Lacrosse The Thread

[rass]

I wonder if either one of those boys just wanted to dance, or something...

[The Sybian]

Not sure but the star lax married couples are not unique. A few come to mind.
Kellie Amonte Hiller (Northwestern Head Coach ...and yes her brothers are the NHLers) is married to a multiple time National Teamer. She is a HoFer...one their daughters is a state champ wrestler.

Another national team duo is Courtney Martinez Connor (tippy's daughter) and Casey Connor from Maryland.

Who does the lax national team play? Other than Canada, do any other countries play lax?

[Shirley]

Not sure but the star lax married couples are not unique. A few come to mind.
Kellie Amonte Hiller (Northwestern Head Coach ...and yes her brothers are the NHLers) is married to a multiple time National Teamer. She is a HoFer...one their daughters is a state champ wrestler.

Another national team duo is Courtney Martinez Connor (tippy's daughter) and Casey Connor from Maryland.

Who does the lax national team play? Other than Canada, do any other countries play lax?

There were 30 countries at the last world championships (including an indigenous team). But I believe that most of those teams include a lot of US and Canadian ex-pats. But yeah, it's mostly US vs Canada in the end with some Australia sprinkled in.

[wlu_lax6]

Not sure but the star lax married couples are not unique. A few come to mind.
Kellie Amonte Hiller (Northwestern Head Coach ...and yes her brothers are the NHLers) is married to a multiple time National Teamer. She is a HoFer...one their daughters is a state champ wrestler.

Another national team duo is Courtney Martinez Connor (tippy's daughter) and Casey Connor from Maryland.

Who does the lax national team play? Other than Canada, do any other countries play lax?

There were 30 countries at the last world championships (including an indigenous team). But I believe that most of those teams include a lot of US and Canadian ex-pats. But yeah, it's mostly US vs Canada in the end with some Australia sprinkled in.

Not anymore. It is changing and the dynamics of "passport internationals is slowly changing". Also the Olympic format of 6s and box championships are a bit different. But many of the teams are trying not to use Americans (example Uganda, Danes, Czechs, Sweeds, Austria Swiss, New Zealand).

This past year was the first time that teams had regional qualifications instead of everyone going to the world championships.

So yeah USA and Canada are the dominant teams
Haudenosaunee (formerly called Iroquois) beat Australia (and those players are from down under) for 3rd.
England & Japan are mostly from their nations (England may get 1 or 2 players from)
Israel had one guy from Israel and everyone else was Jewish kid from the states. Robert Kraft has put a ton of money into Israel lacrosse. Birthright programs, fields, locker rooms, etc.
Jamaica was a mix but the players from the US have parents who are from/live in Jamaica.
Italy and Ireland are basically New Yorkers
Germany, the Dutch, Sweeds, and Danes, are all mostly from those countries

In the Box format Europe is more competitive. The Czechs are flat out good at that and push the US and Israel.

I am trying to figure out if I can leverage being Jewish to officiate the Box world championships in the future. Not sure I will be in a position for next summer's games in upstate New York but 5 years out could be a potential.

[Shirley]

UVA just signed the #1 player in the 2025 class, Brendan Millon. His older brother, McCabe Millon was also the #1 player in his class and is now a first-year at UVA.

While two brothers each being #1 in the country is amazing enough, I learned that their parents are BOTH in the lacrosse hall of fame. That's a pretty fucking incredible family legacy. I can't think of anything quite like it.

https://247sports.com/college/virginia/ ... 217434907/

McCabe scored 4 goals in the first half of his first game against #8 Michigan. He finished with 5 in a comfortable win. Pretty good start.

[wlu_lax6]

UVA just signed the #1 player in the 2025 class, Brendan Millon. His older brother, McCabe Millon was also the #1 player in his class and is now a first-year at UVA.

While two brothers each being #1 in the country is amazing enough, I learned that their parents are BOTH in the lacrosse hall of fame. That's a pretty fucking incredible family legacy. I can't think of anything quite like it.

https://247sports.com/college/virginia/ ... 217434907/

McCabe scored 4 goals in the first half of his first game against #8 Michigan. He finished with 5 in a comfortable win. Pretty good start.

Two of my good referee friends were on the game yesterday. They fucked up the faceoff at the end of the first quarter.

McCabe's dive goal was great.

UVA scores a goal using a play that the head coach picked.up as an assistant when he coached me. As I was.watching the game yesterday I saw it setup and said here comes Naz (we stole it from Nazareth College) and they ran it beautifully. We scored a ton of goals on that play. The defender on the backside always gets caught ball watching. What is interesting is Michigan's top assistant also was an assistant at W&L for the same coach I played for (and ran that play while he was there).

[Nonlinear FC]

I was actually at the game yesterday. My best buddy (whose wife is my wife's bestie)... their kid is a trainer for MLax.. It was supposed to by 65 degrees so we all decided to go down and see Kylie after the game (she calls my wife her second mom).

Anyways, the weather didn't cooperate, but got to see some amazing goals and some pretty great hits. I don't have some big take away other than: UVA's offense is REALLY difficult to defend. I thought M did a poor job of figuring out the pretty obvious picks and about half a dozen goals game off of pick plays.

M has a decent extra man (score their first 2 goals that way) and they can generate a decent amount of offense straight up. And, even accounting for UVA being a top 3 team... M just needs to be more disciplined on D.

[wlu_lax6]

Im brushes with fame and lacrosse...
Mariano Rivera's kid is a faceoff man for Manhattan
And Maryland has George Stamos (who I have officiated) who is apparently nephew to John

[DSafetyGuy]

Im brushes with fame and lacrosse...
Mariano Rivera's kid is a faceoff man for Manhattan
And Maryland has George Stamos (who I have officiated) who is apparently nephew to John

He was up here for the game on Friday.

[Shirley]

Anyways, the weather didn't cooperate, but got to see some amazing goals and some pretty great hits. I don't have some big take away other than: UVA's offense is REALLY difficult to defend. I thought M did a poor job of figuring out the pretty obvious picks and about half a dozen goals game off of pick plays.

I didn't watch, but I read an article or two and checked the box score. UVA's Connor Shellenberger, who's arguably the best player in the country, only had 2 goals and 0 assists. So they can get a lot better still.

[Nonlinear FC]

Anyways, the weather didn't cooperate, but got to see some amazing goals and some pretty great hits. I don't have some big take away other than: UVA's offense is REALLY difficult to defend. I thought M did a poor job of figuring out the pretty obvious picks and about half a dozen goals game off of pick plays.

I didn't watch, but I read an article or two and checked the box score. UVA's Connor Shellenberger, who's arguably the best player in the country, only had 2 goals and 0 assists. So they can get a lot better still.

MI very obviously had a gameplan of trying to keep him away from goal. Other guys used that attention to get open and light things up.

[wlu_lax6]

Anyways, the weather didn't cooperate, but got to see some amazing goals and some pretty great hits. I don't have some big take away other than: UVA's offense is REALLY difficult to defend. I thought M did a poor job of figuring out the pretty obvious picks and about half a dozen goals game off of pick plays.

I didn't watch, but I read an article or two and checked the box score. UVA's Connor Shellenberger, who's arguably the best player in the country, only had 2 goals and 0 assists. So they can get a lot better still.

Brendan O'Neill is better. Duke Senior who was.world games most outstanding player (and only non-pro on the team). Million will be better too. I would also take Spallina at Syracuse above Schellenberger.

[wlu_lax6]

Anyways, the weather didn't cooperate, but got to see some amazing goals and some pretty great hits. I don't have some big take away other than: UVA's offense is REALLY difficult to defend. I thought M did a poor job of figuring out the pretty obvious picks and about half a dozen goals game off of pick plays.

I didn't watch, but I read an article or two and checked the box score. UVA's Connor Shellenberger, who's arguably the best player in the country, only had 2 goals and 0 assists. So they can get a lot better still.

Brendan O'Neill is better. Duke Senior who was.world games most outstanding player (and only non-pro on the team). Million will be better too. I would also take Spallina at Syracuse above Schellenberger.

O'Neill

[wlu_lax6]

Watched a bunch of the Pro league 6s that ESPN family was broadcasting. This will be the Olympic version of the sport for L.A. The game feels more like basketball than field lacrosse, but getting more enjoyable to watch. I think as the big brain coaches in the sport get their heads around the game it will feel less like a pick up hoops game and more like a pro sport. This is year 2 and saw teams run some interesting offenses and a few different defensive concepts (one team ran a 3-2 zone as they got a bit tired). What is really interesting is this version of the sport highly values the short stick defensive midfielder. You need at least 4 really good ones on your 12 man roster. Especially with some of the big body offensive players (Ricky Miezan Stanford Linebacker/captain who did a 5th year playing lacrosse for UVA was having a good tournament until he pulled a hammy. Similar from some of the other D1 football sized lacrosse players). Normally in field you run 2 or 3 of them and the long stick would play the big matchup. Also a hot goalie will make all the difference in the world.

[Nonlinear FC]

Well, Hopkins is pretty good this year, so I'm following things a bit closer.

Hopkins went down to Charlottesville and beat the Hoos on Saturday. Then Maryland out to South Bend and got worked by the Irish. Overall, the ACC is losing a ton of games they usually don't (Duke and Cuse also lost recently.)

Still a long way to go, but seems like the guys that everyone was saying would walk away with things (UVa, Duke and MD) aren't exactly locks. Denver is currently #1 (having beaten Hopkins and Cornell).

[wlu_lax6]

JHU looked very good against UVA. Did the work at the faceoff x and played good D. Smith is the best d-man I have seen this year (better than #1 at UMD). The Jays are stacked on office. They are like nintendo ice hockey. They can play big power guys on offense or fast little guys. They have not blown anyone good out. So the Cuse game (neutral site) will be interesting.

Still early but the way to look at this season is groupings. Yeah the 5 ACC schools all lost over the week,but none were big upsets. Army is very good (OT win over Cuse), Princeton is very good, Penn is good. UNC is not bad but not in the top tier. Cuse are still figuring themselves out. But take Spallina out is key. He has crushed the weak teams but disappeared against Army. I am guessing exciting April and May games between the powerhouses.

Hopkins replacing Petro is turning out well. Petro has been below average at Cuse and UNC (but one of his kid is a very good attackman).

[Nonlinear FC]

And to be completely fair to UVa, not having their top faceoff guy played a major factor on Saturday. They just couldn't get anything going momentum-wise, and when they did start to get hot the Jays' keeper shut them down. He was incredible in the 2nd half.

[Shirley]

And to be completely fair to UVa, not having their top faceoff guy played a major factor on Saturday. They just couldn't get anything going momentum-wise, and when they did start to get hot the Jays' keeper shut them down. He was incredible in the 2nd half.

I didn't see the game, but that's what I got from UVA lax Twitter. Really missed the FO dude. That's such a huge deal in college lacrosse. UVA has a very potent offense, so you have to deny them the ball to win and it sounds like that's what the Blue Jays did.

[wlu_lax6]

And to be completely fair to UVa, not having their top faceoff guy played a major factor on Saturday. They just couldn't get anything going momentum-wise, and when they did start to get hot the Jays' keeper shut them down. He was incredible in the 2nd half.

Chase's brother TD is one of the game's best face off men.

[Nonlinear FC]

I think Quint said the Navy transfer was over 65 percent at the X... That's pretty crazy.

[Nonlinear FC]

Besides the aforementioned JHU-Cuse game, Denver hosts #12 Yale.

Cornell vs. Penn State is another good game.

[wlu_lax6]

So a few nights ago I officiated a game between a very good private school team and Vandermont from "Texas". And I put Texas in quotes because the team was actually a home school team with 2 kids from Texas, 14 or so from Ontario, 2 from Maryland, 5 from New York, and such. A number of them were post grad kids. This team comes together, for a period of time, practice and plays and then go home for a few weeks and get back together. They were on a 15-day trip beating up on Shirley's high school before hitting DC. Very good team..but man the idea of high school teams like this seems really weird. Stranger than the basketball hoop factories we have seen.

Of course the team is coached by
John Grant Jr.- Delaware star, PLL, NLL, All World, Leading professional goal scorer (I think Rabil may have passed him his last year), coached for a year at JHU (coached at Air Force)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grant_Jr.
Jeremy Thompson - Syracuse, PLL, NLL, All World, Nike endorsed, lacrosse star (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Th ... (lacrosse)) May not be Lyle Thompson but pretty phenomenal.
Steve Beville- 17 year head coach of D3 Cortland (a few national championships)

[wlu_lax6]

Navy v. Hopkins starts late tonight because as Navy was leaving the academy to go to Homewood, a car hit the bus. Then as the replacement bus was driving them to Baltimore it went car-bbq style and started smoking.

[Nonlinear FC]

Well, they still managed to win that game in OT.

Hopkins with the hidden ball trick against Rutgers.

[wlu_lax6]

Hey you don't speak the language, welcome to this new school, how about this crazy sport that will make no sense...love it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... -brothers/

[Shirley]

Hey you don't speak the language, welcome to this new school, how about this crazy sport that will make no sense...love it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... -brothers/

That's a great story. And kudos to those kids. That takes a lot of guts. All of that, actually.

[Nonlinear FC]

(Cool story, but... kind of weird they didn't gravitate to the soccer team.)

[wlu_lax6]

(Cool story, but... kind of weird they didn't gravitate to the soccer team.)

Was thinking that and then realized that maybe the soccer team was too good. My college roommate is a teacher in Rockland Co. Huge baseball guy. No interest in soccer when we were roommates. Huge immigrant community at his school, but most of his students were not strong enough to make JV or Varsity and the club programs are perceived as too $$$$$. So he started a big after school league. Super passionate about it.

[wlu_lax6]

Also just looked up the school's record. I just went in assuming very weak, but while not good they are not terrible. 3-6 and against some very good teams, the team had respectable losses.