Lacrosse on TV – Watching is a great learning opportunity!

In addition to practicing and playing, a great way to learn the sport of lacrosse is by watching top-notch teams and players.  I highly recommend all players watch as much lacrosse – either live or on TV – as possible.   If you have Verizon FiOS as your cable tv provider you should have access to the ESPNU channel. 

ESPNU and US Lacrosse announced today (1/26/10) that the sports network will air the U.S. men’s national lacrosse team vs. Duke, and the U.S. women’s national team vs. Duke games, part of the 2010 Champion Challenge at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.  The U.S. men’s national team game will air on Jan. 31 (this coming Sunday) at 10 p.m. with an encore presentation on Feb. 2 at 4 p.m.  The U.S. women’s national team game will air on Feb. 1 at 12 a.m. with a re-air on Feb. 2 at 2 p.m.

Additionally, ESPNU recently announced that the network will lead ESPN’s college lacrosse coverage with more games than ever before in 2010, including 40 men’s and women’s regular-season contests combined, in addition to one live game each on ESPN2 and ESPN360.com.  The networks will televise 59 games overall, including the two Champion Challenge games, 42 regular-season contests (up from 30 in 2009) and 15 NCAA Tournament games across ESPNU, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN360.com.  A complete list of the television schedule of games can be accessed from this blog via the page listed at the top of this blog entitled “ESPNU 2010 NCAA Lax TV Schedule”.

Try to have your boys watch as many games as possible.  This will allow them to learn and to bring questions to practice, etc.

– Coach B

Turning upwards…

After 2 losses over the last couple of weeks we turned ourselves around this past Friday and fought to a 7-7 tie against Millburn.  The boys passed the ball substantially more than they had in past weeks and the increased passing created more scoring opportunities.  Lets continue this and build on it for the coming week’s game.

Our game this Friday (1/25) is vs. Highlands.  Gametime is 6pm and we are playing on Field 2 (the field on which we beat Summit!).  Please have your player at ISP by 5:30pm.

This week’s game is our last “regular season” winter game.  After this weekend the league will rank all the teams based on their records and seed them for the playoffs, which begin on Friday February 5th.  Once I have the playoff schedule I will e-mail all of you and also post it here.

See you on the field!  Lets finish out the season with a big WIN!!

– Coach B

Another bump in the road….

We had another tough game this past Friday vs. Rock Den and unfortunately came out on the losing end by a score of 6-3.  On a positive note, the team received its first goal ever from Cole Herrigel, who has only just started playing lacrosse this Winter.  Cole is proof positive that if you keep working hard on your game, positive things will happen.  Great job Cole.  Keep it up!

A problem I’m seeing in the games is the inability (refusal?) of the players to pass the ball.  This is not how lacrosse is played.  The ball must be moved around the perimeter to allow a middie or attackman to dodge and find an opening to receive a pass for a shot on the goal.   I refer you all to Rule 3 of the “11 Commandments of Lacrosse” which can be accessed from the link at the top of this page. 

I’m confident we can turn things back around and start our winning ways again.   This week’s game is vs. Millburn.  Game time is 5pm on Field 1.  Please have your boys at ISP by 4:30.  Since we are the first game of the evening if the boys get there early we can get some extra time to take the field and loosen up.  Everyone should stay positive and keep their heads up.  We are a good team and this week we will show it.

 See you on the field.

 – Coach B

Small setback but moving on….

We had a tough loss on Friday night vs Long Valley.  I think the 2 weeks off for the holidays hurt us a bit but its nothing that can’t be rectified in our next game.  Keep in mind that these boys take the field each week with no practices and no set game plan.  Nevertheless, they all give it their best.  Whether we win or lose, the experience of playing this winter will transfer very well into the formal spring season.   I promise!  I don’t want any player getting discouraged by what goes on during this winter season.

Our game this Friday (1/15) is at 6pm vs Rock-Den on Field 1.  Please have your players at ISP by 5:30pm.  Don’t forget to take Friday evening traffic into your travel plan.

See you on the field!

– Coach B

Back to Lax 2010

Hope everyone had a great holiday and a happy new year.  Back to lax now.  Our game this Friday (1/8) is at 10pm (!!) vs Long Valley on Field 1.  Please arrive by 9:30pm for pre-game chat, warm-ups, etc. 

See you on the field.

– Coach B