field that our parks department provides us that was destroyed in the fall due to youth football and all the rain we had. Our first practice we actually lost a ball when our goalie cleared to midfield and over threw a cutting middie. The ball stuck somewhere between midfield and the restraining line and we never saw it again !
Tuesday night I suited up and ran a little bit with the offense but the ground was so bad I almost ripped my groin in two ! We are doing the best we can but with our aggressive schedule it is going to be tough to be as prepared as we need to be with all this rain !!
Opening day is rapidly approaching, just two more weeks and we'll be on a bus heading to Louisiana to face Capt Shreves and Southlake Carroll from Texas. Looks like Southlake will have a bunch of games under their belt by the time we face them which should make the game even more interesting for us. Good news is our top attackman is back from shoulder surgery this weekend and everyone else is starting to come together as a team so I'm feeling a little better than I did a couple weeks ago.
On a different note, if you get a chance to watch the Duke VS Team USA game, make sure you watch it. Duke was extremely physical and really took it to USA after the 1st quarter. One of the best hits I have seen in awhile occurred when Ryan Boyle was coming around the crease looking for a pass from Brandon Munford. Boyle was heading up field close to GLE looking back for the pass when a Duke defender just completely laid him out. Part of me felt bad because Ryan is a really good guy and a terrific player but I also felt the hit was legal and the Duke player probably shouldn't have been flagged. Quint Kessinich was arguing a point that was completely inaccurate but that's besides the point. Well, looks like practice is cancelled again for tomorrow, positive coaching alliance meeting in the evening, man, lacrosse just never ends !

Lax underway !

The weather hasn't cooperated so far and my Hoover team has had a hard time getting any good practices in but we are doing the best we can. Excited to see lacrosse coming back on TV this weekend, there are two great games on ESPN U, Sunday night the USA men's team will play Duke and the USA women's team will play Duke's girls Monday morning. I'm supposed to head up to Nashville this Sunday to help with the Adidas try-outs for the Southeast regional team but it is snowing in Tennessee right now and not sure if the try-out will still take place but we'll see. The weather has already caused me to cancel my Bamalax try-outs twice and I'm having a hard time figuring out when we can reschedule but we'll get it done soon. It would be nice if we had a bunch of turf fields around town that we could actually use, the few fields we do have are not available when we need them and because of all the rain we had in the fall, most of the grass fields are almost unusable. I'm worried about the season only because our team is young, we aren't getting in the practices we really need and we have a very tough schedule. Last year Hoover went 16-0 and had a great class of seniors, this year we play teams from NC, SC, FL, TX, LA, GA and TN, I hope we didn't over commit ourselves but only time will tell. Even though we play some great out of town competitors, I think we will have a difficult time with our local teams since everyone has improved tremendously. Should be a great season in Alabama, let's hope it stops raining so we can all be ready when games start up in a few weeks

Signing day for Trey

Great day for Trey Atkinson our Bamalax long stick midfielder who signed with Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. Trey will get to play against teams like North Carolina, Virginia, Drexel, Penn State and several other top teams. Trey's ceremony was at Homewood High school and his AD and principal were both in attendance to say some nice things. It was only 5 years ago that Jake Ponseti and his father Jaime started the Homewood team with several other players and parents. Jake is now playing at Auburn University and Jaime reminded me today how he urged me to put Trey on Bamalax four years ago even though Trey was a first year player. We needed a long stick middie and Trey had developed a good stick so we took him to a Georgia tournament called TILT. Anyway, we were losing one of our games and since we were fairly physical I didn't like that we were being pushed around. So, I called timeout and tried to fire the guys up and told them they needed to make something happen. We broke the huddle, when the Georgia team cleared the ball the defensemen gave a cutting middie a buddy pass and Trey decleated the kid. The hit was completely legal, the kid he hit looked like Charlie Brown getting hit with a line drive, we picked up the ball, went to the cage and scored. The team got fired up and I just remember thinking, who is that kid ?! Well, 4 years later after going to 205 camp, he earned a DI scholarship, wow, amazing ! I'm going to miss Trey but I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops and can't wait to play along side him on our Magic City men's team !

2010 season is here !

Getting ready for my big trip to Baltimore to the US lacrosse convention. I've been wanting to go to the convention the past several years but just never had the time. Funny now that I don't have the time or the money but I'm making the trip anyway ! My flight heads out of Birmingham at 7AM and as soon as I get to the convention center I have sessions to attend. It's difficult to choose what to see because there are so many things going on at once. Seriously, how do you choose between seeing Ryan Boyle teach attack and off ball movement or Mike Pressler instructing how to design effective practice plans ? Each hour and a half has about 6-7 sessions to choose from but most of the one's I want to attend revolve around effective offenses, defenses and practice plans. Here in Alabama we have such limited field space and usually get rained out of half our practices that effective practices are critical so the more I can learn, the better. I've got so many meetings and have promised so many people dinner or drinks that I'm not sure how I'm going to squeeze it all in but I'm sure I will and I think I'll manage to have a good time.

The Greater Birmingham youth lacrosse league starts practicing next week, should be an interesting year. Our senior class of high school kids is pretty impressive and each team will have at least 3 very high level players which is a huge difference from the several years ago when maybe every 3rd team had one very high level player. Last year I made some high school predictions which I'm not sure if I'm going to stick my neck out and do again, I may wait a few weeks to see how things are looking before I open my mouth. My Hoover team is going to have a tough schedule this year, we start off in Louisiana playing Capt Shreves from there as well as Southlake Carroll from Texas. We then travel up to Memphis to play Christian brothers who have a tremendous faceoff guys (like they always do) and two ridiculous goalies, one who just commited to play D1 next year. Then we head to South Carolina to play Greenville and Ponte Vedra Florida and manage to also pick up games against Cape Fear, North Carolina as well as two Georgia teams including Harrison HS. It is interestig that after you have two good seasons in a row, everyone wants a piece of you, just hope we didn't graduate too much talent and can hold our own against all the great teams we will face in state and out.

Well, guess I need to blog more, too much going on and not enough time to write it all down. I'll do better for those that actually spend the time to read what goes on in my crazy lax life

Christmas around the corner

I know everyone in Birmingham is getting sick of hearing about Brye on the football field but it really was awesome to see his big hit and to know the journey it took to get to that point. If Coach Meade didn't have his lacrosse camp here in Alabama, Brye would have never been noticed and he never would have been on that football field making a big hit in a bitter rivalry against Army. Actually Coach Meade had shared with Dan Jordan and myself a few years back that he couldn't wait until the day Navy beat Army and Brye scored 4 goals and he could walk across the field at the end of the game, shake hands with the Army coach and say, "yeah, he's from F-in Alabama" I hope Coach Meade isn't disappointed that the football coach got to say it first !

Great write up about the SoCo tourney we attended..

SOUTHERN COMBAT FALL TEAM SHOWCASE ALL-STARS
The Alpharetta Raiders (Georgia) were led by two strong midfielders: DJ Nuckolls (AHS ’11) and Stephen Dolbow (AHS ’10).Both players are multi-purpose middies with a propensity for faceoff dominance.“Brass” Nuckolls was a ground ball hog throughout the weekend while Dolbow collected All-Tournament honors.

The BamaLax Select team didn’t have to travel far as they hail from the Birmingham area, much to the delight of attending recruiter Birmingham-Southern head coach Andy Bonasera.The gargantuan John Somerall (Mountain Brook ’10) led the way for BamaLax as he controlled the game between the boxes with strong offensive play from the midfield as well as several faceoff wins.Somerall’s high school teammate Walker Cox (’11) added to Bama’s midfield play, as did the versatile Trent Chrane (Spain Park ’10).Brendan Conway (Hoover ’10) was the 4th Bama All-Star nod with solid play at the attack position.

Will Char (McIntosh ’11) enabled his Brothers of War (Georgia) team to shut down several opponents throughout the weekend with a staunch defensive effort.The 6’1” longpole stripped numerous attackers and picked up several GB’s along the way.

Claddagh LC was comprised of players from MA, VT, TX, FL, and WA.Leading the way for the fine Irishmen was Tyler Galownia (Plano, TX ’10) on defense.Galownia showed a great ability to inspire transition on the offensive end after picking off several passes throughout the weekend and playing great position defense.Leading the offensive charge for Claddagh was sizeable (6’1”, 185) yankee attackman Jake Waldie (Lawrence Academy, MA ’11), who powered through defenders for multiple scores on dodges and feeds from X.

The Copperhead North (Georgia) team was led on the offensive end by the due of Jay Desnoyers (Eugene Ashley ’11) and Hunter Edens (Hoggard ’11).The athletic Reid Bass (’11), goaltender for state runner-up Harrison HS, shut the door on opposing teams with great play in goal.

With 6 all-star selections, the Copperhead South squad cleaned house. Tournament MVP attackman Scotty Smith (Grtr. Atlanta Christian ’11) used a big body (6’3”, 185) to back down foes as he scored multiple goals in each game.Jay DeBole (E. Coweta ’11) and Connor Squires (Collins Hill ’10) rounded out the All-Star attack unit, with Julian Gonzalez (Peachtree Ridge ’10) and John Avent (Newnan ’10) adding midfield firepower. All-Tournament Goaltender Mike Nugent (Milton ’11) communicated greatly while making many saves.

The Tennessean D1 Destroyer team was led by defenseman Michael Plisco (Franklin ’12).Plisco ignored the discomfort of a recent hand fracture and instead gave pain to his opponents en route to an All-Star selection.

Peyton Klawinski (Memphis Univ. School ’13) was one of the top players at the Southern Combat showcase despite being the youngest player in the tournament field by several months.The freshman midfielder got on the radar of several D1, D2, and D3 colleges by lighting up the scoreboard all weekend.Joining him as All-Stars from the Flying Elvis (TN) team were midfield teammate Drew Connors (MUS ’11), goaltender Francis Nayan (Christian Bros. ’10), and the defensive tandem of Chase Schoelkopf (MUS ’11) and Mike Shelton (Christian Bros. ’10).

The Minnesota Lax Loons traveled nearly 1,115 miles but left with no disappointment after having two All-Stars named, defenseman Kyle Mork (Totino Grace ’10) and big midfielder Mitch Sierakowski (Champlin Park ’10).

The well-rounded Samurai Black (St. Louis) squad received 5 All-Star nods.Division I Manhattan College commit Gerald Leonard played his way to the All-Tournament team with Top Midfielder honors.Joining Leonard were the defensive trio of Andy Kihn (Christian Bros. ’10), Craig Harris (’11), and Jared Crowley (’10).Attackman Christian Tubbs (’10) added great offensive play as well.

The Southern Combat Solider team (Georgia) was paced by the great play of defenseman Bryce Patterson (Milton ’10).

Players who were named All-Star at last June’s Southern Combat 99 Invitational Showcase were assembled in a new edition for the Fall Showcase.Eight of the SoCo99 All-Stars got an encore appearance on the Fall All-Star list.Memphis University School (TN) teammates stood together with honors, FO/Midfielder Ben Charpentier (’11) and keeper Rob Dickinson.Kyle Clemenza (’12) of national power St. Andrew’s (FL) was one of the top midfielders at the event, and was joined by middies Richard Mallory (Christian Bros., TN ’10), Matthew Cummings (Milton, GA ’11), and Bryce Busey (Stadium HS, WA ’10).All-Tournament defender Russell Scott (Memphis Univ. School, TN ’11) was joined by All-Star Alex Utt (Mariemont, OH ’11).

These players, and several other standouts from the SoCo Fall Showcase, can count on receiving invitations to the next edition of Southern Combat 99 which will be held June 12-13 at the picturesque Darlington School in Rome, GA.

The season is getting close

Football is finally over and everyone can start thinking about lacrosse. Five years ago my Hoover team was made up of mostly football players but over a dozen of them quit football to focus on lacrosse. Last year our varsity team had only 4 football players but the majority of our JV team was footballers. Now those JV kids are moving up and these kids aren't quitting football since many of them see significant playing time and several of them are starters. League wide we have always had a "gentlemen's" agreement between the coaches not to practice during the fall/winter and some of us that are majority football players can't. For whatever reason this year we have had breaches of that agreement and the practices continue even though everyone knows it's wrong. Well, no use complaining about it, I'm looking forward to the season and it's just one of those things you have to deal with. Hoover high won the state football championship Friday night and I got to see some of the boys after the game that are pumped for the lacrosse season to get underway. I'm sure we have a lot of work to do since many of them haven't been able to pick up their sticks for a few months. We don't start practice until mid-January and we are having our first pre-season meeting next week so needless to say, we are way behind those that are already on the field. I've been spending a lot of time in league meetings and conference calls helping make decisions for the upcoming season, I think this will be the best season of Alabama lacrosse, registration opens today, I'm sure we will see record growth in our league, can't wait to get out on the field next month with the majority of the teams that follow the rules.