Parody and The Wishbone

Lake Mary, Florida - Florida lacrosse is certainly an interesting beast. From its inception about a decade and a half ago by a committed group of parents and former players, to its evolution as a club sport in the high schools where a majority of the focus of the game has been, to its continued growth into the brave new world of FHSAA lacrosse and now collegiate programs are popping up. Youth programs have been slower growing as the emphasis has been on high school competition. For years, US Lacrosse had to run the high school club leagues and it required a lot of time and resources. Rivalries developed. Teams with youth feeders began to separate themselves from the other teams. Most high school and youth league games were decided prior to the events. Opponents often were defeated at practice the day before. “Oh no, we have to play such-n-such tomorrow! We don’t stand a chance!” And with girls it is even worse on the negative emotional swing. Ten times worse.

Show me a confident girl and I will show you a world-changer. Show me an un-confident girls and I will show you a wet hanky. It is a very emotional period for young people and girls especially.

One thing that I think the LaxManiax can take partial credit for is building the competence of play throughout the state of Florida. You can pretty much tell the high school and youth teams that have a large group of Maniax playing in the summers. And they are not just the powers of years past. They are from all over the state and all over the place. And the overall quality of play is much greater. Does anyone remember lacrosse in 2005? It seems like light-years ago. No knock on the coaches and players in the past whatsoever. The game has grown and the level of play along with it. Many suspected that as the game grew the teams would overall become worse as newer programs came on line. Seems logical, doesn’t it?

But that is not what happened. The gap has narrowed.

And unlike hotbed states like Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia, hotbed states that strictly forbid contact between high school coaches and their teams in the off-season, Florida is unregulated. Teams can practice anytime they want in the summer and, as long as they are playing in a league in the fall, they can practice and play anytime then too. So the rivalries continue and the programs willing to play the most lacrosse during a calendar year are the programs that will be in the state finals each year. High school lacrosse in Florida is a big deal. Much bigger than in the hotbed states listed above. Don’t get me wrong, there is school spirit on Long Island and Upstate New York as well as at Century High School in Carroll County. There are just very strict rules that prevent high school coaches from working with their teams. Even in the summer. But the school spirit in Florida is much greater because high school coaches may coach their high school teams in the off-season.

And that’s where the Wishbone comes in! It’s a great way for schools to compete for a fall championship and show their school spirit! Teams are entered as either established powerhouse programs, or newer programs. There is a championship for either one! There is also a showcase series that allows club players interested in being recruited to show their stuff and not ‘compete’ with their high school programs. It’s as close to a perfect world as humans can make it!

Let’s take a look at all the teams that are entered into the event. Today we will look at the teams in the Ojibwe Division. The Ojibwe are considered the originators of the game, although many native tribes played lacrosse. Here is the bracket:

Big Blue – Lake Brantley = Coached by Hannah Collins and her staff, Big Blue has a solid group of veterans and a few new comers. Over the past eight years, Lake Brantley has been one of the top 4 programs in the state each year. This year looks to be no different. They have talent on all phases of the game. They earned runner-up at the Florida Draw to an elite club team, but were undefeated against high school teams. Big Blue has five seniors, but they are strong players. Expect to see their ‘A’ game at the Wishbone.

Lax-4-Life Red – Oviedo and All-Stars = Coached by John Darley and staff, this team has all the grit and toughness of Oviedo with a few players from the Lax-4-Life league joining in. Oviedo was a final-4 team two years ago and has a strong history in Central Florida lacrosse. There are four seniors on this roster, but many of the young players have extensive elite club experience, playing in the top tournaments in the country. Expect this team to be very tough and very, very fast.

SOLFA – Park Vista/Wellington = Coached by Brett Van Alstyne, this team has one of the largest rosters of the tournament, which could hurt against the top teams who have loaded their teams. They have several good players from both Park Vista, a Final-Four team each of the past three years, and Wellington, a strong program in south Florida.

ATL Cougars – Chatahoochee, Georgia = Coached by Jimmy Arnhart, the Cougars were the Georgia state champ last year and have a reputation as one of the top programs in the southeast. They have a strong roster and some veteran players, including 12 seniors. They have a reputation of being a big, physical, and skilled squad and they are a threat to win each game they play.

Hericanes – Winter Springs = Coached by Steve Efland and his staff, Winter Springs has been in the final-four many times over the past few years. Their team also has a lot of seniors (ten of them). They have experienced girls who have played in elite tournaments before (they have 8 former Maniax players), so you can expect them to be a great challenger in each game they play. Over the past five years they have been consistently one of the best high school programs in Central Florida.

X-Treme Green – Parkland and SE FLA clubs = Coached by Ivy Warren, this group is chock-full of athletes and has some super players, including a couple who are signing their NLI’s this week! Coach Warren’s team is very athletic and with their skilled players and superb goal keeper, they are really tough. Entering the 2010 high school season, Parkland is the favorite to win the IA State Title. They participated at the Florida Draw, so expect them to be ready for the tournament.

LM Lax - Lake Mary = Coached by Grant Derner and company, Lake Mary has some of the most talented seniors taking part in the Wishbone this year. They also have a large contingent of very athletic young players too. Last year, Lake Mary knocked off Winter Springs, Oviedo, Bartram Trail, and lost by 1-goal to Lake Brantley in a season-ending heart breaker. With the talented seniors, the big question for LM is going to be how their complimentary players fit after losing more than ten seniors to graduation last year. Always dangerous, this is not a team to overlook.

Black Bears – Bartram Trail = The reigning North Florida champions, the Black Bears are bringing a mix between strong varsity players and newer players to the Wishbone. Last year’s Wishbone saw the Bears lose to defending champ SOFLA by one goal, and during the high school season they fell to Winter Springs after leading the game by five goals with just fifteen minutes to play. The Black Bears have a lot of talent on their first lines, but do they have the depth to compete? Again, not a team to take lightly.

BC-Lax Blue - Baron Collier = Coached by Chris Claussen. Baron Collier is a team that is going to surprise a lot of people in their first year of FHSAA play. They have four (4) committed or signed seniors this year and they will all be playing for BC Lax at the Wishbone. They also have back-to-back State IA titles. They have tons of athletic potential and they have some very skilled players as well. Over the past two years, no program has done more to improve than the folks at Baron Collier. They are the best program on the West Coast of Florida, from Talley down to Naples.

Overall, if any of the teams listed above take any game lightly, or have an off game, they will not leave the game with a win. The margin of error is razor thin for every team in the Ojibwe bracket. It would be a huge mistake for any of these teams to underestimate, or overestimate the teams in their division. Any one of them can beat any of the others at any time. Make no mistake about it, this group is scary good for Florida lacrosse, and my hope is that after playing in this tournament, all of the players and coached elevate their games to the next level.

Final Thoughts:

The Wishbone has always been a high school and middle school tournament. The high schools that are coming this year are all very committed teams who have worked hard this Fall. The Wishbone is their championship. It is the championship for the committed kids from these high schools who have made the fall their laboratory for improvement. And the amount you improve is what teams should be gauging their success on. Especially if they do not have strong youth feeder programs (without a strong 6-8th grade feeder, you are not even in the same league as other high school programs).

Success is improving yourself or your organization to the best of your ability. Success is not winning, although winning is usually a sign of the most successful group working together. Although winning at high school lacrosse is not at the same level as say Long Island where every team is a buzz saw that has tremendous skilled players who come from youth programs just like you. So don’t try to mark your success just by wins and loses if you do not have the ideal feeder system in place yet, coaches! But recognize that the secret is the youth kids and working with them on skills as youngsters. Young players with skills and athletic ability are the secret to Florida lacrosse and creating a hotbed like Carroll County, Maryland (80 Division I players in a county of 50,000 people).

Coming Soon: The Iroquois Bracket

Getting Ready for the Rivalry

St. Johns, Florida – Well, the Jaguars are kind of laughable, so with nothing more to do on a Sunday, let’s fly up to Annapolis for a warm-weather November weekend and play some lax! All kidding aside (and there is a lot to kid about as far as the Jaguars are concerned this year), let’s break down the Rivalry tournament and what it means to some of the girls from Florida this weekend.

The LaxManiax have been prepping for the better part of two months for this tournament. The players have been playing Fall ball with their high school teams, most have participated in multiple tournaments, and some have attended all of their local practices to leave no stone unturned. To be honest, leaving any stone unturned at this point would lead to only regret. It is always best to do everything you can to be your best. Since this is a tournament that can truly make your dreams come true.

And with ten Maniax players currently being recruited by a combined 62 Division I programs, opportunities for everyone on the two Maniax teams have never been more abundant.

Only one player, Taylor McCord, played at The Rivalry in 2008. But the team from 2009 has done many more events and practices with the coaches attending the event and that familiarity will go a long way!

But what is The Rivalry and why is it so important? The Rivalry is a tournament that was founded three years ago by Cindi Timchall, head coach of the Naval Academy. Cindi who is one of the most well known coaches in collegiate lacrosse, having won several national titles while building the dynasty of Maryland Terp women’s lacrosse. Her contacts and Navy’s excellent field set up led to a November recruiting event that was almost snowed out three years ago in the first event. This year it is expected to be the top recruiting event of the Fall, surpassing the Midatlantic tournament that has been plagued by bad weather two of the past four years. Both are November events which means the tournament organizers, and college coaches are rolling the dice on the weather which could go either way.

But the NCAA via the IWLCA have limited Division I recruiting to three weekends in November. And the only warm-weather option for recruiting is the Wishbone, our very own Central Florida staple-o-lax November 21st and 22nd. So, our club is doing everything it can to be seen by going to the top recruiting event and hosting a Division I eligible event during the narrow window of evaluation for Division I programs.

Fortunately, Sunday’s weather of 66 degrees and sunny with 0% chance of rain in the forecast means that the girls from Florida are getting it the right way. Otherwise, the NCAA/IWLCA would be squashing many of the non-traditional girls’ hopes to be evaluated in the Fall months.

So we have this formula in mind:
Good weather. Good preparation. Good tournament. Good results.

That is a lot better than the opposite!

Last year the weather was cool (low 50’s as a high), but the Maniax teams played hot with a combined 6-2 record and a win against powerhouse CCLax. This year can the LaxManiax send another statement to the lacrosse world further extolling the virtues of Florida lacrosse? I think the answer is yes. Yes, provided that the teams play with these things in mind.

We have to play as hard, as confident, and as fearless as ever. We have the talent and the speed on all of our teams. But it will take the edge of intensity, confidence, and fearlessness that allows us to be one of the best clubs at the tournament again.

Poised for Success
Melodie Adolphe (Oviedo/2011) is a great case in point. I coached her at the Valkyrie Shootout, Cradle for the Cure, The Florida Draw, and at Maniax Day (2 of them) and all the local Central Florida practices. She has also been playing Fall Ball for Coach Darley’s Lax-4-Life team. She is going to have a fantastic tournament and for her, it will be a great introduction to the higher-level recruiting process. More than 100 colleges will be at Rivalry, and most of them are recruiting a variety of prospects from our teams. Melodie is not the only one, but she is one of the model’s that will be clearing their pathway to college at the Rivalry. All she needs is a little confidence and a lot of positive energy to seed all of her hard work!

Melodie Adolphe (checking the stick out of a girl's hand), Taylor McCord (center) and Maddy Blakeman (left) will join forces for a forth time this weekend at Rivalry. While coming from three different parts of the state, they all share two commonalities: They all play for LaxManiax, and they have all been working hard for this weekend.

With this theme fresh in our heads, check this story out about success and getting there:

The Secret of Success
A young man asked Socrates the secret to success. Socrates told the young man to meet him near the river the next morning. They met. Socrates asked the young man to walk with him toward the river. When the water got up to their necks, Socrates took the young man by surprise and ducked him into the water. The boy struggled to get out, but Socrates was strong and kept him there until the boy started turning blue. Socrates pulled his head out of the water and the first thing the young man did was to gasp and take a deep breath of air.

Socrates asked, “What did you want the most when you were there?”

“Air.” The boy said out of breath.

Socrates replied, “That is the secret to success. When you want success as badly as you wanted the air, then you will get it.”

There is no other secret.

The story has one thought on success. You are successful if you are willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. With 48 hours to game time, there is only so much we can do now to prepare other than study the athleon site and review all the concepts we have learned. We can rest. We can throw and shoot with our friends and work on our fakes and dodges to refine our hands and feet. But in reality, the hay is in the barn.

The other thought that I have comes from a video that I found today. CLICK HERE to watch it.

While it is a movie based on a legendary football coach, and a coach who worked 50 years ago, the philosophy of success are the same. Principles never change. But the people do. It is my hope that the people heading north on Saturday morning benefit from the principles of the past.

Follow the game notes on twitter @LaxManiax2009.

Florida Lacrosse – Fix Your Technique, Maniax-Style!

Jacksonville, Florida - It’s getting to be the holiday season and some movie classics are coming to a DVD rental near you. All the classics will be ready for you, whether it be a comedy such as Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, The Grinch or A Christmas Story, or a drama like It’s a Wonderful Life, one of the many reincarnations of A Christmas Carol (including Scrooged which is a comedy rendition of the famous drama). And no matter how many times you watch these movies, some lines you will always remember just because. One of the lines from A Christmas Story that most people remember is “You’ll poke your eye out!”

As I have digressed, let me say that one of my favorite lines from holiday movies past is from the movie Christmas Vacation. Clark, the much maligned father of the family tale, has spent hours of time carefully lining up rows of lights and teams of fake reindeer and other holiday lore. He has so many lights that five or six outlets are jammed with 3 or 4 extension cords each, sapping uncounted wattage from the local utility company. In anticipation of a great holiday celebration, Clark lures the visiting families onto the lawn on a cold Chicago eve to unveil the display in a prime time moment. With everyone bundled up, he goes to connect the final light switch and illuminate the Chicago skyline with his extensive (and expensive) project. When the lights do not work, anticlimactically, the older families begin to become dismissive over Clark’s efforts. In his defense, his wife announces to Clark within earshot of the family, “Clark, you worked so hard on this!”

Drawing the curt retort from Clark’s father-in-law. “My dishwasher works hard…”

The expression is a perfect way of Clark’s father-in-law to prove his point to his son-in-law. You should have worked smarter and not harder on your elaborate project.

Of course, seconds later, one of the family members turns on an outlet in the garage to the “on” position and all of the lights go on with resounding accord.

In Florida, I think that our top players do work very hard. To the point of diminishing returns. So many practices and so many team events that are focused on team success, sometimes at the expense of individual skill development and acquisition. And what do we as coaches tell our players? “Hit the wall. You need to hit the wall if you want to improve and be a better passer and catcher,” That’s it? That is the solution to how we develop our players? We want our high school teams to be better by practicing with their teams and learning their team’s systems and by ‘hitting the wall’ on their own?? Really??!

That is the same thing as saying to a kid “Study.” Kids can study the wrong way for hours and learn nothing long-term. It is not until kids groove their study habits that they become efficient students. Studying more the wrong way is just perpetuating and repeating bad habits. Playing poorly and playing with poor mechanics is the way to become worse over time. Not better. Learn how to play the zone defense, but have no idea how to play man-to-man on ball?? You are getting worse and not better. Let’s hope you pick a team in the off season that can teach you how to play something different.

Same with lax. Let me just address one way that we as Florida laxers are working harder and not smarter. We send kids to the wall and they go to the wall and throw the ball on it and catch the ball. But here is the problem. They are doing it wrong. And they are doing it often and with intensity. This is creating:

1) Players who throw with horrific techniques. They throw with poor wrist release. They throw with their elbows glued to their hips and their sticks way out in front of their bodies. They thrown with their hands way too low on their sticks. They throw without protecting the stick, simulating pressure. They throw in ways that make them either more of the same, or worse. They DO become good at this: Doing wall ball.

2) Players learn how to catch in the way that they have been taught how to receive the ball. For kids in Florida, this means they may or may not have been taught how to actually CATCH the ball correctly. When kids grow up in their youth leagues, they are rewarded by mommy and daddy for simply ‘catching’ the ball at all. Yay! You caught it! Even though they may not be giving, protecting, or getting in a triple threat position, or even though they are snatching at the ball to make the catch and going into a cradle, they are cheered. YAY! “You CAUGHT IT!”

Both are awful ideas for kids in Florida who need to stop being ‘good’ at wallball and start being GREAT at playing the sport of lacrosse. In fact, I would recommend that if you do not throw and catch well that you STOP playing wallball and start learning the correct ways of passing and catching the ball. If you are curious about how to do it correctly, go to you Maniax practices and focus on becoming a stronger individual player overall, then take those fundamentals home and work on them. But don’t miss practice and make it up by going to the wall.

Even watching this video, if you look carefully at the rear view angles of the video, the gentleman’s elbows are not in the right position for a top level girls player. With so many different things out there, the best way to learn how to do it and get the feedback you need, is to come to LaxManiax practices. Even if you are the bomb of your high school team now! Good is the enemy of great.

In order to become great, you have to focus on your personal game. How do you catch the ball correctly and LOAD your stick? How do you pass the LOADED stick correctly to pinpoint targets with correct elbow positioning and wrist snap? If you are not sure, stop with all the passing drills, partner passing, 3-facing-1, and wall ball. They are not helping you other than helping you to become a drill-robot.

domo arigoto Mr. Drill-Boto!

Answer: “Not so good! When I get into the games, I still cannot execute like the top players because I play like a robot!”

Pressing the button, the robot does what it is programed to do. If its programing is bad, it will not fulfill its task. Robotic players are programed players who cannot think for themselves because they are 'over programed'. Hit the wall enough without getting your technique honed perfectly, or play 100% zone or 100% man defense and you may find yourself on the robotic side of the game. Make sure your programing is diverse and specifically leading you to GREAT from GOOD!

So stop with all the nonsense. Stop the madness of all these practices and all these drills while you reinforce the habits of average-ness that fail with time. Get with someone who can develop your fundamentals and not just run drills. And what are plays anyway? Bigger drills. I want to develop tricky players and not have my players learn tricky plays! Lots of athletes who run tons of plays in high school cannot play in college. Why? Because when they have to do higher level thinking on the fly, they cannot be thinking about the repetitive plays ran in high school. Players have to reach into the reservoir of talent that you have developed as a middle and high school aged club player and adapt to whatever the coaching staff at that college wants to see.

No snatch-catching. No passing when you get tired into the ground because you were not disciplined enough to get your elbows up and out. Reject and rebel against those coaches who accept these methods and techniques. Demand that your coaches break down your fundamentals specifically and not just to the satisfaction that the ‘drill’ demands. Drills, sch-mills! Give me LAXERS, not DRILLERS!

And the Defensive Fundamentals that Florida Lacrosse Lacks?

Wondering what a second slide means because you only know how to play a zone. Yes. When you learn how to only plays zone because you can’t play man-to-man, you can’t make it to the next level as a defensive player. Unless you go to a college that only plays zone as well. Maybe there is some hope for you on attack, but as a middy you are a liability and as a defender. Seriously, if you can’t stop the ball 1-v-1 and learn to slide first or second, you cannot be a college defensive staple. No matter how good your zone defense is.

And if you cannot learn how to fit a zone responsibility, you are also in a bad situation too. You should learn concepts of zones as well. What makes defense so much more difficult to improve in the state of Florida is the general lack of comprehension about team zone defenses and the path to developing individual defensive habits. You play defense as a team and your coach has to help you individually and collectively. If you do not have a coach on staff at your high school who can help you on a daily basis, you are at a loss. For this reason, every May we spend a lot of time re-teaching defense to every club member. They ALL need to know the same things and react in the same way. If 50% of high schools staffs struggle to teach man and team responsibilities and defensive techniques, than for three months, half of the state regresses back into their youth lacrosse state. It is sad but true – great high school defensive coaches are tough to find. Great COLLEGE defensive coaches are hard to find too, so this is no slight on high school coaches.

And what ‘lax wall’ can you go to to get better on defense? None. A double wammy for budding high school defensive coordinators. This is a lot on you! No wall – gotta work defensive fundamentals as hard as stick skill fundamentals at practice! Forget the plays, whatever your jargon out there. You have to work on your feet and work on your eyes. You have to work on your strength and work on your balance. You have to understand leverage and work like crazy to improve your heart and toughness. And of course, you have to learn your system of communication and be able to transfer your skills of communication to any team you play for. No such thing as a mute defender. Show me a quiet defender and I will show you someone who does not know what is going on out there on the field.

By working with your high school or rec team I can only hope that your coaches are teaching you how to play individual and team DEFENSE at the level you need to improve and not digress.

Old Guy Example: I played yesterday on the MLL/NLL all-star team that played JU’s men’s DI team at JU to complete their Fall Ball season. We had some pretty sick players on the team. Several were all-pro and a few all-World. On defense, we were talented, but nothing monumental. But what made us a good unit of professionals was the fact that we could all play any type of defense, anytime. We played a great man-down (4 out of 5 kills), and we played a solid settled defense. All of us (there were seven defenders working the four 22-minute quarters against the young and fit DI’ers) were working very smart and we knew how to play whatever defense was out there.

Part of that is experience and part of that is our commitment to learn how to do lots of systems of play. We are not dumb guys. We know that in order to stop or slow down a great attack you have to change it up. Not only could we play man and zone, but we had so many slide packages, it was always different. If you are wondering what a slide package is, you may want to get to know more about the game you love. That is a signal to a problem right there!

Incidentally, it took all of our collective knowledge to compete with JU who was younger, but much deeper in the midfield. Our defense had to hold strong on many odd-man breaks. Sometimes we broke and other times we held. But in settled we played fairly solid. JU’s seemingly endless supply of fresh middies (they had 44 and we had 18) kept us working like dogs out there. And finally, after 88-100 minutes of player (the time keeper took a snooze in there somewhere), we took a 17-16 win. I took a shot on the arm that looks like a big black banana now, but it was worth it…we won by one, and it was MY SLIDE up towards the shooter that closed his angle. When it is your slide, you betta slide, sucka! Win by 1-goal, execute your fundamentals properly as a unit, and you will. And all of our defensive guys did their part to create turnovers and play fundamentally sound lax. We still gave up 16, but it was a tough effort against a determined group. An honor to play.

Overall: Florida players who choose LaxManiax as their club are the ones who already work hard. They have sought out an organization not just as an ‘all-star team’ with talent like the LaxManiax have (undefeated in the South in 2009), but with the ability to help every player, regardless of how good they are when they start with the program, to improve and become great. We want everyone who plays Maniax to work hard and improve/groove their techniques that propel them to individual long-term growth. Going to the wall is not going to do this, unless you are already executing your techniques and fundamentals perfectly.

So let’s go 4 it!

Learning how to communicate and work with your double team and your GK leads to great skills that transfer to all levels of lacrosse. In this picture, Maniax 2012 standouts and top college prospects Haley Bolt (right, Oviedo HS) and Anna Lanpher (left, Bishop Moore) work with Katie Kastner (GK, Flagler Palm Coast) to shut down the attacker's approach and cause a turnover. Prior to the tournament, these players had never played together as a group of three, but under the concepts of Maniax-defense and utilizing the strong fundamentals that the players have been repping on the high school level (they are all coached by good technically-focused coaches), they can easily come together to beat teams that practice 30+ times per year. They are working smarter and harder than their opponents.

Two More LaxManiax 2010’s Commit Early – I Can’t Keep up with These Girls!

Katelin Rooney and Madison Shumaker Commit to NCAA scholarships and Will Sign in November!

Fleming Island and Wintergarden Florida – Two more LaxManiax 2010’s have committed to sign scholarships and play NCAA lacrosse. The amazingly similar stories of two attackers from the TFG program, one white and one black (TFG teams), will continue on to another level over the next four years as both should assume leadership roles on and off the field at their respective colleges. But the summer almost was not for both of them had we not done some quick educating about making it to the next level and had these two attackers not done a fair amount of persevering through difficult obstacles.

Naples is not known for its extensive lacrosse history. The sport has nare been around for 5 years or so in the southwest corner of the state, known for its retirement hammocks as much as its pristine waters. But led by Chris Claussen and a strong contingency of other ‘lacrosse people’ who have combined to create a strong community, the sport has flourished, outpacing the Jacksonville area as the fastest growth area of the state on the youth and high school levels. It was at Naples’ Baron Collier high school, three-time club state champions, where as a freshman, Katelin Rooney began her lacrosse career for Claussen, who was the head coach of both the boys and girls programs, serving both programs equally.

Rooney played on the massive 50-member team for three years, earning more and more playing time and experience each year. After the 2008 high school season, Rooney joined the LaxManiax program and travelled north to a few tournaments, gaining critical experience and facing programs that she had never heard of a few months prior. She developed skills around the goal and became a very productive member of the LaxManiax attack arsenal. Moving into her 2009 season, she was poised to have a breakout year. She earned 1st team All-IA honors and honorable mention deBeer All-Florida. On top of the state title.

But during the season Katelin developed severe tendonitis in her knees and was advised by a doctor to take several months off after her high school season was completed. She had to spend time working with a physical therapist to strengthen her legs and take the pressure off her knees to have a chance to showcase for colleges at summer tournaments. She knew that she may only get one crack at making it to the next level and that one chance was the summer tournament series.

She battled the tendonitis and worked her therapy regiments and she got her wish. She was a star player on the 2010 White team. “I was diligent in keeping with my PT appointments and continuing to stretch/do my exercises. I have been blessed to have a great physical therapist as well as a PT on the barron coaching staff.” said Katelin.

She was noticed by many NCAA programs during the tournaments and made the tough choice between several schools. Her choice was Lees-McRae.

“I loved Coach Chase and her personality and coaching style. I had a lot of fun hanging out and getting to know the team on my official visit. I felt that it was a good fit for me. The campus/town is perfect for me and fit my personality.” commented Katelin.

Katelin Rooney (left) and 2010 White friend/teammate Taylor Figura (right) had many great summer memories, especially their experience at the Heatwave Championships!

“I dont know what my best game was this summer. But the Heatwave tournament as a whole I think is where I played my best because it was towards the end of the summer and I felt at the top of my game (knees were better).” she added.

Every great lacrosse player remembers their best experiences, regardless of if it was at the “#1 Best Tournament Ever”, or the super-fun-in-the-sun Florida event, the Heatwave. Katelin had a month to rest up for the Heatwave and had a great tournament, her team bowing out in the tournament finals.

Madison Shumaker, a member of the TFG 2010 Black team, played for two-time District runner up Fleming Island High School. She began her career as a freshman in high school, having never seen a lacrosse stick prior. Her first extensive experience came at a small winter stick skills camp run by Mindy McCord and Brooke Magnuson in St. Johns, rapidly becoming a hamlet of lacrosse in Florida. She went on to start as a defensive player for her high school that spring before learning attack and midfield with the LaxManiax the summer of her rising-junior season. She attended the midatlantic tour’s Capital Cup and quickly learned the in’s and out’s of the game.

What she learned she put to work with a strong work ethic. She never missed a local practice in the club program. She spent a lot of time on the lax-wall. She recruited other kids to play the sport at her high school, the only high school in Clay County Florida to have a program (other schools have attempted and been shot down by the ‘good ol’ boy’s network of administrators’). She volunteered to coach her local middle school program too.

Madison led her team in goals and points as a junior, easily making the transition from full-time defense to full-time attack. The transfer made easier because of her dual-sport expertise in basketball, a sport where you play a lot of both! She was the first player from FIHS to tryout for a US Lacrosse all-star team and earned a spot on the Central Florida ‘B’ team where she showed strongly as an attacker at the Women’s Division National Tournament (WDNT).

Her play at the summer’s premier southern event, the SAT, showcased her versatility on both ends of the field. Her team won all of their games and Madison fit the team perfectly. Fourteen colleges and universities attended the event and were able to get a good look at Madison.

But then the story got rocky. A week later, Madison, who was helping coach at a summer kids basketball camp, badly sprained her ankle just 1-week from the Champions Cup. Her summer tournaments would have to take a two-week break, just at the time she needed to be at her best. She was heart-broken. Little more than a month later and Madison faced the challenge of her mom and dad’s divorce. What was really important to Madison changed rather quickly in such a short amount of time.

But Madison showed tremendous character. The 2nd-year LaxManiax player kept her recruiting program alive and stayed in touch with the schools that interested her the most. After seeing Madison at the SAT and working with Madison at the JU Lacrosse summer camp, the head coach from Converse College liked what she had seen and pursued Madison in spite of the ankle sprain and personal strains that befuddled her throughout the summer. She offered her a scholarship.

In a summer of downs, Madison’s persistence earned her a future of ups, thanks to her attitude and strength.

“I am so excited to have this opportunity. There was a tough time when I was not sure it would work out, but I was so glad that it did. Alyssa Savitz and Emilee Golden both played with me last year at different tournaments and they are awesome. I stayed with them up there. It’s nice to go where other Maniax players are.” mentioned Madison after her Fall Ball practice Wednesday.

These Florida lady lacrosse student-athletes never cease to amaze me. For as many talent-show driven, pageant contestants and girls who only want to shop or hang out at ‘nowhere beach’, there are also a lot of fantastic athletes who resist the urge to be called typical teenagers. Athletes who work through the tough parts and persevere to obtain the prize that awaits those who have the ethic and talent to earn it. Don’t you wish more young ladies were like Katelin and Madison?

Lacrosse is lucky to have both of these hardworking, motivated young people!