Bel Air, Maryland – July 5th, 2009 – Another historic step for the LaxManiax program starts tomorrow! The kick-off of the 1st-ever US Lacrosse U-15 National Championship event. Just two teams from the entire south region were entered for the event and our club was able to claim one of the two. Only 30 teams nationwide are entered into the event. It’s good to know that we are in such high company for the first time out! If the club wins a few games it creeps into the nation’s top-15. Not bad for a first time out. Of course if they can find themselves competitive with the Phantastix and like clubs as a young group, that is just as well. Eventually they will be showcasing for colleges in that group, so they get used to “the level” this week at the U-15 National Championships.

We always appreciate the “shout out” from Brian Logue, at US Lacrosse Magazine. Check out his preview article HERE! http://laxmagazine.com/high_school/girls/2008-09/news/070409_u15preview

This event is going to be a test for our club and clubs from other non-traditional areas. While there are many teams coming from outside of traditional grounds, most are ‘local’ teams (they are driving).

1) We don’t live here (Bel Air, Maryland). While the Check-Hers (MD), Phantastix (Philly), and Yellow Jackets (NY) all live within 2 hours of the game site and can easily make their plans, our club and others are flying or covering long distances to get there. This may not mean much to the average fan, but consider that the home team wins 60% of NFL football games and even more in other sports and you realize that there is something to being closer to home. Of course, we travel all the time and we do just fine. It really does not bother the LaxManiax, it is more of an identity. We fly places all the time and we expect to be road warriors .

2) For many of our younger girls, this is their first trip against top level competition from outside of our region. It’s the first time some have competed at this level. That is alright! The girls participated at the SAT, the Maniax Day “Olympic Games”, a few ‘playday’ practices in Coach Darley’s summer league, and also a weekend playday against two high school teams. They have been tested and while the skill levels of Florida high school teams is not quite on par with the skills of northern teams like TLC, Phantastix, Check Hers, and others, there is a level of intensity that our kids have had to learn by playing good Florida high school teams and that intensity level is the same this week in Bel Air, Maryland!

So the challenges really are not as great if you look at them from the LaxManiax perspective. The level of lacrosse we play requires a great deal of intensity, skill and lax IQ, and the sooner the participants get ‘into’ the game at this level the sooner they pick this up.

Kaleigh Henry (right) and Chelsea Pinneke (left) participated in the U15 Festival in 2007. They are now members of TFG 2011 and playing the highest level of competition.

Here are somethings that we are looking for at the U15 National Championships:

1) Leadership – There are seven members of the class of 2012. Many of them have been north several times. We are looking for leadership from them, both quiet leadership by example, and vocal confidence, to get the team motivated.

2) There are lots of parents on the trip. We hope the parents are raving fans and supportive of the team and coaches all the way. There is nothing better than parents who motivate the entire team with support. We hope the team feeds off the positive energy of the parents at the event.

3) Intensity – We hope the girls play with tremendous intensity and compete with whoever shows up on the field. Coach Stacey and John are as good as it gets in terms of making adjustments on the field, so if the intensity level is high, the games will be extremely tough.

4) Learning – If you go up to this event expecting to be the #1 team, 29 teams will fail. The most realistic expectation for ALL the teams in this tournament is to come away with a solid evaluation of where they stand and what they need to do to get to the top-level of play. Some may be there already. Most will have areas in their games that they see need some building in. All with have something to work on. That is the greatest victory for players who want to be their best is to have the opportunity to ‘learn’ how to get there.

This is a great step for the LaxManiax and the other 29 teams at this event. US Lacrosse has always put on “Festivals” and this is their first “Championship”. Lets take a look at the differences:

Festivals – In these events, no score is officially kept and the rules are all played using ‘youth’ rules. There is no checking over the shoulder and the ball is awarded to the opposing team if one team gets out to a sizable lead. The level of competition is usually lower and focused on middle school players only. Normally the US Lacrosse Festivals are put on by local US lacrosse chapters and most of the kids who participate are not club players, or they are mixed club and rec. Most weekends the club players are already participating in other tournaments with their club, so the pool of players is diluted. Florida has a mixed history in the Festivals but is usually competitive at the “B” bracket level (there are usually three brackets from A-C).

In 2006’s U-15 National Festival, Orlando’s team went 5-1 (unofficially) with a 1-goal loss to Texas as its lone loss. In 2007, the following year, Orlando’s team did not win a game but was close in some games, again unofficially.  Both events were held at “home” in Orlando, so we did have home field advantage at both of those events. Only kids without high school experience could participate, even if they met the U-15 age requirement.

 

 

The banner says it all! There are some interesting differences between 'Festivals' and 'Championships' at the U-15 level. It's pretty cool to be one of the "32" competing in Bel Air this week!

Championships – The US Lacrosse Championship event is open to clubs, chapters, or anyone wanting to put a team together. Some of the top clubs in the country are attending the event with strong teams. Score will be kept and there is no ‘mercy rule’ for providing the draw control to the other team if they are losing. This is the first event of its kind, so the track record is unknown.

The players can play high school lacrosse so long as they meet the age requirement as specified by the tournament. In this case, players have to be 14-years old as of January 1, 2009. The rules are US Lacrosse Women’s rules, full checking is permitted.

In BOTH events there is no “2-pass” rule, a rule that seems well intentioned but does not teach lacrosse players how to stop the ball first and/or double the ball and play effective defense, a real issue in youth Florida lacrosse. This may be the single greatest disadvantage that our teams have at these events – they are not playing by the same rules as US Lacrosse has written them. All it takes is a few girls to NOT stop the ball and the transition defense fails. When that happens, it’s a long day!

If you are attending the event, know the history and understand the competition. As our club evolves I hear parents talking about “that team isn’t very good!” or “We’re not as good as that team.” Please keep in mind, this is a much different club than it was two years ago. We are playing tougher competition and we are a much better program. Obviously. So we will look great against teams that are good but they don’t look good to us, and we will play teams that are great and have an off game and not look as good.

It’s all relative.

You are not in “rec lax” anymore, Toto!

You are in Bel Air!

Best of luck to all the U-15er’s out there this week. Play intense, play skilled, play smart, Go MANIAX!