It was rainy but it was an awesome day of lax in Birmingham anyway. Last year we hosted an Alabama/Auburn game at Hoover HS and it went over so great that I thought it would be good for another school to do the same so I offered it to Coach Jordan who made if happen. Several years ago Tom Lewis had the game after the Dan Anderson tournament and I always thought that was a great way to help spread the awareness of the game so I wanted to help keep the tradition going. Spain Park did an awesome job hosting the event including their girls team, JV, our Hoover U11 team and their varsity. It's great to watch the game because I have 4 former Bamalax players on the two squads including two of my all-time favorite players, Jake Gillikin (pictured on the left) and Conor Conway who were both defenders for Hoover last year. Jake was a dedicated football player who suffered a severe back injury several years ago and never was able to get fully back into the swing as an offensive lineman. Jake came out for lacrosse his junior year and it became a very positive thing in his life. Jake loves lacrosse and his mom and dad thank me every time they see me for bringing lacrosse to Hoover and introducing Jake to the sport. Jake ended his football career as the starting long snapper and did see decent playing time his senior year but by last spring he was a full-time laxer and even made the Bamalax team as our long stick middie. Even though Jake plays for Auburn and one of my Magic City teammates, Logan is a starting defender for them I had to root for Bama who unfortunately fell 10-6 in a very close game. Auburn was coming off a huge win over Georgia yesterday and didn't have their full squad but Bama has come a long way and almost upset the Tigers.
Before the Bama/AU game my daughter was able to play in the mud
Against a new team from South Alabama. Kendall's team, the Lady Lizards won but it was really close. It's incredible how fast the South Alabama/Pensacola team has developed. Watching their girls and boys tells me they have great volunteers and very good coaches who are teaching the right fundamentals. Their girls were looking to pass, were spreading the field and had a good understanding of the game. Their girls are using regulation balls where ours are using soft sponge balls and their girls are stick checking which is going to prepare and develop them a little quicker than ours. The mud at the game was ridiculous, Rathmell park is destroyed but we really have no choice but to get these games in especially when teams travel 4-5 hours to get here. My older daughter, Taylor, plays against Mountain Brook tomorrow at Hoover central. I'm hoping that field is in better shape than Rathmell but unless the sun comes out, I'm sure they will tear it up and then we play John Carroll on Tuesday on the same field.
Well, it's a busy week coming up, still recovering from Vegas and catching up on Faceoff, Bamalax and Hoover stuff but can't wait to see my kids and finally play another game, it's been over a week, I hope the kids have been throwing around at least, we'll see Tuesday !
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