Tourney

We had a great time at the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament in Baltimore on Memorial Day weekend. Although all five of the games I saw were entertaining, I thought one of the best was the women's division I final between Maryland and Northwestern. We got there a little bit late (no exit sign for TSU on the Baltimore Beltway?) and Northwestern was up 8-3. After a lot of back and forth with plenty of fast breaks and not too much of the stalling that plagues the women's game, Maryland ended up winning 13-11.

Delivery

We got our NCAA Lacrosse Final Four tickets in the mail this week and I'm getting pretty excited for the tournament. Although it isn't quite official yet, it looks like Virginia will at least get to the second round. It doesn't exactly seem fair that they have to play at Stony Brook next weekend. Shouldn't the lower seed be at home?

Last Practice

We had our last lacrosse practice of the year tonight. It was a fairly nice evening but a unremarkable practice. Some ground balls, some catch and shoot, some scrimmage. Last game tomorrow!

p.s. my legs are pretty sore from that hike yesterday.

Saturday

Big day yesterday. We kicked if off with a 9:00 AM lacrosse game in Shawsville for the U7 boys. It really wasn't much of a game and I don't think the other team scored a goal. But, it was fun for them to get out there and get a game in. There were a couple of funny things in the game. My favorite was when the ball was down at our offensive end for a while and a breakout emerged going the other way. On the other end, all of the attack and defense were sitting in the crease having a chat. Jack scored a Hat Trick and actually tried to switch to his left hand with the ball. He tripped and fell down while trying that move, but he played well.

When we got back, I went for a ride up on Yellow Mountain Road and down along the Greenway. They've opened the bridge to Wasena park, so we have the full five or so miles along the river available again. It's good to have a spot to take a flat, easy ride once in a while.

Lastly, we had the Gallop for the Greenways in the late afternoon. It was a very windy day which kept it cool. I helped pace Sophie and she ran her personal best 5k and Kate got on the podium as well and we took home a bunch of glasses as our prize. Since we have about a dozen Gallop glasses in the cupboard, hopefully they will change the prize next year.

Close One

A great game tonight at Reserve Ave vs. Salem. It was a pretty close affair all the way with the teams being within a goal or two of each other for the entire 40 minutes. I was the roster guy tonight, but I was using my new spreadsheet system that takes all of the guess work out of the substitutions so I was able to watch a little bit more of the game than I have been able to in the past.

We played ground balls much better tonight than we did on Monday. I think they may have had a slight edge in total, but it was much closer and it showed on the offense. We got a lot of scoring off of good ground ball work. One goal in particular was impressive. Two of our better players hooked up on a 30 yard pass over the defense for an easy tally after a great ground ball grab near our restraining line. Many of the others were the usual solo drives to the cage, but I could see that the light bulb has gone on and they were actually looking for each other when moving the ball up the field - even setting the ball up behind the goal a couple of times. Even better than that, they were clearing out of the front of the goal and opening up some space for shooting and passing. It didn't always work and was uneven, but you could see the beginnings of a team offense.

We played tenacious defense as well. Many of the girls don't like to go in on defense but they did a very good job for the most part. There were a couple of breakdowns leading to Salem goals but it wasn't for lack of effort. One thing that really helped us was that the ref was properly calling the three second rule for the turnover if the defender was in good position. We got a number of these calls in some crucial spots.*

The goal tending was solid and we had a handful of saves. The one I remember most was towards the end of the game to preserve our one goal lead with maybe 30 seconds left. Right after that save, we got the ground ball and started to advance the ball up the field. However, one of their best players was in great defensive position and she got the three second turn over with maybe 10 seconds left right at our restraining line. The horn blew just as she was closing into shooting range and we won 8-7.

My favorite thing about this game was that we got some solid contributions from many of the first year players. The first year of lacrosse is tough and it's great to see players progress over the course of the year. Too bad there is only one more game to go...

* As an aside, there are two different "three second rules". The first is that no defensive player can be within the 8m arc for longer than 3 seconds unless she is within a stick's length from an offensive player. The other "three second rule", which is specifically for youth players (who aren't allowed stick checking) states that if an offensive player holds her stick in a 'checkable position' as defined by full checking rules for longer than 3 seconds, she will lose possession of the ball. This is designed to reward defensive players for their play

Practice

Tough practice tonight. It was hot and the girls just weren't focused tonight. Lots of weak passing and catching. On the plus side, they did a much better job running through ground balls. I'll take any positive I can get. We've got another game vs. Salem tomorrow so we are going to need all hands on deck to keep our record clean.

Purple vs. Maroon

We had a great game with Salem tonight down at Reserve Ave. It ended in a 9-9 tie and was a well played, back and forth game the whole time. I don't think either team led by more than 2 goals at any point. We got killed on the ground balls (their team knew how to pick 'em) and played very uneven defense, but had enough offense to keep it close. Not to say our offense was clicking, but we seemed to be able to muster a goal when it was needed.

The last 3 minutes were a lot of fun. We were down by one and lost the draw. But, some good defense got the ball back and we scored a fast break goal to knot the score.  Salem called a timeout with about 2 minutes left to talk it over and give their players a break (we had numbers and it was a hot night). Again, they won the draw (gotta get those ground balls) and took it down the field. We played really great defense and kept on the ball tight when it got in close. They had a few opportunities but couldn't convert. Finally, our goalie stuffed a shot from just outside the crease and we got a clear with maybe 20 seconds left. We started moving the ball down the field on foot and with the clock headed towards zero, heaved the ball down the field towards our attacking end. One of our players had a good run at it but the ground ball was contested by their defenders and we couldn't come up with it. The horn blew and that was that. No OT tonight.

A couple of observations of things we need to improve: throwing and catching (you can't pass the ball if people don't make accurate passes that are caught by the other person), ground balls (too many misses on wide open opportunities that then went the other way) and proper defense (there were too many people floating around the arc, we got called for one or two three second calls - it could have been half a dozen).

Wednesday Night Lacrosse

We had another game against Hidden Valley this evening. It was a gorgeous evening - cool and a bit breezy with a lot of sun. We had an excellent turnout with about 25 girls out there. Unfortunately, Hidden Valley didn't have their best players so it was rather one-sided. I was the roster manager tonight, so I didn't get to see much of the game because I was focused on making sure we got everyone in the rotation. From what I saw, we played well and won. I don't know exactly what the final score was but I think it was something like 8-5. 


 

I did get my fill of watching a game as the guest coach for the middle school team (the regular coach was out of town on business). Most of them were on our elementary school team over the past few years, so we knew each other. We had one sub and everyone understood what positions they liked and were good at. People that don't like to run understand that they don't want to play midfield and those that are good defenders play defense. I shouted a bit and gave some basic instruction but for the most part, I was just a bystander. They played very well on both ends and won 8-3 with the three Hidden Valley tallies coming in the second half when the outcome was not in doubt (although one of their goals was a pretty sweet backhanded shot right at the end of the game). It was great fun to see some of my old players again. Hopefully, I'll see them again next year.

Tix

I bought our tickets to the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Finals today from Ticketbastard (why isn't there an anti-trust case against those guys?) We are going to be at the field level in the end zone. Not as good as I would have liked, but it'll be fun.

On The Road

A good game down in Franklin County tonight. The game was at Waid Park which is quite beautiful but about 45 minutes away from our house. I don't usually depend on the Garmin but it was definitely a plus this evening. Due to the distance and dicey weather (it was raining off and on all afternoon), I thought we would have a small turn out, but we had about 20 girls out there. It turned out to be a fairly nice evening after all.

We won the game 20-15. It seemed like we played a solid hour and half out there. I guess the home team was stopping the clock on every whistle. Anyway, Franklin County was much improved from the last time we played them. Across the board, I think their players improved and a few of them have turned the corner into very solid stick handlers. But they really weren't a match for our athleticism up and down the lineup.

A couple things were driving me crazy out there. First, our girls have no concept of how to clear out the front of the goal when we are on offense. If you just hang around in there, the defense can as well so it limits the room you have to maneuver. Second, too many girls really don't know how to play defense. Don't run at people, get good position and run with them. You can't just hang around in the arc waiting for something to happen and we gave up at least 3 goals on 3 second violations. Third, ground balls are still staying down too long and we aren't good enough at getting them out of a pile. We definitely lost the ground ball battle tonight.

On the plus side, the girls are keeping their heads up when the run down the field with the ball and there were a couple of nice assists. Open field ground balls were handled well with most everyone running through them. The goalie play was solid and clears were to the sidelines. Plus, everyone hustled and put in a good effort. Finally, and most importantly, I think they had fun.

First

We had our first boys lacrosse game today. It was a lot of fun. Our team looked relatively good and we won 9-1 (or so). Watching a bunch of five and six year old boys running around with sticks is interesting - it sort of devolves into a face-off followed by a big group around the ball and one kid breaking out and running down the field to score. The goalies are just about irrelevant (I saw one save all day) and all the shots are right from the crease. Not exactly the same game you see on ESPNU.

Perfect

One of the advantages of having a large lacrosse team is that we can run full field scrimmage at practice. This is a lot of fun for the team and also gives them a little bit more playing experience so they can learn the rules (offsides, checking, cover, etc.) Last night, we had 24 at practice, so it worked out perfectly. Nice.

We've got four days off until our next game on Monday. A nice break but the season is so short, I feel like we are missing out.

Victory

We had another game against Hidden Valley last night at Green Hill Park. That is one lovely place. It is also at the other end of the valley and takes a while to get to from the Bubble. I arrived a couple of minutes later than I would have liked and had to jump right in to roster mania.

The game went well. From the little of the game I watched, I saw some nice plays and a lot more passing than we featured in previous games. Our goal-tending was also much improved as the goalies now have a little more action under their belts and look like they know what they are doing now. I think HV was a little flat and didn't seem as energetic as the last time we played them, but they are still a good team with a lot of offensive firepower. We won 14-10.

I was on roster duty and I thought I was going to loose it. Maybe it had something to do with getting over there after a fairly busy day in the office, but I was definitely on edge about all of the people wanting to play wing (why girls who don't like to run want to go into a position that is well suited for a Tarahumara is beyond me). I tried to be equitable and we got some goals from a bunch of different people, so I think it worked out well.

It's a beautiful day - let's play two!

We had a girls lacrosse double-header yesterday. First, there was a game with the new Franklin County team in the morning at Reserve Ave. They had some very tall players but our girls were more skillful and much quicker. We won 9-1.

Actually, I didn't see much of the game because I was the roster manager. We had 7 substitutes and try to get everyone equal playing time so there is a lot of substitution. You have to write down which players are where and tell the substitutes where they are going and who they are going in for (often with a brief explanation of the position). Initially, there was a great deal of mild complaining about positions ("Can I play center? I don't want to play defense. Can I play goalie?") but that settled down as the game progressed. That is either an indicator that they thought the positioning was fair or they saw the scowl on my face when they would ask for a position change after I'd spent 5 minutes trying to line them up in positions they hadn't played yet. It was probably the scowl.

I saw a couple of good plays: a nice give and go around the goal (not sure if it was intentional, but it worked), a few good entry passes from the midfield and an outside shot or two. Otherwise, I was buried in paperwork.

The second game was more competitive. We played at Hidden Valley and they had some very good players. We won 15-10 but it would have been much closer had they not had two of their better players leave for a soccer game at half (get your priorities straight!)

This time, CP took on the administrative burden of running the roster and I coached the sidelines. It was very close through the first half. I think the biggest lead by either side was 2 goals and the action was back and forth. They had one player in particular that we just could not stop. She was big and had good speed. The only weakness she had was that she really couldn't go left (very common at this age). I think she hung 7-8 goals on us until I put one of our quicker players on her (don't let her get the ball and, if she does, play her right hand). That settled things down and we got in a better groove on offense (why do girls think it's a good idea to shoot right at the goalie?)

We had a couple of plays I remember: an assist from defense to offense (a 30-yard pass right on the money), a score from defense on a 80 yard run (that might be the ticket to getting them to like the position more - if you get a free position, take it all the way and we'll hold a wing back) and a sweet top corner shot from a free position on the 8m arc (of course, I was saying shoot it low - what do I know?)

The ref was calling this game tight (but fair) and we got quite a few checking penalties (this is a no-check age group). I'm OK if we get a checking penalty from a good defensive position because it means you are trying to get the ball and got overzealous but there were a few that were just hacks and that shouldn't be happening.

We'll see Hidden Valley again on Monday and have a short practice on their field followed by a rematch. We need to work on a couple of things (good defensive position, spreading out on offense, and, of course, ground balls) and a practice will get us a chance to review some things before another game.

5%

Now we are 5% through the MLB season. The Orioles have one victory and eight losses. I'm going to look at this in the best possible light - at least now I don't feel like I need to pay attention to this team. Plus, it's lacrosse season. So, I've got stuff to keep me occupied.

Spreading

Driving by Palo Alto High School the other day and what did I spy with my little eye but ground ball drills. Lacrosse is spreading like a weed.

Chilly

Good practice last night. A windy early spring day with a bit of rain falling. Just enough to wake you up but no so much that you get wet. Almost perfect lacrosse weather (another few degrees would have been nice).

We split 'em up into two teams. There weren't any complaints and we only have to shuffle one kid that I know about. So, that's good.

Tomorrow, we need to find a goalie (or two) and start working on some game situations: clears and fast breaks. We'll worry about the settled offense later. For now, it is run and gun time!

Done

It didn't take long for my NCAA hoops bracket to collapse into disaster. I was riding high on Saturday morning (still in first) only to end the weekend in the middle of the pack. It would have helped a bit if Maryland and Pittsburgh had won, but not to be.

Next bracket: NCAA lacrosse tourney. UVA all the way!

Growing

Despite all of the hype about the NCAA basketball tourney (and it has been very interesting this year), lacrosse is the sport that is making waves. It's nice to see the MSM writing articles about lacrosse. You wouldn't have seen this 10 years ago.

Boys Will Be

Yesterday morning, I took Jack and a friend over to their lacrosse practice. We got them all armored up and sent them out there. Sophie and I took a bucket of balls and did some shooting over on the next field and I'd occasionally take a look over to see what was going on over there.

Mayhem. I thought it was tough to have a big group (30+) of elementary aged girls out there, but a similar sized group of slightly younger boys (U9) seems to degenerate into some kind of all vs. all melee. It took all the efforts of 4 grown men to keep a semblance of organization.

The kids have a great time and I'm grateful to the coaches for keeping the herd in line. Plus, I could see signs of hope on the next field over where the U11 boys were practicing. That looked more like lacrosse and less like WWE.