Southern Tide Lacrosse Helmet

Here is another example of lacrosse and prep culture colliding.

This is the helmet I will be using for summer lacrosse this season. The helmet is an all white Cascade CPX-R with a chrome cage, and I put a Southern Tide logo sticker on one side. The other side of the helmet has a Carolina blue number 25, and I added a Carolina blue mo hawk stripe to the top of it.

NCAA Lax Brackets

Here are the three brackets I did for May Madness. The first bracket is my selections for D1. I have Notre Dame, North Carolina, Johns Hopkins, and Duke in the Final Four, with Notre Dame beating Hopkins for the National Championship. This was an extremely difficult bracket to pick from, as there are about 10 teams that have real shorts to make it to the Final Four, and some of them play each other in the first round. There are also about 7 teams that I think are capable of winning a National Championship this year. Every scenario I picked seemed so right, yet so wrong at the same time. This is what I finally decided on.

Given the difficult nature of selecting from this pool of teams, I did a second D1 bracket: the "coin flip bracket." I flipped a coin for each game (the team on top was heads, and the team on bottom was tails), just to see which bracket ended up being better. This Final Four consists of Loyola, Princeton, Duke, and Stony Brook in the Final Four, with Stony Brook winning the National Championship over Princeton. I think it's pretty safe to say that my bracket of picks will end up being better.

Third is the D3 bracket, which has 28 teams vs. D1's 16, and first round games start tonight. I've wanted to fill this out for a few years, but given that I was playing D3 in the NCAA for the last four years, I wasn't sure what the legal ramifications might be. This bracket has fewer upsets in it, as the competition level throughout D3 isn't nearly as tight as it is in D1. Perhaps most interesting to me is that New England College (NH) made the tournament this year. In 2008, my team beat them 10-5. They did leave our conference, which features two top-20 teams, and won their new conference's AQ this year, but it just goes to show you how fast things can change in D3. My D3 Final Four is Cortland State (NY), Tufts (MA), Salisbury (MD), and Stevenson (MD), with Tufts beating Stevenson in the Final.

Michigan Lacrosse: Legacy

VV Pink Whales Gear

The Vineyard Vines Pink Whales are a post-collegiate men's lacrosse team out of the Boston area. Here are some photos of their shooting shirts, and team helmets that were done by ZimaGear.

Lacrosse Makes Business Sense

I recently came across this article on USA Today about liberal arts colleges in the Midwest adding varsity lacrosse programs. Schools in the Midwest are seeing a boom in growth of high school lacrosse in the region, and noticed that they were losing students to East Coast schools simply because the students were only interested in schools that offered varsity lacrosse (my younger sister and I are both examples of Midwest lacrosse players choosing East Coast colleges).

The article also gets into stereotypes a bit, in explaining that most students who grow up playing lacrosse come from middle-class, or even wealthier, families that do not qualify for financial aid. This means that schools these student-athletes attend, are getting tuition payments at the sticker price of the school--an advantage for the college on the business end.

There was one concern that the schools had about drawing lacrosse players to campus: the lacrosse reputation of being partiers. Most school administrators plan to combat this stereotype by hiring coaches who they feel have the ability to keep players focused on academics and athletics.

The article was very interesting (and does talk about more than lacrosse), and worth a read.

Tufts Lacrosse Documentary

After posting the documentary, The Men of Harvard Lacrosse, yesterday, I found this documentary of the Tufts University D3 national championship run in 2010. It is also produced by Drew Innis, and I liked this one a lot better--it tells the story of Tufts historic season in chronological order; plus, I was at the championship game in Baltimore when Tufts (an almost Boston school) shocked the heavy favorite, Salisbury University. Left out of the documentary, though, is when Salisbury beat Tufts to capture the 2011 national championship.

The Men of Harvard Lacrosse

This is a documentary of the Harvard Men's Lacrosse Team, which lasts about 20 minutes, and gives  brief insight into what it is like to play lacrosse for D1 team that is a contender to make the NCAA tournament every season, while simultaneously being a student at one of the top universities in the world. The film is by Drew Innis.

US Lacrosse Growing at Every Level

In 2011, more than 680,000 people played on organized lacrosse teams, according to the 2011 US Lacrosse Participation Survey. This number is up from 2010, in which 620,000 people participated in lacrosse in the US. More than half of that number is participating at the youth level (U15), but high school, and college both saw a growth from 2010. Youth lacrosse increased 10.9%, high school lacrosse increased 7.8%, and college lacrosse (varsity and club) increased 4.6% from 2010.

The sport is growing rapidly in terms of exposure, as well. ESPN is airing regular season match-ups, and over 100 games can be seen nationally on ESPNU, CBS Sports Network, and NBC Sports Network. Additionally, the sport is also covered through a vast expanse of internet and print sources. It truly is the fastest growing sport in the country.

Check it Out: Boston Lax

Spring is full swing, which means so is lacrosse season. There's a new website out, dedicated to Massachusetts high school lacrosse. The newly-launched site features stats, schedules, rankings, news, rosters and videos. Definitely worth checking out for fans of lacrosse. Head over to BostonLax.Net.

Sentry Lacrosse Helments

Back in January, I showed you the helmets that George Washington University club lacrosse would be rocking this year. The same guys who designed those helmet decals, HeadWrapz, are at it again for Sentry Lacrosse. Sentry Lacrosse is a select club team, located in Dallas, TX and got HeadWrapz to design a patriot theme for their Cascade CPX-R helmets. The helmets have a white shell, and blue visor and chin piece. The right side of the helmet features a lax stick wielding Uncle Sam, and the left side has the Sentry Lacrosse logo. The top of the helmet has the stars and bars decal, and the back panel decal has the Sentry Lacrosse logo, as well as a map of Texas. Check out Sentry Lacrosse online.

Schools That Should Add DI Lacrosse

While lacrosse is the fastest-growing sport in the country, it has long been plagued by lack of growth at the NCAA DI level. The sport currently has 61 division I teams (Marquette and High Point will join the ranks next season); that's three teams short of even being able to field the NCAA basketball tournament. It was also recently announced that BU will be adding varsity men's lacrosse in the near future.

By comparison, the sport has 189 teams playing division III, and over 200,000 players at the high school level. One of the big reasons for the lack of growth at the division I level is Title IX. Schools with football programs can't make a men's lacrosse team feasible because of Title IX sanctions. Michigan being able to add the sport is a big step. Below are five schools that could add successful lacrosse programs, and why:

1. Northwestern University: The Northwestern women's program has been extremely successful as of late; (6 championships in the last 7 years) so there is clearly a recruiting formula for lacrosse success in Chicago. Illinois is also getting very good high school lacrosse from schools like New Trier, Fenwick, St. Ignatius Prep, and Loyola. Travel to games becomes less of an issue with schools like Marquette, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Ohio State relatively nearby. Northwestern would also join Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State as Big 10 schools with lacrosse, making the Big 10 eligible to make lacrosse a conference sport.

2. Wake Forest: Wake Forest could join a competitive ACC, which would attract top recruits right away. Lacrosse in North Carolina is really picking up, and a private school like Wake reaches into the images of lacrosse's prep-school history. The Mid-Atlantic region has plenty of schools to schedule close by for out-of-conference games with Johns Hopkins, UMBC, Towson, and Navy.

3. Boston College: New England lacrosse is growing rapidly, and BC would do well with local recruiting. Schools like Duxbury and St. John's Prep are competitive nationally every year. Schools like Glastonbury, Fairfield Prep, and Hotchkiss in Connecticut produce top talent, as well. If Wake and BC both added lacrosse, the ACC would have a six team conference, making for a much less redundant post-season tournament. They also have a great natural rival already with BU. With BC, BU, and Harvard having lacrosse, Northeastern would be the only school needed for a lacrosse Beanpot tournament.

4. Connecticut: Again, great local recruiting from Glastonbury, Fairfield prep, and Hotchkiss, as well as the rest of New England. Long Island would also be considered local recruiting for the Huskies. UConn would join an a very competitive Big East with Syracuse, Notre Dame, Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova, Providence, Rutgers, and St. John's. It would be hard for a recruit to say no to a schedule that loaded with top teams.

5. Kentucky: The SEC school is the long-shot of the list. Trinity and St. X in Louisville have some top high-school talent for UK to recruit from, and so does the state of Ohio. Kentucky could schedule Ohio State, Michigan, Bellarmine, Penn State, and Notre Dame without having too much cost on traveling. The same goes for Northwestern's potential team, but scheduling games with Notre Dame will be very tough early on; the potential is there, though.

George Washington University Lax Helmets

Check out these photos of the helmets that the George Washington University Men's Club Lacrosse team will be sporting this year. The team, which changed their name from Colonials, to Brolonials, chose HeadWrapz to design the helmet. Normally, I'm not a fan of the HeadWrapz look on helmets, but I am pretty fond of this design. The write side features the school's Colonials mascot, and the left side is the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River.

2012 Inside Lacrosse All-Name Team

Started in 2008, Inside Lacrosse magazine posts a First, Second, and Third All-Name team. The list is similar to an All-America list, but the criteria for being on the list is that you have to have a unique, individual name, that brings back stereotype images of lacrosse's prep school roots. Some of the highlights of this year's All-Name team are Brewster Knowlton, Krey Keller, Blaise Fullen, Westy Hopkins, and Caldwell Rohrbach. Caldwell is also the first ever four year member of the All-Name team. Some other favorites from past All-Name teams are Ridge Flick, Beaver Barone, Ashton Hotchkiss, Brody Savoie, Remington Steele, Keaton O'Hara, and Seabrooke Carter.

Check out the full 2012 All-Name Team here.

Stars and Stripes Dye Job

With Independence Day coming up, today, I'm going to dye the head of an old lacrosse stick in the pattern of the American flag.

Here's what you'll need:
1 Turkey roasting pan
1 Blue RIT dye pack
1 Red RIT dye pack
1 Unstrung white lacrosse head
Electric tape
Star stickers

Step 1: Prepare the head
The first step is to put electrical tape of the parts of the head that you don't want dyed. I'm going to dye the top corner blue first so I've used the electric tape to mark where I want to the blue color to stop when I'm finished dying it. I decided to make things a little easier and dye the entire throat red, so the 13th stripe on the flag will be longer than the other 12. I wanted to keep proportions of the blue corner correct, so I went ahead and marked off the stripes for when I dye the red. The black electric tape will be the white stripes when the head is done. For the stars, I recommend finding a sticker pack that has star stickers. I used a pattern and cut them out with electric tape, but it was a big pain to do...and it took forever.

Step 2: Dying the blue
To get ready to dye, first you boil water. Once the water is boiling, dump it in the turkey roaster and add the dye. Make sure the water is deep enough to submerge as much of the head as you plan on dying. The store only had navy blue dye, so to achieve the blue on the flag, I just won't leave it in the dye as long. The hotter the water is, the faster the plastic will dye. When the plastic is the color you want, run it under cold water, as this will shock the dye and keep it from running. (The dye looks darker than the picture indicates).







Step 3: Preparing to dye the red
Now, you need cover the corner you just dyed blue with electric tape before you put it in the red dye. If you haven't already covered what you want to be your white stripes, you need to do do that before putting the head in the red dye. You can use the same turkey roaster for the red dye, just dump it out first.

Step 4: Dying the red
Now, just drop the head into the red dye and wait for it to reach the color you want. Be sure to rinse it in cold water when you're done and then remove the duct tape. Hopefully it turned out good. I'm a little disappointed in the way mine came out, especially the stars and the running of both colors,but I'm okay with it. This is by far the most complicated dye job I've ever tried.

Step 5: String it up
After the head is dyed, you can string up and then you're ready to play.

If anyone has any ideas on another pattern they'd like to see me try, and then use my instructions/mistakes to make it better when they try it, let me know in the comments. Just keep in mind, it'll probably be a while before I can afford another head to experiment on.