This is a great trick play from the MCLA on Feb. 16. Kenyon is visiting the University of Michigan, who are quite rude hosts playing such tricks on a guest, twice! Enjoy!

Posted by John Weaver at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Video of the Week
        

The Maryland Terrapins have scored 28 times in two games. Freshmen accounted for 20 of those goals and assisted on five, while Maryland’s senior class, in the form of Will Dalton, has scored two goals and had no assists. Maryland will travel to play Duke Saturday, who will be starting perhaps the oldest team in NCAA history. The Blue Devils have all those reinstated players from the 2006 debacle. Eighteen-year-olds will be playing against 22- and 23-year-olds.

This Duke-MD game could be the lesson of the year for one of these teams. Duke may teach these youngsters a thing or two about discipline and maturity. But if the Terps take down this super-veteran Duke team, we all might just learn or re-learn the value of letting great players simply play. I keep thinking of the Pink Floyd song, which urgently warns, “Hey Teacher! Leave those kids alone!”

The on-the-field leader of this best attack unit in the nation and Maryland’s next big star is Grant Catalino. He’s the team’s new “first look” on attack. Catalino, a freshman, has seven goals and one assist after only two games. He should, quite soon, be the youngest player ever added to the Tewaaraton Trophy watch list for national Player of the Year. Lefty and rookie, Travis Reed has six goals and one assist while fellow freshmen attackers Brett Weiss and Ryan Young have combined for 10 and three.

The Terps have so many legitimate starting freshmen attackmen that at all times one of them sits on the bench, and he sits with last year’s star Terp Max Ritz. Ritz gets time and contributes but this team has new leadership. One need only look at the low-riding black socks and the cocky swagger of these Terps to know who it is.

Anyone who’s been a viewer of E-Lacrosse for a few years witnessed Reed literally take the MIAA crown with him from one school to another as McDonogh, then Boys’ Latin put fast, versatile offenses on the field with at least one thing in common -- Reed and the infectious attitude he brings to a team. In his first two games, Reed appears to have made a smooth transition to being a starting attackman at Maryland, where his father starred in the 1970’s.

In my opinion, last year Reed was the best unsettled situation ball handler in high school lacrosse, and the second-best high school attackman in the nation after Steele Stanwick of Loyola. You will hear and see PLENTY about Stanwick this year in my blog. As a senior, Reed scored 54 goals and assisted on 27 to lead Boys' Latin to a No. 2 finish in the MIAA and a 18-2 record after taking the crown in 2006. In my opinion, they were the No. 1 team in the nation until Loyola and Stanwick took it from them. Either would have crushed the New York champion in 2007.

By no coincidence and lacking no drama, it was Boys’ Latin that lost to Reed’s McDonogh team in the 2005 championship before he transferred to BL. That McDonogh team was coached by his father, Jake who is now the coach at Dulaney. The younger scored 238 goals and dished for 102 while in high school, playing at the top level of the most competitive league in the nation. He had some help each year as he played with the likes of Chris Boland and Brett Weiss at BL, and Jimmy Daly and Jeremy Sieverts at McDonogh. But the attitude present on each of those teams was the same. It had its lid on sideways and its drawers hanging low.

Reed is a gunslinger. He’s a Jon Hess type. I once saw Hess breakdance on a torn up cardboard box in the mud and driving rain after a club championship win. This Terps attack is, in fact, already reminding me of the frenetic but precision play and swagger of the great Princeton trio, Hess, Jesse Hubbard and Chris Massey, except they have more guys.

If Reed is the new quarterback on attack and attitude for the Terps, perhaps Junior Jeremy Seiverts is establishing that role in midfield. Seiverts was a pivotal part of the 2005 McDonogh team just as Weiss was a key to the BL campaign in 2006. Both know Reed very well and will hook up with him effortlessly all year long. When Catalino, Young and the others actually catch up on the lacrosse chemistry part (different than team chemistry), it will be hard for some opponents to event look competent against the Terps.

Will Dalton is a big senior faceoff presence and is pretty fast for a big guy. He likes to push the ball and get going, which is perfect for Seiverts who is dynamite in transition – a real breakaway middie who will get the “second assist” on many Terps transition goals this year. Junior Dan Groot and Australian sophomore Adam Sear can run and shoot and shoot on the run, too. Tony Mendez, another freshman, has a rocket and has been a favorite of mine for a while. Look for him to explode sooner or later and join in the freshman glory story. This is the best shooting offense the Terps have had since 1987, when the Terps did not lose a regular-season game. Unfortunately they have the same Achilles heel, too. We’ll talk about that later in the year.

The Terps played four keepers against Mount St. Mary’s because two won’t see the field for a while. Junior Jason Carter and sophomore Brian Phipps are splitting halves otherwise and both are outstanding. The defense played well against the Hoyas' but did not need to be special against the Mount. We’ll see if they can step up to match the offensive output against Duke. With the offense finding it harder to score against the Blue Devils, it may be the 'D' that wins that game for them, and they will win. It will be THE game of the early season.

An Early Souvenir from 2008

Every year I save a couple of the national championship winning team’s media guides. Most years I already have them in my possession weeks before the championship is won and I’ve already put them in a spot with those of the other school which I think will be in the final four. By the time the big event rolls around, I’ll typically have media guides from three to five teams set aside. This year I have one media guide in that spot after only two weeks of the 2008 season. After next week's huge Hopkins-Princeton-Virginia-Syracuse convergence in Baltimore, I predict to have only one more media guide set aside.

I will reserve final judgment, but right now, having seen Maryland twice, Hopkins once and Virginia once, and knowing the Princeton and Syracuse personnel well enough to make a cursory analysis, only Hopkins and Maryland will be alive for lacrosse’s favorite three-day weekend. In fact, prepare now for them to play each other in a semifinal too. The committee would do anything to avoid a historic Maryland vs. Hopkins final on the very year they move the thing 400 miles away from "lacrosse’s hometown."

The MOUNT

I can’t say enough about Mount St. Mary’s lacrosse and coach Tom Gravante. I nominated Gravante for the Muhlfelder Award for lacrosse service, which he won in 2006. I will devote an entire blog (at least) to this hero and the unique little role his program plays in big time lacrosse. But this entry was about Dave Cottle’s Terps and it’s not fair to evaluate the Mount against the best team in the country. We’ll do that after they’ve played Bucknell and Canisius.

Highlight's of Maryland's 17-7 win over Mount St. Mary's:

Watch more video of Maryland @ Mount St. Mary’s

Posted by John Weaver at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

On Feb. 25, E-Lacrosse, the publication for which I am the editor and Web master, debuted the RRRR or Responsible, Reasonable, Reliable Rankings of Division I men's college lacrosse. This is a ranking but not a poll. I'll explain why it's different but generally the method is more inclusive, fair and accurate than typical polling schemes. Each Monday I will publish the RRRR Top 25 here on the blog with exclusive notes on that week's process. I'll also include my opinions about the teams on the move and the week's relevant matchups. We'll link to the full RRRR that "ranks" all 57 Div. I men's teams and fully explains the methods used.

An easy way to understand the RRRR is to equate it to the grading curve on a test. The "breaks" in this curve are where we feel a distinct and discernible difference in quality between two teams or two groups of teams. We create those breaks where they belong, based on the data, not in set groups. This week has a 1-3 “range” that contains Maryland, Hopkins and Duke. This weekend Maryland plays Duke and Hopkins plays a competitive game with Princeton, so we can expect the top group to split or at least shrink as the Maryland-Duke loser drops and the Hopkins-Princeton result is digested. Big wins by teams in the next range could move them up as well, changing the “volume” of each range.

Within each range, each week, teams are ordered by estimated quality and while no number is assigned, an order can be viewed. These are just the leanings of the participants in our process but the differences between any teams in the same range are not statistically significant enough to be more than that. This is where opinion, which in mathematics is often called "noise," is separated from opinion data, which is referred to as “signal”. A signal is worth listening to. We’ve eliminated the noise but left the trace of it that fans find interesting. It’s like showing our work. We’ll show you even more here on the blog and I think you will find it very interesting.

This system is more fluid than other polls and allows room for uncertainty. More importantly it relieves the participants from being bound by earlier positions they have taken in the polling. To start with, we have no preseason “picks” that seem to be tacked (a finance term) to the results of most polls all year long, in every sport. Unlike most polls, the RRRR does not rely solely upon coaches or media members who have not seen many of the teams in person or on television, a common scenario. It's not that participants in other polls are lying to help teams they like or too lazy to investigate each of 57 Div. I teams. But they are forced to rely on guess work on most of their picks each week and it's not fair to them or the teams.

I would love to hear all of your comments on this new system. It is quite experimental. We invented it and are biased like the guy who picked U.Va. to be third to start this season. We hope you like it.

Posted by John Weaver at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Here are a couple of leftovers from my pieces on ESPNU from the past few days. In case you missed them, check out Part One from the blog and Part Two, which was published on E-Lacrosse.com.

Who is picking the games for ESPNU?

I asked Burke Magnus, vice president and general manager of ESPNU, if Quint Kessenich, the ex-Hopkins great and ESPN on-air personality, is helping to hand-pick the lacrosse games for ESPN's schedule. He said, "Quint who?" Just kidding. He said they have people that get paid just to do the programming but they do rely on Q, newly hired ex-Virginia star and Tewaaraton Trophy winner Matt Ward and other resources for their "lacrosse intelligence." Magnus said Baltimore’s local ABC affiliate WMAR has been huge in the process of making lacrosse an ESPNU sport. WMAR was broadcasting a full slate of local college lacrosse games long before the inception of CSTV or ESPNU.

What's with the lone game broadcast on ESPN2?

The lone regular-season game on ESPN2 is Maryland vs. Virginia at College Park on March 29. That game is on ESPN2 because ESPNU's schedule was full and Magnus didn’t want to pass up the matchup. It will likely serve as a barometer for what they already know over at ESPN and something we all can derive easily enough -- that lacrosse is not ready for viewership/advertising-based television broadcasting.

Magnus would not give a ratings number that the March 29 game could achieve in order to satisfy some requirement for lacrosse's inclusion with the big boys, but I could tell that we weren’t in the ball park. “We’re not going to let the impression from one game blow it out of proportion either way,” he said. “And if [the ratings don't] live up to expectations, its not going to change one bit our philosophy and what we do here at ESPNU."

Posted by John Weaver at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I had the good fortune Saturday night to be invited to the St. Paul's Inaugural Sports Hall of Fame banquet and ceremony. It was a first-class affair held on the Brooklandville, Maryland campus. The event had a personal importance to me but as a lacrosse fan, it was a who's who of the sport.

In attendance were Towson's Tony Seaman, Boston Cannons star Conor Gill, UVa. legend Doug Knight and plenty more. I saw Buzzy Budnitz and Fred Eisenbrandt, both Howdy Myers award recipients. Coincidentally, Howdy Meyers was one of the folks inducted Saturday into the St. Paul's Hall of Fame.

The list of initial inductees is an amazing ride through the history of lacrosse. Myers, deceased, who coached at Hopkins and Hofstra is joined by Ace Adams ('46), the long-time Virginia coach, Navy star Jimmy Lewis ('54), Maryland stars Dick Britt ('52) and Curtis Rountree ('79), Princeton greats "Wick" Sollers ('73) and Scott Bacigalupo ('90), W&L stars Bob Clements ('76) and Edgar Boyd ('36) and University of Baltimore (yes, they played lacrosse) legend Randy Walker.

Hopkins has had a "pipeline" from St. Paul's for quite a while with Ray Greene ('41), Bob Sandell ('45), Skip Darrell ('60) and Les Matthews ('69), followed by Don Zimmerman ('71), the current coach at UMBC. In the 80's, Larry LeDoyen ('82), Mike Morrill ('84) and Steve Mitchell ('83) helped the Hop to some more rings. Mitchell is the son of another Hopkins star inducted tonight, George Mitchell ('44).

Perhaps the most famous to the hardcore lacrosse enthusiasts in this class is Hopkins great "Jerry" Schmidt ('58), who was on the famous Sports Illustrated cover with his wooden lacrosse stick. As the coach at Hobart, Princeton and Calvert Hall, Schmidt was the mentor to a whole line of legendary lacrosse coaches nationwide.

UNC stars Billy Ness (’79) and Steve Stenersen (’78) were honored. Stenersen is the executive director of U.S. Lacrosse. Both won championships at North Carolina. Virginia stars Michael Watson (’93), Timmy Whiteley (’92), Punch Peterson ('57), Bill Hooper ('47) and Peter Sheehan (‘83) were inducted.

The standing ovation of the night went to longtime lacrosse coach George Mitchell.

Charles Compton ('46), Jamie Andrew, a stellar middle school coach, Mitch Tullai, the legendary football coach, were also inducted along with Zeke Marshall ('90), the only athlete in the initial Hall of Fame class to not play lacrosse.

Posted by John Weaver at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

During most of the big college lacrosse games this season, the action on the field won’t be the only competition going on. The war being waged off the field between ESPN and local content providers Comcast and Cablevision, all over the U.S., is an intense, well-coached, smash mouth contest, played expertly. It’s the rematch of a bitter rivalry that’s long-standing and will end no time soon. And this season lacrosse fans are the ball.

Upon first glance at the master TV schedule for college lacrosse in 2008, the lax fan can’t help but feel that lacrosse has come a long way since the day of only one game on national broadcast TV -- the men’s Div. I championship. But if you live in most areas of the country, your second glance was less exciting and you felt something closer to disappointment or anger. Most of the better games of 2008 will be on one network, ESPNU which is not available on two of the largest cable services nationwide, Comcast and Cablevision. Desperate, realizing that you will probably NOT see all those great games on the schedule even though they will all be on “national TV," you call the local office of your cable provider to complain.

Burke Magnus, vice president and general manager of ESPNU, sees everything the network is doing with lacrosse as good for the game. He also sees the distribution issues that distress the occasional consumer as aggravating but temporary. “These problems are not unique to lacrosse,” Magnus said, “We have to navigate through those issues when they pop up and people are frustrated. It’s truly not part of some greater design. We think televising way more games than ever before in most sports is a net benefit to everyone."

But ESPN does win when you harass every company in the area about not carrying ESPNU. In fact, that feedback you provided is invaluable – to ESPN. They can’t buy it – other than to buy the games and hold them from you so you call. And you did. It works. It has worked. Since 2005, a slow but steady stream of cable providers have added ESPNU to the lower-tier lineup, which means they pay ESPN for content without passing that cost on directly to the consumer by instituting an overall service fee increase.

“We can’t possibly expect that method to work,” Magnus said during a phone interview last week. “We don’t set it up to work that way. Comcast, for example cannot be played like that. One game here and there and some complaint calls just aren’t effective. Comcast has business logic they apply. We hope that over time we prove to be a valuable service that their customers want and that it makes business sense for them to have it."

NOT JUST A LACROSSE ISSUE

ESPN is famously located in Bristol, Conn., the home of the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” and close enough to Storrs, home to the Connecticut Huskies football team. Coincidentally, the dilemma lacrosse fans now find themselves in, being used as a pawn-like character in ESPNU’s growth story, reached even the local Connecticut fans this fall as the Huskies shot to prominence after beating a hot and highly ranked South Florida.

The following week, the Huskies were slotted as the ESPNU game instead of ESPN or ESPN2. And the consumer complaints poured in. Even the athletic director complained about it. “The bottom line here is that I fully understand that the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut football program is being used by the network to leverage cable companies in our state … to add ESPNU to their platform,” Jeff Hathaway said at the time. “We understand that. We know that’s what’s happening.” ESPNU denied Hathaway’s accusation.

In 2006, ESPN televised an Ohio State football game against Indiana on ESPNU network instead of its flagship channel, ESPN. The Buckeyes were undefeated and the top-ranked team in the nation at the time. The game was worthy of a national showing but by virtue of being on ESPNU, it was available in less than 10 percent of the nation’s homes. Ohio State fans who complained at the time have said recently that the "ESPNU" brand went from widely unknown to a household name in one week. The method works well. The few we communicated with said they still hate ESPN for missing that huge game but they now have ESPNU in their homes.

NASCAR, one of the most popular sports in the U.S., has broadcast partnerships with Fox and NBC. Each put about one-third of its NASCAR coverage on its cable channels, FX and TNT. You can believe that race fans made some calls if they didn’t get those channels in their local lineups. So ABC and ESPN are not the only ones relying on “complaint marketing” to sell their products. Of course in this case, lacrosse folks are affected. And we are less apt to be pushed around than some. Just ask Mike Nifong.

LACROSSE: A PRECIOUS COMMODITY

Throughout our interview, Magnus never pretended to know lacrosse well but knew quite well that the “big upside” of the sport is in the college game. The big college games are important to us in lacrosse. They are far more important than any pro lacrosse game shown on ESPN2. The regular-season matchups between quite a few schools are actually cherished by the lacrosse community, because they are quite limited and have great histories. The number of Div. I men’s lacrosse games in this category is finite. Title IX precludes major college men’s lacrosse from enjoying the wave of growth that is generating more television customers each year. Monopolizing lacrosse isn’t hard and the reward for doing so is increasingly larger. This is no secret in the lax-on-TV biz. The next tier games – the ones just below the ESPNU standard, have been scooped up by CCSN and even Comcast (CN8).

CBS College Sports Network (CCSN) has a schedule of regular-season games, anchored by Navy, and they have the Div. III and Div. II championships. Time Warner (TW 26 in New York) is the longtime exclusive presenter of Syracuse lacrosse. CN8’s schedule includes Harvard against Cornell at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on April 5; a 6-game series of ECAC matchups; and, on May 3, the CAA championship game.

ESPN’s ABC affiliation with Baltimore’s WMAR and their regularly scheduled broadcasts of national powerhouses visiting five of the six major “Baltimore teams” -- Hopkins, Towson, Loyola, UMBC and Maryland -- is the starting point for ESPNU’s schedule. But beyond that initial WMAR schedule, ESPN utilized the growing strength of college conferences in today’s Div. I lacrosse world. “As a company we have a long relationship in football and basketball so it was an easy conversation," Magnus said. "They’ve always wanted us to show more of the other sports on TV”.

IT TAKES TIME TO CONQUER THE WORLD

“We just passed our three-year anniversary," Magnus said. “Over that span of time, we’ve done deals with just about everybody. We have eight out of the top ten distributors in the country. We don’t have Comcast and Cablevision. We have Dish [Network] and DirecTV and Cox and Time Warner and Insight and Mediacom, all the way down the list. And we have Verizon digital which, by the way, solves the Comcast issue in many cases [overlap of markets]. We’ve done an excellent job in three years where this has become less and less [of] an issue."

Magnus sees relief coming shortly for the Comcast subscriber, “More and more they [Comcast customers] are being isolated in a way that they are the exception and not the rule -- especially if you live in an area where you have alternatives like satellite or Verizon or whoever. There are options now. I mean they [Comcast and Cablevision] are sort of the last ones to the party on ESPNU. So what we have to do is do our best job scheduling the network, give people what they want and the rest will take care of itself. In eight out of the top ten cases, that’s happened. I would never criticize them in any way for decisions that they make. They’ve got to run their businesses."

ESPNU vs. COMCAST

And while Comcast recognizes that the lacrosse community is an unwitting victim in all of this, they feel they have done all they can for sports programming in this instance and point the finger at ESPN. Aimee Metrick, the director of public relations for Comcast said: “We are disappointed that ESPN has repeatedly elected to air popular matchups on ESPNU, thereby effectively depriving most local fans of these games. We have made more than a dozen cable channels available to ESPN, but rather than placing games on one of those widely available channels, they continue to carry popular games on ESPNU, their least available channel”.

ESPN’s Magnus doesn’t see it that way. “The Comcast argument really doesn’t hold water in lacrosse because we’re not depriving anyone of anything. If we are just talking about lacrosse, I would argue that everything we are doing on ESPNU is completely new. The logic doesn’t apply here. This is not something we were ever doing on ESPN or ESPN2. It was a sport category that we thought had tremendous upside but it is restricted geographically at this particular time [in terms of mass viewership] to the traditional lacrosse areas. It’s growing now into places like Florida, Dallas, Denver and the Bay area. We saw a great future for the sport. And we bet on the sport here at ESPNU. We didn’t take a bunch of games off of ESPN or ESPN2 but we’ve decided to invest in a sport that was previously untelevised on ESPNU."

Read more of my thoughts on ESPNU at E-Lacrosse.

Posted by John Weaver at 6:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

This was a great women's lacrosse game. It snowed steadily but did not affect the game. GW's lovely Mt. Vernon campus is in Foxhall, one of the nicest residential neighborhoods in the nation. It was a beautiful scene as the snow fell on the action throughout the game.

Georgetown-George Washington should become a rivalry over the next few years as the schools are only 1.5 miles from each other and the stars of these teams are mostly sophomores. Mia Breheny (Alexandria, Va./Bishop Ireton) is that unusual sparkplug type. She scores when the Colonials need it and usually in spectacular fashion. Against Georgetown, her career-high fourth goal of the game pulled GW to within a goal at 11-10 with under three minutes remaining.

The Hoyas are led offensively by two sophomores: Molly Ford (Reisterstown/Notre Dame Prep) and Ashby Kaestner (Trappe/Saints Peter and Paul). This is a one-two scoring punch, Kaestner from the top and Ford from behind. Ford is like a Coco Stanwick/Mary Key hybrid. She's fast, creative, has a lightning second gear and is willing to take the beating to score. Kaestner is fleet afoot and can start with the ball or finish off a pass. They will be great together. You can see it.

In the goal, another star sophomore Caitlin Formby (Towson/Notre Dame Prep) was excellent for the Hoyas, but senior Caitlin Garman (Baltimore/Friends) was unreal for GW and coach Tara Hannaford.

Georgetown senior Patty Piotrowicz (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth Whitemarsh) looks like she's coach Ricky Fried's senior leader on this offense. In the settled offense, senior Lindsay Melvin (Ellicott City/Mt. Hebron) is still the team leader for GW and Katelyn Honeyford (Moorestown, N.J./Moorestown) is a solid star as well.

It was especially cool that during a snowy game, people kept yelling "ALASKA!". It turns out that GW has a junior defender named Alaska Burr (Marion, Mass./Tabor Academy). That's right. Great name and a pretty good transition player -- that's why we heard her name so much.

Check out highlights of the game:

See more lacrosse footage at E-Lacrosse.com.

Posted by John Weaver at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The lunch with the four Baltimore men's college lacrosse coaches yesterday was pretty unique.
Johns Hopkins' Dave Pietramala, Loyola's Charley Toomey, Towson's Tony Seaman, and UMBC's Don Zimmerman were on hand for a coaches Q&A session at Baltimore's ESPN Zone.

It felt something like a pro football event -- growth of the game, I guess. Some fans showed up to compliment the press and it was a pretty good crowd with good questions. I had some sliders (little burgers) while I shot video and that's a rare opportunity.

I've added a couple clips of the event in the baltimoresun.com video library. Here's one of Towson's Tony Seaman talking about the addition of attackman Blake Best and the injury that may sideline him for the season.

More video of the event is available at E-Lacrosse.

Posted by John Weaver at 4:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Thanks to CN8 for putting its live programming on the Web so I could watch the Drexel-Virginia game from my laptop. The Cavs got solid play from freshman Adam Ghitelman (nine-plus saves) and Garrett Billings stepped up to have a huge game (three goals, four assists). I guess Stony Brook and Vermont will be installing the zone in their systems TODAY. They will need it as they line up for Virginia next. Neither is as strong as Drexel.

Virginia may still get to their fourth game without a loss now. Game 4 is Syracuse and while the event at M&T Bank Stadium is supposed to be a replication of a final four scenario, this will be as close as either team gets to that pinnacle in 2008. The tournament seeding committee will do what they can to give Syracuse the easiest path to Foxboro, or they lose 10,000+ fans that weekend, but it won’t be enough. Virginia won’t likely be given any favors and are bound to face another CAA team, maybe even Drexel again in the first round. Look for the March 1 Syracuse-U.Va. game to be close but not representative of the best lacrosse in the land.

Wanna see a great game? Watch Syracuse-U.Va. two and three years from now. And maybe it will be at one of their home fields, Klockner or the Dome, which are far more authentic and better venues if you want to feel like you're part of the game. Remember the packed but quaint Princeton-Hopkins openers at the Hop? Lacrosse is missing that now, for better or worse. I think its worse but we must become football as fast as we can, right?

Lacrosse is never quite good enough for some of the new guard and the M&T event -- the Face-Off Classic -- emblemizes that. I won’t go off on a full rant here but I loved those two huge 10,000-plus attended openers as they were. I also loved the lacrosse championships going back before even the NCAA reign. It needs no replication, thank you. Count me on the side of fans who hope we can get back to the great home-and-home series between these great programs.

Posted by John Weaver at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Jim Berkman's Salisbury Sea Gulls beat Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday and it was his 300th win.

Berkman must be having the time of his life. He’s coaching his son, passing milestones as a young man and winning, which is his addiction. How could it not be after so very much of it? I know a few folks that run on the Salisbury track or have in the past and each says they see the coach out there pushing himself all the time. He’s a demanding fellow and it pays off.

It’s likely that the Sea Gulls are on a path to another Division III national championship but let’s not take that for granted, as we often do when the Eastern Shore school succeeds. In fact, let’s examine the Berkman record at this milestone, just so that it goes fully noticed. It’s easy to say 300 wins, but his record also includes:

* 19 Straight NCAA tournaments

* 7 national championships

* 10 national championship appearances

* 13 national championship semifinal appearances

* 129 All-Americans

* 2 seasons with 11 All-Americans in 1995 and 2007, and 10 in 2004

Jim guided his 2007 team to one of the best seasons in NCAA history (23-0), won a seventh Division III national championship (his fourth in five years), scored a record 417 goals on 271 assists for 688 points. I only care about the points mark because they beat Berkman’s 1995 Sea Gulls team for all three. Last year’s squad also had 11 All-Americans and earned five national awards, including Division III Player of the Year for long stick Chase Caruso and top midfielder award for Berkman’s sophomore son, Kylor.

Like we said, it’s good to be Jim Berkman.

Posted by John Weaver at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Have you ever seen one of those games where both teams play so well that neither deserves to lose? This was not one of those days.

At times Saturday both Notre Dame and Loyola looked like they did not want this opening win. Loyola was well on the way to dropping this one early as Notre Dame built up momentum that could have easily taken this game into the 13-3 type of game territory.

But Charlie Toomey's squad took advantage of a second half the Irish hope will be its worst of the year. I know the ND coaches and they must still be yelling about the collapse. If you watch our baltimoresun.com highlights of the game (below), the plays all look awesome but that's because it’s a highlight reel, which is often deceiving. A lowlight reel would have been easier to create from this game.

And while Alex Wharton is the hero of the game because he scored the last Notre Dame goal, Loyola was aggressive at the end and had chances. They were thwarted by goalie Joey Kemp and defensemen Sean Dougherty and Mike Creighton who made it count in the only real "out of your seat" moments of this game.

Read The Sun's game story.

Watch the full E-Lacrosse highlight show of the Notre Dame-Loyola game.

Hopkins Alum & Dad in Spotlight

One of the best middies to ever play at Hopkins was a Canadian named Dave Huntley. His kid, Kevin, plays there now and is quite good too, as you are likely aware. I think Dave was getting jealous of the kid's success and all that attention, so the longtime assistant coach for Team Canada, the old (and good) Baltimore Bayhawks and others took the helm of the lowly Philadelphia Wings for this season.

The Wings had been faltering over the last few years after a long run as an NLL contender. Last year's squad was talented but just could not find the way out of the tight NLL pack. Even crowds were down in this typically rabid sports town.

The 2008 Wings are 4-0 and just returned from a road win over the previously undefeated and league juggernaut Colorado Mammoth (5-1). The Wings scored the final five goals to win 15-13 at the Pepsi Center, and that ain't easy. Congratulations to Dave and the Wings!

Posted by John Weaver at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Is picking Drexel to beat Virginia the prediction of the year? Not really.

I’m not a prognosticator. I think when journalists predict things, it biases their reporting. But I will not be covering Sunday’s Drexel-Virginia game so I am free to comment on the apparition I had upon awaking this morning.

Some say last year’s Drexel-Virginia season-opening upset was the greatest of all time. I filmed it and it was one of the most exciting games I’ve seen. If you get a chance, check it out. I think you’ll like it and it’ll be a great preview of this year’s game, scheduled for Sunday at Drexel (Comcast TV). Yes, I said a preview because I awoke believing that Drexel would repeat the task in 2008.

We know that Drexel won’t be able to sneak up on Virginia this year. The problem for the Cavs is that the Dragons don’t need to this time.

Drexel is better than they were in 2007. They are missing the leadership of Mike Filipone and Adam Crystal but that was a young team last year and those kids are all a year better and know they can win. In fact, eight starters return from the team that beat U.Va. a year ago, went 11-5, shared the CAA regular-season crown and did not make the NCAA tournament. Think they have something to prove?

On midfield, they will miss Filipone, who was also the faceoff guy, but Jon Van Houten and Greg Casey are back, and both scored twice in the game last year. Zack Fisher is a stellar sophomore that will see the net as this offense stretches it out.

Bruce Bickford is the most underrated keeper around and played out of his mind against Virginia last year. You’ve never heard of him because he’s out of Providence, R.I., and plays at Drexel, but he’s quick and doesn't make a lot of mistakes. He was the first-team All-CAA keeper last season. He won’t have All-American and CAA Defensive Player of the Year Adam Crystal in front of him this year, though. But Matt McCormick played great against U.Va. last year and all season. 2007 Herkimer transfer Brian McWilliams and Matt Muzoz will likely round out the veteran defensive unit with senior Steve Grossi running the long stick.

Senior Canadian attackman Andrew Chapman was tops in the CAA in points (53) on 42 goals and 11 assists and Colin Ambler, the emerging star of the CAA, was last year’s Rookie of the Year with 22 goals and 13 assists. They both know how to beat the Cavs at home and this one’s in Philly.

But this is more about what Virginia brings to the table this time. Drexel is a good CAA championship-caliber team. They will compete with Towson, Hofstra and Delaware for the crown this year. Virginia could be the number two or three team in the land or they could be the first UVa. team in a while to miss the show. It’s that wide open for me.

I don’t put too much credence in scrimmage results but I do like a thorough scouting report and I’ve seen a few on this year’s preseason action. When Navy scrimmaged Virginia last year, just before the Drexel opener, Virginia hammered Navy. This year a less experienced Navy team looked better than the Cavs. Virginia has struggled in general in the scrimmages.

The “Lacrosse IQ” that is usually inherent at Virginia has been missing this spring as it was for a lot of last year. Drexel should be the “smarter” team on the field. Plus, Virginia will be without Loyola High graduate Ben Rubeor, who registered 46 goals and 22 assists last year. Rubeor is the top touch shooter and feeder in the land, in my opinion, and last year had four goals and four assists against Drexel (and Virginia only scored 10 times total).

Even with the loss of Rubeor, the attack is the strongest of the Cavaliers' units. Garrett Billings and Danny Glading are veterans and 6-foot-3 freshman John Haldy may impress early. Senior Drew Garrison’s got a great shot, but Haldy should get the start. Virginia hasn’t scored much this preseason and Garrison has, relatively.

Of course, the attack has to have the ball to score and the midfield is perhaps Virginia’s lesser unit. The Drexel-UVa. game in 2007 was won in the midfield. Just watch it. Drexel returns all but one of the 2007 middies who controlled so well and the Cavs may start the way-too-hyped Bratton twins, who are questionable in the transition game, at best. Maybe the poor fundamentals, missed passes, overthrown balls, hanging sticks, wild shots and just awful decision-making on display in the scrimmages can be corrected by Sunday. Or maybe the one-shot possession becomes the hallmark of this Virginia team.

I’m not here to harp on the deficiencies of freshman lacrosse players, but coach Dom Starsia has chosen to let the Bratton twins learn lacrosse on the national stage. Their success or failure will help determine Virginia's season, and we will all watch it happen.

The Brattons are burdened with more pressure than any college freshmen in history. This, thanks to so many premature projections of their greatness by some of the “lacrosse press” and the blind following of the less-informed mainstream press. I heard a guy who writes for a renowned journalistic institution call them “the best players in the game” recently. In the extended scrimmage with Navy, the twins scored twice and against Georgetown they were blanked by short stick defenders. They were just plain overmatched.

Who knows if the Bratton line is the “first midfield” line but it looks like they will run with Peter Lamade, who is Virginia’s best middie. In the preseason, Lamade often has looked out of place or like he doesn’t know what’s going on as the two, Rhamel and Shamel, do their thing. The next best middie, Brian Carroll, will likely run with Max Pomper and senior Jack Riley. The third line could be any combination of Steve Giannone, Colin Briggs, Kevin Carroll, Nick Elsmo, George Huguely and Garet Ince. This is the Cavs' best midfield line. They just don’t know it yet.

It’s not that Virginia doesn’t have the talent to beat Drexel. A first midfield line of the hard-shooting Carroll, the speedy leader Lamade and Canadian wild card Garett Ince, or the ultra-consistent freshman Nick Elsmo as the utility on that line would do fine. Control in the middle of the field will be essential. It’s Elsmo’s forte and the Brattons’ Achilles' heel. Both Ince and Elsmo can faceoff too and that will be a huge key on Sunday.

Adam Ghitelman is the real deal in the cage for Virginia. He shone brightly at the U-19 trials where we saw many of the young Cavs performing under pressure, even against each other. But Virginia has given up lots of shots on the crease so far in 2008. And if you watch last year’s Drexel-UVa. game below, Drexel just walked in a few times to score.

I certainly won’t be surprised if Virginia pulls out a win, especially if Ghitelman outperforms Bickford and Virginia plays that third midfield group a bunch. But my mullet-headed apparition will be stunned and likely won’t return until Hopkins plays Albany this season.

Here's video of Drexel's upset win over Virginia last year

How It's Made

On February 23, if you get the Discovery Science Channel, the great show “How Its Made” will be showing its audience how wooden lacrosse sticks are made by the Native American descendants of our game’s founders. Check it out if you can! They always put their shows on the Web a month or so later so we’ll link to it then, too.

Posted by John Weaver at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

This Wednesday fans can attend a question-and-answer session with the head coaches from Towson, Johns Hopkins, Loyola and UMBC at the Inner Harbor's ESPN Zone. It sounds like fun and it's totally open to the public. Lacrosse needs more events like this but it will only happen if you attend the ones they have now, so go check it out! Here's the unedited news release, from Towson University and ESPN Zone:

Face-Off With Baltimore's Coaches at ESPN Zone

TOWSON, Md. - Baltimore’s ESPN Zone (601 East Pratt Street, Baltimore) will be hosting a question-and-answer session with the head lacrosse coaches from Towson, Johns Hopkins, Loyola and UMBC at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20. Fans and alumni will be invited to enjoy lunch in the Screening Room at ESPN Zone, which opens to the public at 11:30 a.m. Fans can register to win ticket packages and can pick up promotional materials from the four programs.

Scott Garceau, Sports Director of WMAR-TV, which has a 12-game lacrosse broadcast schedule planned, will host the question and answer session. Garceau is also one of the primary announcers for ESPNU, which will carry more than 40 college lacrosse games this season.

Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala will be discussing his defending NCAA champion squad, which opens the season on Saturday, February 23 against Albany at historic Homewood Field.

Towson’s Tony Seaman, who is entering his 10th season as the Tigers’ head coach, will profile his 2008 squad, which will open its season at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 23 by hosting Loyola at Johnny Unitas ® Stadium.

Loyola’s Charley Toomey is preparing for his third season as the head coach for his alma mater. Named as the 2006 ECAC Coach of the Year, Toomey has been a member of the Greyhounds’ coaching staff for 12 seasons, including nine as an assistant coach. The Greyhounds will open their season against Notre Dame on February 16 at Diane Geppi-Aikens Field.

UMBC Coach Don Zimmerman is preparing for his 21st collegiate coaching season and his 13th year with the Retrievers. His squad will open the season on Saturday, February 16 against Delaware in the Wounded Warrior Benefit in Neptune, Fla.

All four teams earned NCAA Tournament bids in 2007. Towson fell to #4 Cornell, 14-6, in the first round, while Loyola dropped a 19-10 decision to #5 Albany. UMBC knocked off #7 Maryland, 13-9, in the first round, and then lost a 10-6 decision to NCAA semifinalist Delaware. Hopkins opened with a narrow 11-10 overtime win past Notre Dame, then defeated Georgetown, 14-6, and Delaware, 8-3, before holding off Duke, 12-11, to win its ninth NCAA championship.

In addition, all four coaches will be featured live on The Mark Viviano Show on ESPN Radio 1300 (WJFK-AM) from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The show will be broadcast live from the ESPN Zone that day.

Posted by John Weaver at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

We'll be posting video throughout the season and today's clip relates to a someone we discussed a bit in a recent post on Johns Hopkins' goalie situation.

This clip shows former Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman take his brother Andrew’s attack stick in exchange for his long pole during the National Alumni Lacrosse Tournament on Sept. 15, 2007, in Parkton, Md. There was no Johns Hopkins team at the tournament so Jesse played on the Terps' alumni squad with his brother.

Let us know what you think of the clip. We will also be setting up a reader lacrosse video gallery in the near future, so stay tuned if you're interested in sharing your lacrosse footage. Without further ado, here's the first Video of the Week:

Posted by John Weaver at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I want to reserve comment on the selection of Boston as the host of the 2009 NCAA lacrosse championships until after the NCAA final four is held there this year for the first time ever.

I kind of wish everyone had. It will actually be the first time the event has been held north of Philly since the days when a college stadium (Rutgers and Maryland) could host the event. It will be the first time the event has ever been to New England so we just don’t know how it will do.

Pre-sales are good. If you wanted a luxury box for 2008, it’s too late. New England supports great teams like the Patriots and the Red Sox so they are in the mood for championships, so to speak. That said, I will hold my opinion on the 2009 New England decision until after the 2008 results comes in. What if Syracuse and UMass aren’t that good this year? What if Cornell gets knocked out early? What if Virginia, Princeton, Hopkins and Duke make the semis? Will the North show to watch an all Southern event? Will the South travel to see its teams or just spend Memorial Day at the beach and TiVo the games? We’ll see.

They don’t need to beat the record to succeed in my eyes. A good crowd will be fine.

There’s a lot of good lacrosse fans up in New England that deserve to see the games if they are willing to attend them. Many of them have been trekking south for years to watch the championships in Baltimore and Philly. I’ve heard that Denver may get a shot at hosting soon and certainly we all see the benefit in holding the big show in a place like Denver, even if the crowd is 40,000 instead of 50+.

The game has to be exposed to grow and while I am a Baltimore homer, I am a pro-growth lacrosse businessman. A 40,000 crowd in Denver is better for the game than eking out another record by two thousand heads in Baltimore year after year.

Just bring it back to us every couple of years and I’m pretty sure we’ll always show up. It is our game after all. Just kidding.

Take a team to Belgium

My friend Ed Grody writes me that the ISB, the International School of Brussels Lacrosse Club, is hosting a lax tournament for 13-16-year-olds April 26 and 27 -- the 2008 Brussels Youth Lacrosse Tournament. Teams and individual players with vacationing family are welcome. Get in touch with Ed via e-mail at grodye@isb.be. Let us know if you do go and we’ll follow your adventures when we're over there!

Posted by John Weaver at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

I was curious to see St. Joe's scrimmage Salisbury on Feb. 2. The Hawks give some scholarship money and are making other investments in the program of late. I knew Salisbury would be good and too much for the lower-tier Div. I program from Philly.

Salisbury is an offensive machine. Kylor Berkman, Greg Titus and Matt Hickman will put it in the net all season as long as the defense and midfield get them the ball. We’ll be filming them a few times this year because they are just tons of fun to watch. Salisbury’s Collin Tokosch (No. 47), a freshman from Broadneck High, was impressive as you'll see in the highlight video.

Salisbury vs. St. Joseph’s scrimmage highlight video

Tokosch was misidentified in an earlier version of this post. The Sun regrets the error.

Posted by John Weaver at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

VMI @ Navy notes

I knew going in that the game probably wouldn't be close. Last year, I drove to Charlottesville to open the season with the imminent blowout that was Drexel vs. Virginia and instead was the only media on hand to witness the greatest upset ever. So I try to keep an open mind. That said, E-Lacrosse had never covered a VMI game, so we were excited to give them some exposure.

If you don’t know VMI, the Virginia Military Institute, they are located in Lexington, Va., right across from Washington & Lee. I was impressed with the way VMI played steady ball from beginning to end. The 10-2 final score had nothing to do with their effort or execution. They had a steady hand, much the way Navy plays when outmanned.

Navy looked good but probably still got yelled at, because there’s no winning in a game like that, really. They will need to be better to beat half the teams on their schedule. This is the first Navy team to take the field without a veteran from the national championship game in 2004 and perhaps the least predictable in years. Senior Nick Marabito leads the offense while Jordan DiNola and Brendan Teague are stellar senior defenders. Much will depend on how junior goalkeeper Matt Coughlin does in the cage and how sophomore scorers Tim Paul, Pat Moran and Basil Daratsos play.

We like freshman Andy Warner, who got considerable time Saturday. This class has very few seniors, who are the heart of any Navy team. The Mids will depend heavily on leadership from those mentioned above, along with faceoff specialist Mike Visgauss and attackers Greg Clement and Matt Guido to surpass most expectations.

Check out video of the game: Navy vs. VMI highlights

The new Bilderback-Moore Navy Lacrosse Hall of Fame

I always get a proper perspective with which to approach the season by visiting Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Lining the stadium are the reminders of the sacrifices someone else made for our freedom to play games. We celebrate the boys and now girls competing in a physical contest, that in small part prepares them for whatever they face protecting the next generation of Americans. It is as close to the Native American origins and the “Little Brother of War” concept as the modern game gets. There’s even a ceremony for the fallen at the end of each game. It is an American pastime, as cathartic as baseball’s Opening Day is for some of us.

When the stadium was built, the first class of lacrosse players to take the field were two-time national champions. They retained the title for six more years at their new home, enshrining it as hallowed ground in record time. At the game Saturday, I had the privilege of previewing the brand new Bilderback-Moore Navy Lacrosse Hall of Fame, which has been built inside the stadium, with one of those champions, Dennis Wedekind (Class of 1965).

Dennis is a two-time Kelly Award winner as the best keeper in the nation and has no idea what it is like to play college lacrosse and not win a championship. He has four -- and a long career of service as an aviator, saving more than just balls.

Consider the Class of 1966. Every kid entering the Academy with that class in 1962 knew that the Vietnam War was inevitable. And by 1966, when they won the last of their four titles, they were truly preparing for the raging war they would join within months. It was an age of heroes, only validated by the passing of time. While the war was unpopular and soldiers were not always treated well then, today we are a more mature nation that can separate the duty of a soldier from the reasons for or against any war.

Every kid on the field Saturday entered the Academy, and VMI for that matter, knowing that going to war was a distinctly possible outcome for them. I am awed by it all. As I was awed by walking around the new Hall of Fame with Dennis, Jim Darcangelo and the son of Willis Bilderback, the legendary coach in those glory years.

Look at the video below and you’ll see a “stick doctor” hat from the 1950’s, when that meant repairing wood sticks with fiberglass, re-drilling holes, replacing gut and strings in an era when no two sticks were the same. It’s a cool exhibition for all ages. Nine silver championship trophies are on hand from the day when we actually awarded a trophy instead of the generic NCAA clip art plaque. The Hall of Fame is accessible to fans during Navy home games for the rest of the season. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Video of the Bilderback-Moore Navy Lacrosse Hall of Fame

Posted by John Weaver at 4:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Here are some of my notes from the US Lacrosse National Convention, which was held in Philadelphia, Jan. 18-20.

Every year US Lacrosse, based in Baltimore, hosts a lacrosse coaches' convention. Coaches of all levels teach or take seminars in every lacrosse or team-building topic imaginable. There are keynote speakers and an awards night, a social breakfast, lots of catching up with old friends and teammates and a vendor area where manufacturers, retailers, stringers, camps, specialty products and every sports-related service from video analysis to fundraising via frozen pizza have a presence.

With the season so close, the vendor area is less about making team deals on equipment or uniforms and more about building lasting relationships with others in the industry. It gives you a chance to make face-to-face contact with people you deal with on the phone all year long, and it's an opportunity to check out competitors' offerings and presentations.

Retailers make deals with manufacturers, some goods are sold on site and there are freebies all over. And the autograph opportunities are insane. In one hour I saw two Gaits, two Tierneys, four Kenneys, two Burnhams, John Grant, Brodie Merrill, Kyle Harrison, Joe Walters, Kristen Kjellman, Tom Ryan, Steve Govett, Zach Hefner, Chad Whitman, Richie Moran, John Paul and Gordon Purdie! And I was standing in one spot for that hour. Lacrosse is a small world but at the convention, for a few hours, it’s just one big room.

One of the great experiences on the vendor floor is looking at all the new products and prototypes the manufacturers have on display. This year we were blown away by the new technology and some of the smart new products for 2008 and 2009.

We tried a tool that trains a goalie in his/her living room like a Nintendo Wii goalie game might if that ever existed.

We saw a new shaft by Scorpion that has a large portion of the metal cut away and replaced by some lighter composite material, creating a multi-material shaft that is strong and light.

We saw a new glove from Paul Gait that has no cuff, but comes with a padded sweatband to wear with it, has no palm (yes, like you cut it out), and you can pop the finger pads off to replace them with any color you like.

And next year’s Gait offering: a make-your-own-stick kit. You get one base, three sets of sidewalls and two scoops that snap or screw together in a very sturdy way. You assemble the head any way you like and snap in a pre-formed pocket and you are set. See what I mean? Blown away.

There’s a huge room next to the vendor floor that hosts live demonstrations of lacrosse strategy, skills and some pretty cool exhibitions by the U.S. men’s and women’s teams. Kyle Harrison and Joe Walters of STX (in Baltimore) and Team USA gave a shooting demo that was insightful. These guys do camps together too and they are such divergent players that a pretty unique and valuable perspective is gained from the sessions with both of them.

The women’s team gave an exhibition with a huge squad led by Sports Her Way owner and U.S. goalie-turned-coach Sue Heether and UMBC assistant/University of Maryland legend/U.S. star Quinn Carney, along with a cast of celebrity players.

The convention is usually in Philadelphia at the convention center attached to the Marriott, where it was held for years until the event became too big. It has only recently been held in Baltimore from time to time as well.

This year's convention was in Philly and next year's will be in Baltimore. We’ll tell you more about it closer to the date. Get excited, you can now participate!

Probably the coolest new thing of note at the annual lax love fest is the addition of open house hours at the vendor exhibition. For years, I have walked around the vendor floor thinking that it was all lost on the crowd that was invited. The event seems pretty typical to all but a few of the “lacrosse industry” participants. To the true lacrosse fanatic, this is Disney World.

Every year it reminds me of the first time I walked into the Towson Lax World store when I was a boy. It was as if I had entered a fantasy world that had been constructed by my personal lacrosse daydreams. The convention vendor floor is ten times that and would be an amazing time for the many lax rats in Baltimore, again, the site of next year's convention.

Posted by John Weaver at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Pat from Towson wrote me, asking:

How is the goalie situation at Hopkins shaping up? They have some big shoes to fill. I hear they have a transfer from Carolina that is pretty good. Any thoughts?

The Hopkins keeper will have big shoes to fill. But so do most Hopkins goalies and it’s never really fair to hold these guys up to the level of the past greats, right off the bat. Some of Jesse Schwartzman's biggest saves are indelibly etched in our national memory, so it’s hard to imagine that the Hop won’t miss him. But its just as hard to forget the almost universal criticism he got early on, before he was “great,” which makes me reluctant to critique the next guy in any material way.

Goalies at the Hop don’t have the chance to prove their true worth until the end of the season anyway. They always have good goalies and the lineage of Hall of Fame keepers at Homewood Field isn't defined by regular-season accomplishment. When making the playoffs is a forgone conclusion and a championship is expected, it’s hard to be a hero in the cage during the regular season.You can be the goat with a loss or two, but heroes at Hopkins are made in the postseason, and Jesse certainly was one.

The University of North Carolina transfer you speak of is Trey Sheain of Boys’ Latin fame. He played quite brilliantly at times while at UNC but did not play his senior season, while still graduating. He is an MBA candidate at Hopkins’ Carey School of Business. Here’s a first, I think. Trey takes a full load of classes at night (MBA classes, not typical college classes), while working during the day in the financial field and playing lacrosse for the top college team.

I am impressed. He did not play in 2006 but he’s a mature, smart guy who is capable of stepping in any time and playing for a team at the top, and he might be the absolutely perfect backup goalie in a national championship effort. While he is more experienced than his younger counterpart, the Hopkins' scheme and team culture is different than that at UNC, he’s been out a year, has a huge life load and he’d have to take the starting role from last year’s No. 2.

Mike Gvozden is the Hopkins' starter. The two will be competitive in a Dave
Pietramala-controlled practice environment and I suppose anything can happen, but investment has already been made in Gvozden and he will return on that investment for a longer time.

Gvozden is from Severna Park, where it rained championships while he was there. He owned my Dulaney Lions. He played in some games last year and was good in the fall, but it’s those practices against the Hopkins' offense day after day last year that have everyone confident in him.

He is an extremely engaged kid. He’s Carcaterraesque (after the great Hopkins keeper Brian Carcaterra) in a few ways, but especially as a student of the game. He’s a lax rat who, I’ve heard, dreamed of playing at the Hop (didn’t we all?) since he was a kid. He’s a good bet. They are both great stories.

While Jesse was a talker and could be seen shouting out commands and field positions to his D unit, the commander of that Hopkins D is Eric Zerrlaut, the fifth-year senior. The whole unit, which will be the nation's best in 2008, returns from last year with Matt Bocklet, Michael Evans, all three D-middies and a surprise for any coaches not already cowering. In 2006, the hot defender at Hopkins was Matt Drenan. They played all of last year and won the championship with their best D-man off the field. People may have forgotten about him, but not for long. Can you think of another returning national championship defensive unit where players faced pressure for their jobs?

This is a starting four with Bocklet at the long pole. Most of Hopkins' opponents this spring will be lucky to see the keeper and will see very little net. But we won’t know if the Hopkins keeper can fill Jesse’s shoes until they’re planted in the turf at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., site of this year's championships.

Posted by John Weaver at 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

The Tournament of Champions was held in the Tampa, Fla.-area in early January, and I covered it for E-Lacrosse and Toyota, who sponsors it. It featured matchups of champions from a series of summer and fall tournaments from all over the country, so it was pretty good competition.

The quarterfinals included three Canadian squads (huge, quick and sick sticks), along with some powerhouse teams like the two Road Hogs teams from central New York (big, smart and no end to the hustle), the Connecticut Hurricanes (balanced and disciplined, big shooters), two Team Headstrong squads from Bucks County, Pennsylvania (Big, lots of heart, well balanced) and a North Carolina team that proved it belonged by beating one of the Ontario Edge teams on Day One.

I could only watch one of the quarterfinal games and my choice was very lucky. I couldn’t even see the uniforms when the action started due to a thick morning fog. I just found a good camera position at the Roadhogs Select vs. Connecticut Hurricanes game so I could get some foggy silhouette video. The Roadhogs were helping me out by scoring a few early fast-break goals that looked great in the fog, especially with their exuberant celebrations after each tally.

Soon it was 4-0 and the fog was lifting. I was impressed that I was able to capture Connecticut’s first goal of the game on video, having just been told that the Roadhogs had scored 32 goals and allowed zero the day before. I figured I may have gotten the only score of the tournament on these guys, not giving the Connecticut team the credit it was due. They proved me wrong and the game was soon tied at four.

What started out as neat photo opportunity in the fog, turned into a great game. But it would turn again -- into one of those rare games with a twist. This game would be one of those few games, in my opinion, where a coach wins a game -- outright.

With the game tied at five and only 11 or so seconds left, the Roadhogs were called for a penalty on the goalie. With a man up and very little time left in regulation, the Connecticut coach called for his team to hold the ball. If they held the ball and possessed it at the end of regulation time, they would start the sudden-death overtime with that precious possession. It was a done deal.

As the ball moved meaninglessly from behind the cage across the midfield line, from one time-killing slow stick to another, we all relaxed – and breathed for the first time in a while -- the game was that good.

The coaches’ minds were already on overtime. I was barely pointing the camera at the play, talking to the college coach next to me. The Roadhogs' defense did not pressure and the goalie was not tense when the ball listlessly reached Robert Rotanz, Connecticut’s top left middie. Rotanz caught the ball in the shooting position and, before anyone could react, rocketed the ball past the goalie and won the game.

There would be no overtime.

The team mobbed Rotanz but it was the coach who really sold the play to all of us. I’ve never seen a coach so involved in a fake play. “Hold the ball, hold the ball,” he kept yelling.

If anyone shot that ball or even dropped it, we all knew they would pay in that huddle. The coach had some big play ready for overtime and we’re all way too used to the conservative call in that situation.

We were all easily duped. The Roadhogs were, perhaps, the best team in Florida during the tournament, but Connecticut moved on to play the eventual champion Salmonbellies (New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada).

The Final

The championship was the third game of the day for both teams so it was a true test of which team was the true Champion. No games on Sunday are easy. On paper, maybe six or seven teams could have won this tournament. But on the field the Western Canadians were bigger, faster and better finishers than the rest.

An all-Canadian final was avoided in one of the tournament’s best games as Headstrong beat Edge (Ontario, Canada) in the second semifinal. But Headstrong lost valiantly to the Salmonbellies as many have before. During the trophy photos, even Gary Gait commented on losing quite a few to them during his career, playing mostly for the rival Victoria Shamrocks, also from British Columbia.

Baltimore lax is spreading via The Greene Turtle

The Greene Turtle has long been a lax haunt for many in Maryland and sponsors a club team that represented Baltimore at the Tournament of Champions.

They represented well. They were loaded with talent but way too young to contend there. The Roadhogs and Connecticut were huge and the Canadians were man-sized. But Greene Turtle played well until they lost to the Salmonbellies, who would win it all. No shame in that at all.

I also learned while speaking with Bill Packo of the Fells Point Turtle that the sports bar and grille will be representing Maryland and Baltimore in another way soon, as the first locations outside of Maryland are opened. The first will be in Delaware and will, of course, be the place to go after a local lax game and the place where Maryland people go when there. I love the idea that this lax-related Baltimore specialty will be exported to new states. It’ll be like crabs and Berger cookies, but with some old wooden sticks on the wall. Catch me?

USA vs. Canada

Watching our U.S. boys lose to Canada during the tournament reminded me of the World Games final in 2006. It is certainly not good news for Americans that the Canadian program has finally reached a point where it produces a few really good field defenders each year. These aren’t the old-style Canadian defenders -- box transplants unaccustomed to the six-foot D-Pole -- but big, strong, smash-mouth hitters with stick-handling skills of veteran longpoles. Brodie Merrill was perhaps the first but there are a slew of young defenders coming in the next generation.

We should see the new Canadian defensive strength at the under-19 games this summer in Coquitlam, British Columbia. The U.S. is the defending U-19 champ but may find it tough to keep the gold as the Canadians and coach Gary Gait will try to build on the Canadian World Games momentum with a U-19 title.

The Canadian side is stronger than it has ever been, while the U.S. squad isn’t the best ever but is still pretty darn good. One of the Bratton twins, likely starring as freshmen for Virginia this spring, didn’t even make the team.

While the Canadian program has been working to improve in areas where they've lagged behind the U.S., namely defense in the open field, the U.S. has yet to embrace the things we need to do to ensure wins against Canada. Every Canadian shooter has an advantage in the field game. Shooting at the small box goal most of the year is like swinging two bats as a warm-up in baseball. These box guys can pick-and-roll and create three-on-twos and two-on-ones in an instant, dooming even the best defenses in unsettled situations, which international finals are chock full of.

You might think that the Salmonbellies' win in the Tournament of Champions means we need to watch out for those Canadians on the U-19 team. But, in reality, nobody on the team that breezed through the field in Florida actually made the Canadian U-19 team. Don’t be afraid. Just get your kids playing some indoor lacrosse this winter, with some real indoor coaches. The skills they’ll learn are invaluable and we’ll need them on Team USA in 2012.

Tournament of Champions links

Event photos

Event Web site

Tournament championship video

Tournament highlight video

The fog game video

Posted by John Weaver at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

My name is John Weaver. I am the editor of E-Lacrosse.com, an 11-year-old national lacrosse publication based in Maryland, and will be authoring Re: Lax, baltimoresun.com's new lacrosse blog.

In my day job I have to be "fair and balanced" as a lacrosse journalist, but at times in this gig, I'll be the total Baltimoron homer I was raised to be. After all, Maryland teams play the very best lacrosse in the world and I have made a living exporting it to the world for over a decade. I shoot lacrosse video wherever I go, so we’ll include clips of the action with some of my blog posts and I’ll post a video of the week for open discussion every Friday.

I have many friends in the lacrosse world who send me news, notes, rumors, pictures, etc., and I will share them with you here.

We’ll discuss the industry, the pros, college lax, Maryland high school boys and girls, as well as youth ball, strategy, pockets, anything stick tech, lax history and culture.

I’ll share my opinion on all things lacrosse here but want to start a dialog, so feel free to respond to anything you read or send me questions. Just keep it clean or it can’t be posted.

I’ll also be keeping a calendar of events, youth start-up dates and other lacrosse happenings, so please send any announcements to me here and I will gladly include them.

Posted by John Weaver at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)