That’s an awesome pic. Thank you for posting it.
Yes it was. They are taking big hits out of the game. I don’t really even know how to coach physicality anymore because it’s game by game, ref by ref. Sort of why I love the NLL so much.
My youngest is playing FOGO on his travel team, I had no idea how much of game within the game it is. Oldest is being recruited as a D Mid, but he’ll play pole for us this (his Sr) season. He’s being recruited by places like Shenandoah, Fairleigh Dickenson and Drew University.
That's awesome! Good for your sons. The hitting was the fun part of the game. My bro played at UMD and lives near Baltimore, he still plays old man lax, but spends much of his time reffing high level club and HS games in the area. He tells me I would have gotten thrown out of 80% of the games he refs today delivering legal hits of old. That's sad to me.
There is a great story to go with the pic above. I wrote it up a few years ago. Here it is:
It's spring 1989 and I'm playing club ball with Memphis Lacrosse Club. We go to a tourney outside of St. Louis in Fenton, MO, held at the complex where the US National Soccer team trains. Great complex with nice artificial turf fields. We are getting ready to play our first game against New Orleans LC, a decent team, but one we had beaten at their Mardi Gras tourney a few months earlier.
Watching them warm up, I see a guy who looked really familiar to me, but hadn't played for them the last time. He was a big dude 6'4" and maybe 230 lbs. with red hair and a red moustache. It was bothering me that I couldn't place him, so I approached him while he was stretching and told him he looked familiar. He said the same. He told me his name and I instantly placed him. I remembered seeing him play in HS in NY - Nyack HS was a lax hotbed (he was 2 years ahead of me) and had seen him at a few parties thrown by Nyack guys, who I lifeguarded with several years earlier or at the bars in Nyack, I didn't recall which. I asked him what he was up to and he said he was in the Air Force, stationed in Biloxi, MS, and NOLC was the closest lax club to him. I saw he had a short stick and asked him why he wasn't playing in the goal. He said he only played goalie in HS (he was a 1st team all-county goalie) because it was the only place he could start, since the team was so stacked with future D-i and D-II players. I wished him luck and went back to my team.
I tell my teammates about my conversation with the big dude and warn them that he's really good and probably better than most of the guys they come up against. They just kinda pooh poohed my comments and said we beat them before, we'll beat them again. I shook my head and said if you take him lightly, you will be sorry. Again, they were unimpressed. I finally said he's really good, ignore him at your own risk. I got a bunch of sarcastic ok signs in return.
The game starts and Wally is playing attack and lighting us up. It's a really good, really tight, back and forth game. He played a few runs at middie when not on attack, but I never went up against him. My guys were in disbelief at the performance he was having. We end up winning a squeaker, 14-13. I had a good game with 3 goals and 2 assists, but that was nothing compared to the 11 goals and 2 assists Wally put up. It was an incredible performance. A couple of my guys approached me after the game and said, no promises, but next time you say something, we might consider listening. Take home message: On any given topic, never dismiss what people have to say who know more than you do..
