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Serving the scholastic field hockey and lacrosse community since 1998Archive for March, 2012
March 31, 2012 — The “other” big-city classic
Today’s Game of the Day
Baldwinsville (N.Y.) at Camillus West Genesee (N.Y.)
Ten months ago, West Genesee ended Baldwinsville’s season in the state tournament. The Bees have had all this time to think about any mistakes they felt they made in that 11-10 defeat. This rematch should be incredible.
Promoters and sponsors in the game of lacrosse have been putting together doubleheaders and even tripleheaders in large cities where people have come to see some of the great teams of the day.
Today, in Foxboro, Mass., a women’s event is being staged. At noon today, it’s Harvard against Syracuse. At 3 p.m., it is Ohio State meeting Northwestern.
It is a doubleheader which has the current No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the current national polling. All four teams this year are decent; Harvard is perhaps a goal or two short of having having a won-loss record matching No. 2 Syracuse.
While the Crimson may be the closest institution to Foxboro, the “host” of the occasion is Ohio State. That’s because of the presence of Amanda Belichick on the OSU sideline. Despite the fact that OSU head coach Alex Venechanos and assistant Cristy Finch have eight NCAA championships between them, Amanda Belichick brings a different dynamic to the coaching box.
“I think one of the most important things I’ve learned from my father is being able to watch his work ethic and the way he prepares for opponents and prepares his team and knowing at the end of the day, no one can do the work for you, and what you do and what you put into it is what will show up on gameday,” she told The Boston Herald yesterday. “Hopefully, as coaches, it’s our job to prepare our teams and to lead them, and to put them in the best position possible to succeed.”
One of the sidebars of the Bill Belichick coaching era in the National Football League is that, while he has ascended the pantheon of coaching greats in winning three Super Bowls, he is frequently drawn into conversations about lacrosse, especially in conference calls with NFL beat reporters from Baltimore.
Just goes to show how deeply ingrained the sport is in people’s lives.
March 30, 2012 — The unintended consequences
Today’s Game of the Day
San Ramon California (Calif.) at Pleasanton Foothill (Calif.)
Both California and Foothill are in the thick of the tournament hunts this year. Neither team has lost by more than two goals all season, and this one should be a true test.
This fall, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association will have all girls’ high school soccer played in the same season — coinciding with the fall field hockey season.
As such, one unintended consequence is that some current field hockey players are not going to have a high-school team to play for next year, reports Stefanie Loh of the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
It might be a good idea to keep an eye on participation by small public schools, not just private academies like the institutions in the Commonwealth Christian Athletic Conference.
March 29, 2012 — The importance of being excellent
Today’s Game of the Day
Silver Spring Montgomery Blair (Md.) at Silver Spring Northwood (Md.)
Blair is one of the surprise teams of the 2012 season. The Blazers are 2-1, including a win over Bethesda-Chevy Chase (Md.). Blair makes the two-mile trek up Route 193 to meet their neighborhood rival.
When I was a teenager, I often listened with rapt attention to news stories about how new insights and discoveries about everything from social behavior to scientific phenomena could be applied to our everyday existence.
Some of these organizations — “think tanks,” they are often called — stuck in my mind and laid the framework for what I wanted to do in later life.
Yesterday, I listened to a gentleman representing one of these organizations at a brunch. He brought up the concept of excellence and the need to put forth an idea not only forthrightly, but correctly.
“Ideas,” the august man with glasses said to the room, “often don’t come into fruition for 10 or 15 years. So, when you do that report or come up with that finding, and it becomes the basis for a decision 15 years from now, it had better be excellent.”
I’d thought of that on many occasions as ideas put forth over the years have become the basis for our democracy, our legal system, our social fabric.
And, such has been the case with the health care reform debate that has been in the Supreme Court of the United States this week.
Reformation of health care from a private to a public system has had its protagonists as early as 1854, when a bill to nationalize indigent in asylums was present to President Franklin Pierce, only for it to be vetoed.
And since the start of the New Deal, countless reports have been written about how to fix the health care system in the U.S. have been authored.
And yet, the biggest authoring job in the history of health care is going to be done starting today, as nine justices will likely write up a number of opinions which will be cobbled together in a decision that will affect each and every one of us.
Let’s hope this decision is an excellent one.
March 28, 2012 — A hopeful story brings up an enormous dilemma
Today’s Game of the Day
Lewes Cape Henlopen (Del.) at Wilmington Ursuline (Del.)
The defending Delaware state champions get an early test against a school which has made a name for itself in women’s sports — the alma mater of superstar basketball player Elena Delle Donne. What might she have done with a lacrosse stick in her hands?
Today, the Sports Illustrated website published this story on veteran U.S. field hockey forward Keli Smith, who was part of perhaps the greatest front line in the history of NCAA Division I field hockey when she joined Carla Tagliente and Dina Rizzo on Maryland’s attack.
Smith is trying to make the 2012 Olympic team after having her second child, but I think it is going to be a difficult task. Including Smith in the rotation at forward will mean taking somebody out — somebody who was on the roster as the U.S. beat Argentina in Guadalajara last October.
That’s going to be very, very difficult.
March 27, 2012 — The progress of some, but so much to go
Today’s Game of the Day
Plafftown Ronald Reagan (N.C.) at Winston-Salem R.J. Reynolds (N.C.)
Reynolds sent a message to most of the rest of the state when it beat Charlotte (N.C.) Latin on March 1 to open its season, and the Demons have gone 6-0 to begin the season. Reagan has won its last three.
On this day in 1973, Marlon Brando rejected the Academy Award for Best Actor for the movie The Godfather. Instead, Sacheen Littlefeather was sent to the lectern to deliver an address on the way that Native Americans were portrayed in movies.
Today, we’re only about 50 days out from the world premiere of the movie Crooked Arrows, which follows a private-school boys’ lacrosse team on a journey from failure to success thanks to the success of its protagonists, including several members of the team who are Native Americans.
It’s a pretty big step, but in comparison to the lack of social progress amongst some segments of our population as exemplified by events over the past few days, it’s only a start.
March 26, 2012 — One you might expect, the other not as much
Today’s Game of the Day
St. Louis Lafayette (Mo.) at St. Louis Cor Jesu (Mo.)
On May 14th of last year, Lafayette ended Cor Jesu’s season in the postseason. This should be an absolute barnburner as the Chargers seek revenge in yet another game which would also be a dream matchup on the hockey field.
As of the end of play yesterday, who are the two remaining undefeated teams in Division I women’s lacrosse?
And how many of you would have expected Notre Dame, a team with a first-year head coach replacing a long-time stalwart, as one of the two?
Nope, I didn’t, either.
The Irish didn’t arrive at their 7-0 record through blind luck; indeed, they have the third-highest RPI ratings in the latest computer model. But the Domers are all they way down in 24th when it comes to strength of schedule.
This with Georgetown, Syracuse, and what should be an eye-popping showdown on April 24th against that other unbeaten team, Northwestern.
I can’t wait to see how that one turns out.
March 25, 2012 — Bert Sugar, 1937-2012
One of the things I’ve missed about life writing for the dailies is the interaction of the characters within the business. Mid-evenings after work would involve going to a tavern across the street from the county courthouse for these incredibly spicy and sweet wings served with a watermelon slice. There would also be lots of beer, cigarettes, and conversation about the events of the day.
Bert Sugar, the longtime boxing writer, likely took in hundreds of such conversations over the course of his life.
Here are some of his own words about the way sportswriting used to be, as told to the website BigThink.com:
“We used to sit at bars and tell stories; Toots Shor’s, for example, in New York. And we would tell—drink, yes, tell stories, yes, yes and yes. And the young kids, at which point I was one, would listen to the old timers. Now, the kids don’t go to the bars, I don’t care if they drink, have a Coke, but hear the stories. Don’t go up to your room to figure out on your laptop how many free flyer miles you have, sit and hear what it is you’re doing so you have a reference value.”
The “reference value” is a historical perspective.
For example, when you look at the history of the U.S. women’s national field hockey team over the last 90 years, Great Britain plays an enormous role. Constance Applebee, who introduced the game to Radcliffe College in 1901, was from Britain.
The first women’s national team under the aegis of Applebee’s new creation, the United States Field Hockey Association, traveled to England for its first tour in 1923. In 1962, the American team played at Wembley Stadium in front of nearly 60,000 people — one of the largest crowds ever to see a women’s sports event to that point in history (Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain, remember, hadn’t been born yet). And now, the U.S. heads back to London again — nearly 90 years after their first voyage.
It’s why this site has had the unique context and perspective that you’ve come to expect, and which is sorely going to be lacking in packaged media from the Olympics this summer.
Bert Sugar has been a role model of mine for years, and it’s one reason why I have worn broad-brimmed hats to assignments — aside from the fact that they are pretty good for shading one’s eyes.
March 24, 2012 — Lacrosse HOF women’s ballot has three obvious choices
Today’s Game of the Day
Radnor Archbishop Carroll (Pa.) at Glen Mills Garnet Valley (Pa.)
Garnet Valley, last year’s PIAA champions, will take on the perennial Catholic League powerhouse Carroll.
This past week, the 24 finalists for induction into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame were announced. There are 12 men and 12 women total, and a maximum of four individuals per gender can be voted into the Hall of Fame in any one year.
This year’s ballot has a number of players who have truly transformed the game. For me, three people on this ballot jump off the page immediately:
Jen Adams — Quite simply, the greatest female lacrosse player who ever walked the face of the earth.
Kelly Amonte Hiller — Once dubbed “The Michael Jordan of women’s lacrosse,” she became much, much more than that as a World Cup veteran and as head coach at Northwestern
Cindy Timchal — The first women’s lacrosse coach ever to attain 400 victories
There are three others that are also highly deserving of Hall-of-Fame election:
Quinn Carney — One of the University of Maryland’s all-time leading scorers, she played both benefactor and beneficiary of the play of Adams
Missy Foote — Won five NCAA Division III national championships at Middlebury, and went to the Final Four every year from 1994 to 2007.
Carin Peterson — Has a national championship at Maryland and a World Cup appearance in 1993, and has coached Severna Park (Md.) to eight state championships
The voting committee can’t go wrong with any of them, certainly, and the results of the voting will be revealed around the Memorial Day weekend.
March 23, 2012 — A pivotal year for Pennsylvania
Today’s Game of the Day
Downingtown (Pa.) East at Radnor (Pa.)
One year ago, Downingtown East made a deep run in the postseason, losing at the last hurdle against Glen Mills Garnet Valley (Pa.). The Cougars look to make another run at the PIAA title starting with an always-tough Radnor team which won the 2010 PIAA final.
It’s appropriate that today’s Game of the Day is from the state of Pennsylvania, a state which now has exactly 200 girls’ scholastic lacrosse teams, up from 159 five years ago.
The landscape of girls’ scholastic sports has, of course, changed dramatically with the move of many girls’ soccer seasons to the fall.
While the move has long-term ramifications for field hockey, the move has resulted in an amazing expansion of the sport in the central and northeast parts of the state. Indeed, there are a number of lacrosse games schedule for this spring which, if they were on the hockey pitch, would be dream contests, such as Millersville Penn Manor (Pa.) against Landisville Hempfield (Pa.) on March 3rd, and Kingstown Wyoming Seminary (Pa.) against Emmaus (Pa.) on April 7th.
But this is a different game entirely, even though you might have some carryover from field hockey players who are on the lacrosse squad.
Overall, I think this is going to be a transfigurative year for teams in the Keystone State, one which may see the level of play begin to rise to meet its neighbors in Maryland and New York. But I don’t think it’s going to be just one team aspiring to get to the level of a McDonogh, a Guilderland, a Severna Park, or a Garden City. It could be a cluster of teams from small communities willing to commit themselves to offseason conditioning and giving young kids a stick at an early age.
As Pennsylvania’s public-school season starts today, how many out-of-state games its schools win this year.
March 22, 2012 — A draconian hammer
Today’s Game of the Day
Greenwood Village Cherry Creek (Colo.) at Colorado Springs Air Academy (Colo.)
Last year, Cherry Creek ended the Kadets’ season in the state final by a score of 16-11. Both teams have been throwing in goals in bunches thus far in 2012; this should be fun to watch.
Yesterday, the National Football League handed down some of the harchest administrative penalties in any athletic or sporting competition anywhere, at any time, for the New Orleans Saints’ participation in a program that offered cash rewards for big plays, including ones that rendered opponents too injured to continue playing.
The concept of rewarding a member of a team for a good play has been around for generations. The rewards could be the favor of the coach to get more playing time, or it could be something like the helmet sticker — buckeye stickers for Ohio State, tomahawks for Florida State.
It has spread around to many sports — getting a game ball, getting a starting position after working hard in practice the previous week.
In professional football, the cash “bounty” has been around for years. It first surfaced in a game in 1989, when accusations of money being paid to incapacitate opponents being made by Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson.
But there has been a recent investigation into the behavior of the Saints the last three seasons. What caught the league’s attention was the number of roughing-the-passer and unnecessary roughness penalties that the team was getting called for.
It was a system that the team denied ever existed, which I’m sure is going to be the NFL’s justification for its suspensions — an indefinite (and possibly lifetime) suspension of assistant coach Gregg Williams, a year’s suspension for head coach Sean Payton, a half-year suspension for general manager Mickey Loomis, and a six-game suspension for assistant coach Joe Vitt.
Behind the suspension, I think, is also a great fear that any weakness on the part of the NFL in handing out punishment is going to affect the several lawsuits seeking damages as the result of concussions and other football-related illnesses and injuries over the years.
Now, at least 22 current players and as many as 27 could face any number of fines and suspensions coming out of the Saints’ punishment, which threatens to overshadow other recent sports scandals such as the college point-shaving scandals of the 50s and 80s, doping enforcement in track and cycling during the post-Armstrong era, the theft of secrets in Formula 1 racing, and match-fixing in soccer and cricket.
Here’s what I don’t get, however. What if a player on a sports team devises way of incapacitating players on an opposing team and you don’t have a bounty program to give or receive awards?
I was talking a few years ago with a prominent women’s lacrosse player, who let on that one secret to her success was to do something akin to the bounty program.
“If you hit a player from one of the prep schools on the hands,” she told me, “they won’t be a problem the rest of the game. They’re soft and wonder if you’ve broken one of their nails.”
This was in an era when the sticks were made of mulberry, mind you.
It’s a way to incapacitate an opponent. But do you penalize a team for repeatedly rapping the knuckles of other teams in the hopes of breaking a bone in their hands?
I’ll therefore be interested to see of these penalties in the NFL will stand up for the integrity of the sport or stand as a monument to overreaction.
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