Season almost underway

Well, Vestavia, Spain Park, Homewood and John Carroll are officially practicing with Hoover starting Tuesday and Mountain Brook on Wednesday. This year will be interesting to say the least. My Hoover team returns a lot of senior starters and will definitely be tough. Brye is heading to the Naval academy next year and Justin Sly is getting looks from Syracuse, Loyola and Albany State, all top 10 DI programs. Our varsity team will not have any players new to the sport but some of our competition will and that mix will be difficult for both teams to handle. Mountain Brook will be tough as usual, Tom Lewis has the best face off specialist in the area, John Somerall and two stand out midfielders, Charles Yeilding and Wil Bromberg, both BAMALAX all-stars. Attack has veteran Bamalax member Harrison Proctor and Tom has the good fortune of getting some new young talent that will be sure to make his attack tough. The team to watch in the future will be Spain Park. Coach Dan Jordan has over 40 high school players this year and will field varsity and JV teams. Jordan's team will be small this year but next year he has the most talented 8-9th graders rising and has over 30 U15 players ready for high school action. John Carroll and Homewood will improve over last year but will still lack the depth needed to match up against some of the tougher teams. Vestavia will be interesting to watch because Eric Christensen has recruited an army of players and looks like he will have some athletes out there. Eric's team will be another to watch out for in the future and this year he should be competitve as well.

Hope everyone has recovered. . .

Now that the tournament is over I regret that we didn't have time to enjoy the event and even hang out as a team as much as I would have liked to. 4 games back to back just killed everyone, there should have been a break so we could have grabbed a bite to eat and watch a few games. In any case, one of my highlites of the weekend was our braveheart against Liam Bank's team, LB3. Liam was a former all-american from Syracuse who scored 6 goals in a national championship game and currently plays for the San Francisco Dragons of the MLL. As you can see from the photo, Brye had the goalie beat and just hit him in the head with his shot. We had an easy win wrapped up and I know the team wouldn't have wanted anyone else in that situation other than Brye. Knowing Brye I'm sure he has thought about that shot a million times since Saturday but sometimes luck is not on your side, this time the LB3 goalie had all the luck, he probably even had his eyes closed ! Anyway, looking back I was most impressed with Blake French, Jacob Williamson, Matt Mason and Jay Sims. These players played their butts off and were outstanding. Our key players, Brye, Jeremy and John Someral didn't fail to impress and were their usual consistent selves. I'm looking foward to our younger players getting a chance to step up next year, especially Charlie Lakin. Charlie struggled in his first real tournament but as a 9th grader facing several Div I prospects, he should be proud of what he was able to do and I'm sure he will come back strong the next time. As for Bryan Simkanich, what can I say, he came up huge and kept us in the St. Louis blackbelt game in the fog, I think he made 25 saves that game ! I was proud of the team for sucking it up and playing hard, next time we will know what to expect because eventhough we told them, i don't think anyone believed me when I said that the competition would be crazy !!

The second day of Tournament of Champions started bright & early at 8 AM w/ BamaLax facing St. Louis Samauri Blackbelts in heavy fog that made it hard to even see the field. The boys were tired but toughed it out. Jack Winters sat out after spending a few hours in the emergency room for severe cramping after playing hard in Saturday's 4 games. BamaLax came out strong against St. Louis but made some costly errors and were down 7-1 at the half. Blake French played a strong game scoring a goal and 2 assists and Bryan S was unbelievable in goal making 20+ saves and keeping BamaLax in the game. BamaLax scored 3 quick goals but ending up losing 11-6 to a very tough team. Standouts included: Matt Mason (defense), Jay Sims and John Someral.

Team Headstrong defeated the favorite Edge from British Columbia in the semi-finals and will face New Westminister in the finals for the championship.

Day 1 kicked off with the Bamalax team facing Central NY roadhawks. Bamalax was played tough but came up short 9-2. Brye French and Jack Winters were the goal scorers with Jeremy Sherman assisting.

In game #2 BAMALAX took it to St. Louis Samari after getting down 4-0. Bryan Simkancih stepped up in goal and Bamalax went on a 9 goal tear with Jeremy Sherman leading the way netting 3 goals. Brye and Blake French each netted one as did Haden Smith, Charles Yeilding, Wil Bromberg and Patrick Ahlborg. Bamalax won 9-4 in an exciting comeback.

After a miscommunication on game times, Bamalax had to rush back to the field for a 2PM (instead of 4PM) game and faced the Tampa tribe. Bamalax dominated and came out a 15-10 winner. Brye French netted 4 goals and added 3 assists, Jeremy Sherman had 4 goals and 2 assists and Blake French had a goal and 3 assists. Other scorers were Christian Cooper, Wil Bromberg, Harrison Proctor and Jack Winters and Charles Yeilding each got two.

Game 4 was a disappointment facing one of the favorites of the tournament, Team Headstrong from Pennsylvania. Bamalax lost 14-0 and although they played tough were just outmanned by a very tough team.

More to follow tomorrow

Getting ready

Well it's a little before 7AM Eastern time and I'm getting ready to head downstairs for breakfast. I'm anxious, nervous and excited as I'm sure everyone else is as well. The team arrived yesterday at various times and i was running a little late for our team meeting. Of course the boys took the opportunity to point out my lateness but as soon as I got there it was really hectice trying to pass out uniforms. We finally got a good system together and everyone was taken care of. After we passed out uniforms we had a bried team meeting and annouced that Brye French, John Someral and Harrison Proctor were the captains for the first game. Our first game is against Central NY at 10AM but CNY plays St. Louis (our 12PM opponent) at 8AM so we are heading to the field to scout both teams. We are not sure what to expect since this is Alabama's first national tournament, I'm sure the lacrosse skills will be better than we have ever seen but can we hang with them ? We'll find out in a few hours !!