New additions to ECAC leauge

Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in America. Sporting stores have to order more lacrosse equipment all the time just to keep up with the demand. The ECAC league is the eastern cost athletic conference. This really has nothing to do geographically because there are teams from the eastern border to Denver Colorado. The league is looking to expand with two brand new division one teams. The two new teams are Michigan and High Point. The league is to expand so they can get more national attention. “It’s difficult to say because the schools that make up the ECAC all belong to other primary conferences,” Keeling said. “If the Big Ten would come up with a lacrosse conference it would have to take Ohio State and that would change the dynamic. We want to be one of the strongest conferences in the country.” This league could be great with all of the different geologic locations.

http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/04/27/ecac-expansion-likely-horizon-could-include-michigan-high-point

Martin hits it big

In the lacrosse world if you don’t play division one, two or three you are probably not that good. You will not have a future in lacrosse if you did not play NCAA lacrosse. Conner Martin played club lacrosse in California at Chapman University and is one of the biggest rising names there is. He first hit the lacrosse scene will making videos on You Tube about the life of a California lacrosse player. He is going to be joining one of the upcoming lacrosse brands in Flow Society. Conner said “From my head to my toes I can’t feel my legs! That is how excited I is to be a part of Flow Society. They are a brand that aligns very well with what I do as an athlete and with my Con Bro Chill nonsense. The way they love our game, have fun and deliver loud, bright colored gear m makes my head spin with all of the possibilities and fun we are going to have. At the end of the day, they want to support me being me, and I’m ecstatic about that. This is going to be Boom Town.” He is really excited about this whole process. He is living the dream in being sponsored by a lacrosse company and being able to play in both the indoor and outdoor professional leagues. 

 http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/04/06/flow-society-announces-brand-collaboration-with-connor-martin

Players get fair trial

The Duke lacrosse case is known around to the country as a dark time for lacrosse. Players from one of the best teams in the nation were accused of raping a stripper. The facts of this story are crazy and the city of Durham rushed too quick into the case. The city had some sort of grudge against this team and decided to try and bring the heaviest punishment they could. In the end this backfired. A US judge is now letting the players file a civil rights violations case.The judge said about the police "singled out as especially serious the players' charge that authorities may have rigged or fabricated evidence to support stripper Crystal Mangum's false report that she'd been raped at a team party." This gave people a bad view of lacrosse and these players do deserve something.

http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/12584208/article-Judge-rules-on-lacrosse-suits?instance=homesecondleft

Bighamton coach leaves

What would you do if you woke up to an email from your coach leaving? This is what happened to the Bighamton lacrosse players. There coach left because he felt that three of his players were not treated right by the school. Three lacrosse players were suspended because their role in a fight. These kids where there to break it up and they are the ones who got suspended. The school said it wanted to act swiftly and the Stephenson feels like the school did a very poor job. He called out the school saying "They have become so scared of the media that they will not act fairly with regard to the student athletes' judicial cases,". This is a nightmare for the school because this will hurt the team and athletic department a lot. I feel bad for the players who lost their coach and a person they looked up to.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/college_men/DI/2010-11/news/032011_binghamton_lacrosse_coach_ed_stephenson_resigns_in_protest_of_disciplinary_action_taken_against_players

Division 2 team shuts down

Grand Canyon university will be shutting down their men's varsity program. The team has been around since 2008 and has made strides in division 2. The team is part of the western conference with other teams in Colorado and California. The team had high hopes of the program going division one someday with the growth of lacrosse. The school is trying to make the jump and did not see lacrosse being financially able. The only division one men's lacrosse teams are Denver and the Air Force Academy. The school thought it would be way to hard to continue the program at any level. The coaching staff wants to become a varsity club team and still try and keep the team together. "The idea was if we're utilizing athletics as more of a marketing tool to show off our success, why are we offering programs we can't fully fund? Let's just [end the program] now and move on," said Baker. This just makes it sound that the AD is giving up and that is not good for the sport. It is a shame to see a program close its doors after a couple of years.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/blogs/author/coyne/03.10.11_at_6.15_p.m._by_Jac_Coyne

Better Way to follow the Sport

The premier online lacrosse magazine has revamped its website. US lacrosse is a membership magazine but has a free online version. It is updated everyday with scores and stories though the lacrosse world. In 2009 the magazine switched companies and has only seen its website soar. It knew it had to make the page more visually pleasing. You can now follow your favorite team online. This helps people who are die hard fans who only want the news about their team. There are more writers being added everyday and this helps the sport really to spread. Everyone has a different opinion on the sport and now it is more represented with all the new ways to blog on the website. The magazine is now has a mobile platform so you don't need a computer. The sport is taking off just like the way it is being covered.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/blogs/author/dasilva/03.02.2011_at_4.08_p.m._by_Matt_DaSilva

Rough times in Calgary

A team that is sitting in first place and has the fourth best attendance has a problem. This team is the Calgary Roughnecks of the NLL and they are in a finical crisis. The team might not have enough funds to complete the rest of their schedule. Owner/general manager Brad Banister made a plea to his fellow Calgarians. His team is about to go under if there is no help. He sent out a letter last week asking for help with his team. There needs to be finical backing so the team can even pay the players. For this team to even break even they need to sell 12,500 tickets to the rest of their home games. "It would be an absolute shame to see something that has impacted the youth of the community disappear" said the captain. This team has been around since 2001 and with the league always in flux that good.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/nll/2010-11/news/022411_national_lacrosse_league_notebook_banister_not_going_to_quit_on_calgary_whipper_wants_one_more_ring_finneran_supports_powell_bandits_sold

Better with age

At the HSBC arena there has been the same name yelled for the last twenty years, Johnny Tavares. He has been a staple on the team as long as I have walked this earth. Johnny is already the all time leading scorer in the NLL (National Lacrosse League) and just scored his 700th goal. Johnny has been a star in the league and all the coaches know it. When the record was set both coaches praised Johnny. They said he is one of the smartest players in the game and deserves everything that he has accomplished. Johnny after the game was very humble about the accomplishment. " It would of meant nothing to me if my team did not get the win". I have been spoiled by growing up in Buffalo and watching this great player play my whole life. He is one of the most respected players in the league and most intelligent. It is nice to watch someone master their sport week in and week out.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/nll/2010-11/news/021311_mr_700_tavares_hits_mark_and_then_some_in_buffalo_bandits_lacrosse_victory

Cal Women

What would you do if your funding has been cut for your program? What if all the hard work you have been putting in for the last couple of years was for nothing? This is how the Cal women lacrosse team felt after funding has been cut for their program. The reason for the cut was a statewide budget crisis. The team will continue with this last year of playing than will be eliminated in the fall of 2011. The girls on the team are devastated about the news. They were not the only team cut from the Cal program others were gymnastics, baseball, and rugby. This team is going to do everything to bring the program back but there are no promises. If I was a player on this team i would be devastated that all my hard work went towards nothing.

http://www.lacrosseplayground.com/post/cal-berkeley-womens-lacrosse-you-cant-put-a-price-on-dreams/20036

LR first season

The wait is over for Lenoir Rhyne lacrosse. The season is a week away and the school is going to see all of the hard work that this team has put in. This team was made in a year and is going to compete against other schools that have been doing this for four years, There are nine states represented on the team and that is an astonishing number for a first year program. Coach Paradine is the first ever coach and is very pleased with the team that he put together and loves the challenge in front of him and his team. This could have bigger implications because this puts four teams in the South Atlantic Conference. The others are Wingate, Mars Hill, and Catawba and there needs to be one more team to make it an official sport in the conference. This team has a bigger impact than being a new sport at Lenoir Rhyne, it is spreading lacrosse to a place where it wasn't a couple years ago.

http://www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=21637

Pr sinner and winner

I totally agree with both of these selection in the article 2010 PR sinners and winners awards. The sinner is Julian Assange and he is the person with wiki leaks. This guy had the worst idea in releasing all of this information. He released secrets of the governments. People knew this was going to drop and nothing was done about it. This is a PR nightmare because of the mess this guy left. People were working around the clock to fix a major problem. The winner of the year went to the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. This guy can talk he is very intelligent is ready to argue with anyone. There is a You tube video of him and he is asked a question from a hotheaded teacher and calmly responds to every part of the question. His calmness really made the message get across easier.

New way of doing things

The MLL stands for major league lacrosse and is played during the summer. The players get paid nothing compared to the bigger leagues such as the NFL, MLB and NBA. They have been around for over ten years and this year they decided to shake things up. Usually the draft is after the college season. Players have graduated and now can focus on their new teams.This year the league decided to move the draft to before the start of the college season. The league felt this would get a bigger fan base because fans can watch their new players and start to follow them their senior year. Players from around the country had mixed reactions about holding it early. Some were not happy because they still had one more season to show what they have. The coaches in college hated this move by the league. The coaches felt that the player would become unfocused and just coast through their last year in college because they were already drafted. This could hurt the league very much because they don't get to see the full potential of some players. I think this could only help the players because it takes stress of their back.

http://www.laxmagazine.com/mll/2010-11/news/012111_major_league_lacrosse_draft_recap_bratton_twins_separated

More Charges

George Huguely was a lacrosse player at the University of Virgina. He was accused of killing a girls lacrosse player at the University. The girl was named Yeardley Love and was Huguely's ex girlfriend. There are new charges such as felony murder, robbery, and grand larceny. Her death happened last May and now there are new charges being added. When this whole thing happened at Virginia people had no idea how deep this story went. Love was found dead in her apartment but no one knew that her ex boyfriend had done the crime. When the story first broke the public thought it was an accident. When the background of George came out, the public was shocked. He had a past of violence and drinking heavily. This story was bad for the sport of lacrosse because it put lacrosse under a microscope. These horrible events cast a shadow on all lacrosse players.This event should of been kept out of the media spotlight like it was. I have never seen a lacrosse player on the cover of people magazine except when things go bad. I would of tried and of kept everything in internal basis. I feel a team conflict should be handled by the team not the whole nation.

 

http://www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=21523

SUNYIT to add lacrosse

SUNYIT is going to be adding men’s and women’s lacrosse to its athletic department. Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports and it is time for this school to add lacrosse. Central New York is a hotbed for the sport and the school just jumped onto the train. The teams will be introduced with the brand new field house that will be able for teams to compete in. The team already has a men’s coach and is in search for a women’s coach. This is good for the lacrosse world because it gives kids another chance to play lacrosse at the next level. This is the time that the sport is really booming because a lot of schools are adding both sports. Adding both sports give the school a new look and an opportunity for a different group of student athletes.

http://www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=21572