Lax Power National on-line tournament

If you haven't seen it already, Lax Power created a National On-line championship bracket that is very interesting. The link for it is www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=15814
Hoover was matched up against the #1 team in the country, West Islip and needless to say, Hoover lost. I'm thinking Alabama is a few years away from competing with Long Island but the area is improving tremendously. St. Andrews in Florida has been able to compete and beat some national powerhouses so it's not out of the question to think that someday Hoover could hold their own against some top tier teams.

If you look at the forum it explains how teams were selected but just like all forums you will see some knucklehead kids who are just plain nasty and think that lax life revolves around the hotbeds and no one else playing the sport is worth a damn. I'm not sure why there is always negativity toward non-traditional hotbeds especially when you see rosters on all D-I teams that include players from Georgia, Tennessee, California, Texas and even Alabama. In my opinion lax is lax and where you live contributes to your skills but athletes are athletes and speed, strength and coachability are things that are unique to only a handful of kids regardless of what state you live in. Oh well, check out the Lax power tournament, will be interesting to see who wins and I'm sure there will be some interesting postings from those that don't win !

Adidas National tournament

With 4 Bamalax players in Baltimore (2 playing for Atlanta and 2 playing for Nashville) I'll try to give updates on what is happening. Today's guest blogger is Taylor Cox, a Mountain Brook parent who's son, Walker is playing for the Nashville squad:

It was a pretty good day. The teams all got in about an hour of practice and then scrimmaged for maybe 15-20 minutes against just one opponent. Atlanta scrimmaged NorCal and probably scored 9 goals to none in 15 minutes. Nashville played Baltimore Prep and let up one cheap goal and I think it ended 2-1 (advantage Baltimore) after about 15 minutes. Both of our teams look to be able to compete.

Most of the teams seemed very well mannered. They had a 3 vs 3 single elimination tournament which is basically a Braveheart with an extra attack guy. You had to shoot in under 5 seconds after crossing midfield. The faceoff was good for one point, a goal was worth two and a goalie save was worth one. The games last 7 minutes. Atlanta only had 3 players show up and lost 11-10. Nashville beat Boston, Baltimore and Columbus but lost to Orlando in the semi final. It was fun for the kids, but the games start tomorrow.

Nashville plays Denver, Columbus, Baltimore and Boston. (morning games)
Atlanta plays Baltimore, Long Island, Philly and NoCal. (evening games)

The top 8 teams out of 20 advance to play on Thursday. Everyone else is on the bleachers.

Hopefully I'll get more updates from Trey Atkinson (Homewood), Trent Chrane (Spain Park) and Brendan Conway (Hoover) that I can post to keep everyone up to speed

Charlotte Southern Sizzle

Drove to Charlotte with the family Friday and arrived around 7PM at the Marriott. Things were a little hectic, I had planned to give all the players lanyards with a laminated roster and schedule but ran out of time so my wife and I spent an hour laminating and cutting rosters before we headed to dinner. At 9PM our U15 team had a meeting and I passed out uniforms. Around 9:30 the U13 parents came by to get their uniforms and I had a chance to hang by the pool and relax before going upstairs to bed for the evening.

The first games of the weekend started at 9AM, I checked in our U13 and U15 team's and got to watch our U15 team beat the Copperheads from Georgia. The high school boys played at 10:20AM and they really took it to the Triad Blackhawks 10-0. The victory was a great start but I think we got a little over-confident and played absolutely terribly against Winston-Salem and lost 6-2. I'm not sure why we can't get motivated and we start most games without any emotion. The game really upset me because we should have won and I knew that losing that game was going to make it difficult to win the championship. We came out at 2PM playing much better against a much better team but ended up tying Old North state. The boys played well, we had a lead with under two minutes left but got two penalties that unfortunately cost us the game. With the tie we still had a chance to win but needed to win all three on Sunday.

Saturday night was great, the boys had a blast hanging in downtown Charlotte. Everyone was hanging by the pool and the hot tub and then several of us went to watch the fireworks. It was great to see about a dozen of our high school boys, all from different schools, walking around downtown and just hanging out. Unfortunately I enjoyed myself a little too much and lost track of time getting in a little later than I should have. Our first game started at 8AM so needless to say, I wasn't thrilled when that alarm clock went off.

On Sunday the weather was rainy and it was cool so we had no excuses. Once again we came out flat and were lucky to tie the Winter Park team that we really should have been able to beat. The game really ticked me off because we were so much better than we played, we acted like we didn't care in the beginning of the game so I called time out and blasted the boys. I'm a little too emotional at times, I was just fed up with the lack of leadership and emotion, the boys showed a little more emotion after the time out but still not enough to win.

The U15 team won their morning game and had a shot to get to the playoffs but lost their second game of the weekend and finished with a 3-2 record. The U13 team had it tough, they lost their first game 2-0 but won their second. The teams for the U13 group just seemed to keep getting tougher and they lost 3 straight but had a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

After the terrible performance against Winter Park, the high school boys came back and played much better against the Copperheads. Bamalax lost 6-2 but it was a tough game and we played with a lot of emotion which made me feel much better. The Copperhead's goalie was excellent, he really kept us out of the game. The tournament ended with Bamalax tying Top Tier in a really good game. The lead changed hands several times with Bamalax having a two goal lead that we gave up with only a couple minutes left. The boys showed a lot of heart and really fought for the win but just missed a couple opportunities at the end of the game. Overall I was happy with the performance and I think we are building a good base for the future teams of Bamalax. Bamalax is on a break for a couple weeks but we are considering opportunities in the fall, I'm looking foward to some time off and recharging the battery a bit.

Getting ready for Charlotte

Bamalax is ready to hit the road this weekend heading to the Southern Sizzle in Charlotte. Summer time tournaments are great but it is always tough to get good quality practices in with so many camps and vacations to plan around. Bamalax has entered teams at U13, U15 and high school elite. Our U13 and U15 teams have had a few more practices than the high school team but most of the high school players have been attending camps and tournaments so they should be in decent shape. Our high school team is down a few good players but overall I think we should be OK. Losing our top face off guy will hurt but if we can get over that hurdle and our defense and goalies step up, we should be able to contend for the championship. I'm excited to see our U15 players, I think we have a good shot at that age group as well as the U13 division. Alabama is slowly getting there, with players now starting in first grade and high school players with 7+ years of playing experience we are able to compete with most teams out there and often surprise teams that don't expect Alabama to have quality players. Our high school team has 9 players that attended Top 205 rising junior or senior camp and at least 3 legitimate division I prospects which is a far cry from where we were just 3 short years ago. As quickly as we are improving, everywhere else in the country is improving just as quickly so we have to work even harder. The number of good players in the US and Canada is staggering, I don't know how college coaches can keep up. One of the boys who came back from 205 said that players were complaining about a new DI program's coach because he never returns e-mails and I was thinking with only 56 DI programs, how could he keep up ? Every player thinks he is better than he probably is and pushy parents probably don't help the recruiting process by overwhelming coaches with videos and e-mails. My goal is to just create a legitimate program with the best possible talent so when I contact a coach about a player he knows I'm not wasting his time. We still have a ways to go to accomplish that but with the athletes we have coming up I think we will have several players playing at big time programs in the very near future. Having Brye French at the Naval academy next year will certainly help raise everyone's awareness about Alabama lacrosse and open doors for the younger Bamalax players coming up following in his foot steps

Opportunites are what you make of them

Well, can't say our Bamalax kids aren't working hard to get noticed. The next couple weeks are busy for a lot of our players, should be fun but a lot of work and commitment. Last week Walker and Crawford Cox attended Top 205 rising junior camp at Towson and with their speed, I'm sure they were noticed by the coaches in attendance. This week, Haden Smith, Trey Atkinson, Brendan Conway, John Somerall and Trent Chrane are all at rising senior's Top 205. Once they get back in town, they head out to attend the Southern Sizzle in Charlotte. Trent also attended the South's version of Top 205 last week in Nashville and will be playing for the FCA team next week. Once Charlotte is over, Walker, Trent, Conway and Trey will head back up to Baltimore to play in the Adidas National tournament. While those players are busy there, Stefan Pajaro-Van destadt and Eli Stevens will be at Top 205 West and then a handful of the boys will be heading up to West Genesee high school August 1-2nd to play for a Georgia team competing in two tournaments in upstate New York ! Wow, that's a lot of lacrosse ! If you are a player in Alabama who is reading this and hasn't picked up your stick all summer you are going to be really behind your competition ! It's not too late, stop reading my blog, go pick up your stick and register for the Lightning lacrosse camp in Tuscaloosa www.lightninglax.com and start practicing !!

Lafayette VS Manhassett

Had some time last night to catch up on my recorded high school games and watched the New York state class "C" championship between Lafayette from central NY and Manhassett from Long island. I've got to say, I've watched a lot of lacrosse the past few years but this game just amazed me. The heart and determination that both teams showed was incredible. Lafayette has several Iroquois players that had stick skills above and beyond anything I have ever seen. Two brothers, Miles and Lyle Thompson just absolutely blew me away. Miles scored his 100th goal of THE SEASON during the championship and was just a beast on attack. Single coverage was a joke, double teams worked sometimes but even being triple teamed he was able to get free and either score or assist. Miles brother Lyle is only a sophmore and could possibly be the best midfield sophmore in the country. Lyle faced off, had incredible speed and had the same type of incredible stick skills that his brother possesses. Lyle had 60+ goals and 60+ assists and just absolutely dominated the game. Even with the Thompson brothers, Manhassett was able to build a 12-4 lead and looked like they were easily going to win. The lead never got Lafayette down and they came back to a 3rd quarter score of 12-10 ! Lafayette was extremly physical, bodies were flying everywhere, kids were fighting for ground balls and truly playing like a state championship should be played.

Unfortunately for Lafayette they could not stop All-American Connor English who ended up scoring 9 goals !!! Are you kidding me ?? 9 goals in a NEW YORK state championship game, as Carcattera said, this isn't Kansas lacrosse (which I'm just really glad he picked on Kansas and not Alabama !) Other than Billy Bittner from North Carolina, I would say that English is the best attackman I have seen this season at any level, Lafayette just couldn't even slow him down. English is going to Virginia next year, he just amazed me with his quickness and shot speed, I would kill to have a kid like him on one of my teams. The game ended with Manhassett running out the last few minutes just playing keep away but if you get a chance to watch the game from the middle of the 2nd quarter until the middle of the fourth, you will thoroughly enjoy it !

Travel season underway

Interesting day on Saturday, weather was crazy but we amazingly got five games in. The day started a little earlier than originally planned trying to beat a band of storms heading toward Birmingham. Once the U13 game started, the rain started falling but thanks to the great turf at Birmingham Southern College, the boys were able to play without a problem. The Bamalax South team was up on the Huntsville team 8-1 at the end of the third quarter when lightning came in. Our head referee stopped the game and we had a 20 minute delay that became a 40 minute until we finally called it. Things were not looking good weather wise but the Copperheads had already made the trip over from Georgia so we waited it out and the game was able to start. The Bamalax / Copperhead U15 game was great, the teams were evenly matched and the lead exchanged several times. Bamalax was up going into the final minutes but the Copperheads tied it up and scored the game winner with just seconds remaining for a 15-14 victory. The Bamalax attack played great, Trace Hudson controlled the ball well, David Arnold posted 5 assists and Tommy Hirsch netted 3 goals. The next game saw the high school boys compete with Bamalax falling to the Copperheads 11-7. It was good to get the game in as a warm up for Charlotte because there are a lot of things the coaches saw that need improvement. It's amazing the difference one week makes and a slight change in personnel causes the team to play completely different. Bamalax did not have Chase and Scott on defense and it was like the whole team forgot how to slide. We were missing one midfielder and one attackman and all of a sudden our offense was stagnant and forgot how to move the ball. I'm glad we had this game to make adjustments because it was apparent that we have work to do before we enter serious tournament play.

On a disappointing note it looks like we will have to cancel the Alabama games this year. We had a tremendous event last year but it took constant phone calls and e-mails to get everyone signed up. This year I had a lot of other things going on and just didn't have the time to keep pestering coaches and parents to get kids signed up so very few paid attention to the deadline and the Alabama games coordinators weren't willing to extend registration. I'm not sure why but our league has always had problems with everyone waiting until the last minute, it has caused problems for scheduling, uniform ordering and team selection in the past and it continues to be a problem today. It never fails, once deadlines pass we have tons of parents and kids calling and e-mailing asking if they can still register. Camps and clinics are the same problem every year and honestly I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking that it's just not worth the effort and stress to do all of these things outside of the normal spring season. I'd like to think that non-Bamalax all-star kids are working to get better during the off-season and welcome the opportunity to play more lax but unfortunately I think lake houses, the beach and Playstation are taking priority for the majority of our league players.

This weekend on TV were the New York state HS finals and when I watch those players, see their size, speed and stick skills I feel bad for some of our kids who want to play at the next level. There are a handful that can play big time college ball but until they get players around them that are dedicated to the sport they can't develop into the player they have the potential to be. It's time to get to the next level, this process is just taking way too long for me, I'm too impatient, I thought we would be there by now