Howdy y'all!

That's how they really say it down here in Texas, and they say it a lot. This week I am in big D as in Dallas after following the Naval Academy here for the Lax World-sponsored Patriot Cup on Saturday -- and I haven't left yet! There's too much lacrosse going on to leave. In fact, today Cornell and Denver will play at Highland Park High School after a top Houston team, Kinkaid, takes on the host, weather permitting. There is a driving rain right now.

The Patriot Cup, this past weekend, was the result of the work of many people. I found my way here through the efforts of Lax World’s Jim Darcangelo. The idea for the event originated with Navy parent Jamie Clement and kicked off last year with Navy and Holy Cross playing at Southern Methodist University stadium. This year Navy faced Holy Cross again and Army played Rutgers.

The two college games were bookended by high school contests. The high school games featured St.Mary's (Annapolis) against Highland Park (Dallas) and Episcopal School of Dallas against Memphis University School from Tennessee. The huge on-site project was pulled off by the local US Lacrosse chapter along with a group of parents from Highland Park and Episcopal School of Dallas, where young Clement starred as a school boy. It looked to me like a crowd of 4,000 or so was on hand for the event. Proceeds will go to the Wounded Warrior Project benefiting veterans with disabilities.

There's so much to talk about on this trip. First let's talk about watching a lacrosse game, or four, in Texas Stadium. When I first walked into the Irving home of the Dallas Cowboys, I was stunned at how small it feels inside. I mean, it's big, but it's comfortable and intimate. It reminds me of RFK Stadium a little in that you feel like you are right on top of the action. This feeling of closeness is exaggerated by the semi-enclosed nature of the retractable roof. In a driving rain, the field would get wet but the fans would stay dry. If you watch football, you know this venue. That said, The current Texas Stadium will stop being the home of the Cowboys in 2010. The new stadium will have a fully retractable roof and will significantly increase seating to a projected 100,000-seating capacity. In its half-dome state, the new Arlington stadium is an architectural marvel and a work of art as impressive as any modern sculpture.

The use of the stadium was made possible through the owner of the Cowboys himself, Jerry Jones. The Joneses are ESD people. The Episcopal School of Dallas' stadium is called Gene and Jerry Jones Stadium. Talk about keepin’ up with the Joneses!

The Patriot Cup's Clement called on Jones to help bring the dream of major D1 college lacrosse to Dallas. And they did it in style, ya'll. I can say that because I actually filmed two of the games while sitting in the Jerry Jones' luxury box. If I recall so many quick TV shots of the Dallas owner's box over the years correctly, I was sitting in his seat. That's a trip. I have been a Redskins fan since the drunken coward Bob Irsay stole the Colts from B-Town at 3 a.m. on March 29, 1984, so it was weird to sit in this place and film lacrosse. So many times I watched the cameras cut to the box to see Jones pump his fist or hug somebody as his team pulled yet another win out over my beloved. I forgive him, though.

The lacrosse was entertaining and at a high level, giving these Dallas kids an on-field demonstration that you just cannot get otherwise. Events like this will make Texas one the fastest improving states in the game. They are not so far off now anyway.

The Dallas teams, ESD and Highland Park, both played St. Mary's and Memphis University School this weekend. Both beat Memphis, but both lost to St. Mary's. I will have video highlights up next week and you can watch the action yourself. I hate to qualify or quantify efforts when I can just show you, but I think you will be impressed with the Texas teams, the Memphis team and with St. Mary's, which may do well in the MIAA this year. We'll see. I never predict MIAA finishes. That's a fool’s game where adults are proved wrong by unwitting kids every year.

I will make one prediction. Next Friday's ESD-Highland Park matchup will be a great game to watch. Scots attackmen Will Ziegler and Travis Gallivan and middies Johnny McKnight and Tyler Jackson will face an ESD squad with considerable weapons in Alex Hardt (middie), DJ Sprenger (attack), Cody Solaja and Jeff Redish (defense) and last year's state championship MVP, goalie Colt Power, who is headed to Notre Dame next year. I am sure I have missed someone, but the guys mentioned here are names you may hear for a while in the college ranks.

I think one of the greatest features of Texas lacrosse is the sportsmanship. There was NO referee jeering. The rivals were very socially compatible and friends outside the game. And lets not be coy here -- ESD and HP are BIG rivals. This is a Texas football rivalry. And that sportsmanship, down here in Texas, as it should be everywhere, is just an extension of the ethic of being a gentleman or a lady. The kids here call you “sir." Better yet, they call their dads "sir." It’s refreshing and reminds me of 1980s Baltimore prep school lacrosse when we all behaved that way generally.

It’s funny, but a few of us in the press actually took note the year Ryan Boyle graduated from Gilman, saying that he was the last of the Baltimore schoolboy lacrosse stars to show that type of respect and politeness naturally. There have been a few odd throwbacks since, but the trend is long gone. Well not in Texas! The same can be said for the general reaction to E-Lacrosse being here. I think we have been thanked personally a hundred times while I can think of schools we’ve covered a hundred times that haven’t thanked us yet.

Like Baltimore, in Texas when asked where you play, the young adults say ESD or St. Mark’s or HP, instead of Dennison or Lynchburg or wherever. The high school ties are strong and lacrosse is a growing part of it. Lacrosse is a perfect fit for the Texas prep school people and collective character. ESD’s campus, during a game, feels more like the place I grew up in than Baltimore does these days. I look forward to the start of the Baltimore high school season next week (for me), but will certainly miss this Texas behavior when the first dad in the first game berates the refs ‘cause all he cares about is his kid and the win and not about lacrosse or what we alone, as a sport still have a chance to preserve – a gentleman’s game.

They do it up big here. I have passed two separate houses that were modeled after the White House, but they are bigger. The steaks are huge. The trucks are super-sized, the highways vast. The whole city and surrounding area is vast. But bigger than any of those things is the Texans’ love for sport. It’s evident everywhere, from team sports to hunting and fishing, this state is full of sportsmen. And don’t forget the big football they are famous for. I will show you a picture of a Texas high school football stadium which seats like 30,000 when I return. It will blow your mind. It’s right next to the 15,000-seat high school basketball arena. This is a serious sports state and guess what? Lacrosse is next!

In true Texas form, I have only one thing left to say and it is to all my new friends down there. Thanks ya’ll!