2009 Mid-Atlantic Elite Tour Daily News Shorts…

6/21/09 12pm – Finally a day with nice weather! Our 2011 team shown bright as ever in a great game against Mass Elite Blue before a hoard of colleges. It was a great moment for the girls who have struggled with all the rain and cancellations this trip! But they went on to get another game against the New Jersey Devils that they played a great second half after a sleep-walking second half to cruise. The team played a tough schedule but was always competitive despite having 50% of its players be brand new to playing northern opponents, like Hero’s and Mass Elite.

2011-12 played two games and picked up their games to finish strong with a great game against fellow Southern Alliance member Nati Lax (Cincinnati’s club lax team), ending in a 2nd half shootout! Elite and White also played well against some great competition. It is really great to see how much better Florida lacrosse has looked since our first tournament in October of 2006. Outstanding day!

Now we are getting everyone home safely and the RV is rolling back towards Florida! Great job everyone!

6/20/09 – 11pm – Another day and more rain. This mornings games were hampered by rain. First it stopped the game at half time, then let us finish a game and then it rained again and canceled the later games in the tournament. The soccer complex controls the fields and if the soccer people say no, than we can’t go. And today they said no. Our 10 Black team and 11-12 teams each got a game in. The 10 Black team played a great first half vs. Capital Orange, a very talented program. We led at the first intermission! But after a 1 hour rain delay we finished the second half flat, albeit very competitively.

Grazi awaits a draw as the colleges look on. This game against Westchester (NY) Elite was a fun one!

Fortunately for us, the colleges had all left after the first half and tried to find their next field and/or avoided the rain! But it was a great game – another testament to the tourney scheduling us against the very best programs and not against other non-traditional teams. But if you read laxmaniax.com, we are anything but traditional. We play some good ball!

We went to DC on the Metro today and saw the sites. It was very cool! My team had a nice team dinner as well at a fancy Mexican place called Guapo’s – at American University (yes, another school we visited…). The team is happy and excited and has enjoyed the trip and learned a lot. Just have to hold it together for one more day!

Dozens of NCAA coaches looked on from all vantagepoints during the games played this year by our 2010's! They are setting a great precedent for Florida Lax!

6/19/09 – 11:59pm – First we actually got to Hopkins on time for our visit there. An amazing accomplishment for 60 players and 10 staff with several others in tow. Hopkins is a neat campus which provides the feel of a rural campus in the heart of a city (North Baltimore). A really nice place. Coaches showed us around (Thanks Coach CT) and took time to be sure all of the Maniax learned everything there is to know about ‘The Hop”.

From the Hop we popped by Loyola’s campus for a look see and then proceeded to the luxurious hotel – the Whyndam of Gaithersburg. We played a few games tonight. The 10 White’s played Skywalkers White (one of the top club programs in the Northeast) and played scrappy. Our club perhaps had the best in club history on Friday night. Playing in front of an estimated 35-40 college coaches, the 10 Black team had a tremendous game against the CT Chargers, a well established club program from Connecticut. It went back and forth all game and the Maniax competed with tremendous skill and ferocity. Every pass was contested and every draw was a battle. After the game both teams were wanting more lax! One of the college coaches commented that the days of Florida lacrosse players being looked at as ‘non-traditional’ are over! How cool is that! Maybe that is why we are only playing the top club programs at this tourney – not a single non-traditional team!

10 Black accepted an invitation to play an extra game (a team had not arrived yet) against Mass Revolution (known as REV by the club world). REV has a great program, one of the best. Even though the 10 Black’s just completed a game, they went out and clashed hard with the REV, earning a draw. But results don’t really matter at a showcase tourney where the colleges are not keeping score = they are looking for talent. And talent they saw! A great showing of effort, grace, and power. The Maniax teams were our enforce supporting 10 Black in the games which was special. REV had their own cheering section of teams as well! Tournament director Becky Chambers called my phone and wanted to know what was ‘happening’ on field 18. Apparently the entire complex was abuzz over the noise and intensity brought to field 18 at the Maniax vs. Rev game! All sides were happy at the end of the game – the REV coaches were excited to have had the game and to have had both teams get after each other with so much intensity and energy, yet still very sportsmanlike (only 1 card a side). “Where are you guys from?” asked their director. “Florida!” I commented. “Well, this is the best team we’ve played from outside our tournament areas – that was fun!” commented their director. What a great compliment!

Fun team meal at Ruby’s after the 9pm game was over (about 10:30). And guess what? The 10 Blacks have an 8am game tomorrow – that is three games on two days within 12 hours of each other! Hope we are in shape!

The 2011’s started the tourney vs. Hero’s 2011 top team. It was a good test. The Hero’s have a storied program and include players like Stanwick and others who are sure-fire top 20 prospects in the class of 2011. We held our own and popped in a bunch of goals. They were solid on attack – they played a great free-lance game and our defense learned that playing strong individual defense was not enough to stop a team full of ‘tricksters’! Again, another game with the sidelines littered with colleges wanting to see these two teams. And the 2011 Maniax, green as they are, are not very far off the top club in their age group! In fact, there are a few players on our team who would easily start for the top programs nationally – a great sign for our club!

2011-12 and Elite were off tonight! Games tomorrow! Now time to get to sleep!

6/18/09 – 8pm – Thursday started with rain and travel nightmares for some of our Lax U coaches, but with some quick thinking it turned out great. Coach Chagan from Villanova and the staff from Cabrini were outstanding with the campers. The Villanova stick program was fun – the kids worked hard on skills and communication. Cabrini coaches were fun and intense.  We moved inside from the rain at first and then finished on the turf fields. I have to admit, the USTC staff has been great – and what a nice facility. Only wish all the fields were turf (no rainouts ever). We had team meals and skit night. Hoover’s group won a dance off competition in a battle of the Oranges (Hoover vs. E.K.) that could have gone either way. Lots of other fun skits, including bizarre contortionists and OD’s stuffing of 35 grapes into her mouth at one time.

6/17/09 – 1:54pm – After working with Johns Hopkins and Notre Dame (D2) and JU this am on all kinds of things, now we are preparing to go visit Lasalle in Philly. Talk about a culture change…Lancaster to Philly = Wow! More post to come! I would post a lot more, but I am driving an RV full of campers! I think the Hopkins staff is about as personable a staff as they come. If you want your daughter to play for a great person and someone who loves to teach the game, Janine Tucker and her staff are super. It is also nice to see someone reinforce so many of our own concepts – it was great really! Instead of trying to fight rush hour traffic escaping Philly from LaSalle, I stayed in Philly with my team and we got cheese steaks at Carmen’s in the Reading Terminal Market. A great team bonding moment for all and delicious food! Thank you traffic! Yet another case of taking something that is a headache and turning it into something that is fantastic.

6/16/09 – 9:00pm – Franklin and Marshall is an amazing place. The school has unreal facilities and people. A lot of the schools up here are so rich in academic heritage and so ultra-competitive on the field they would shock a prospect from Florida. The top-8 D3 programs would fall somewhere between the #15 and #40 D1 programs on the field, but off the field academically are superior. The tour and dinner were eye openers for our camp AND we drove through Amish Country, which drew rave reviews from the campers. Notre Dame (D2) was working camp today with JU and D3 09 National Champ Hamilton and JU. Pretty sweet day of camp all around. We cap it off with watching the D3 national title game thagt F+M won – very cool.

6/15/09 – Great day of Lax University and we played some games too. We also went grocery shopping for the week’s lunches and snacks and took our relaxing field trip to the King Of Prussia Mall, which is impressive. All in all we got a lot of work on and we got some play in. A good way to balance the start of the week. Everyone is excited for a nice week of camp. Notre Dame came out today for camp and did a great job.

6/14/09 – 7:15pm – As I mentioned in an email to the club, “You cannot curse at red lights. You have to wait for them to turn green.” Today that philosophy came in handy. The Sunday games at the Champions Cup were canceled thanks to those heavy downpours from yesterday, which continued into last night. They needed a couple of helicopters to dry out those fields, but that was not in the cards. Instead, we worked hard to create an opportunity out of nothing. At 7am when I read the tourney had been called (nothing we or the other 215 teams could do about that) I hopped into my car and drove to USTC. I saw that both of their indoor fields were open for most of the morning and early afternoon and I quickly booked them from 11am to 2pm. I ran to my room and quickly designed an 8-team indoor Box tournament I called “Box-a-pa-Looza” and we rolled back to USTC and played three solid hours of tournament Boxla. The rules were slightly different and the intensity was high. There were a few college coaches who wandered in and checked out the action. A lot of other club programs were there and they appeared jealous of the indoor fiesta that was Box-a-pa-Looza! So, we actually DID have a great tournament today, but it was an indoor one instead. Each team played four indoor games and we also had a rotating all-star game featuring our staff, which had seven college players (several all-Americans) playing boxla vs. our own kids! Talk about getting experience out there! WOW! Is there anywhere else you can play all these college players like Sarah Gallion, Heather Albro, Jen Heup, Cait O’Rourke, Jess Sundman, Mel Hicks, Allie Darley, and Tara Brock? I played briefly – lot enough to get my GB and clear for the day! But – it was fun for all. I am writing a BLOG about it for later! We are now prepping for Lax University. Trying to get OK’s from LaSalle’s compliance department is like trying to get a Visa to fly to Cuba. Oh, PLEASSSSSE!

6/13/09 – 8:30pm – OK, the chemistry thing for the 2011 team got worked out. They jumped all over Southeastern Pennsylvania 2011 in the first half 12-1. They ran transition beautifully and their spacing was excellent. They played well on the draw winning a 2-to-1 advantage and on the defensive end, they had a great showing. Their speed and fitness was noticeable in this their 3rd game of the day. The 11-12 team ran into undefeated T3 North 2011 who was very strong and they learned a lot. As our youngest team on the tour, they are working on being a team, which they are thanks to Coach Heat and Sund. They have a lot of young talent out there and after a 1-goal game vs. Hotlanta’s 10-11 team, they played hard vs. one of the top 2011 teams in the country. Can’t beat that experience. All teams headed to dinner all wet – the rains and winds came upon the fields at D-Town Middle and we all scurried under tents to head for the hills! Pics coming to the main page of the BLOG soon!

6/13/09 – 4:13pm – Had a nice game with 10 Black against Westchester elite (New York). They had some speedy players and some skill. I think our defense played well again (2 in a row) and we held them to six. Transition defense needs to get better – more communication! Our coach, Jen Heup, was named MVP of the 2009 North-South Senior all-star game! Then she warmed up our goalies with a massive hematoma on her shin (yow!). 11 team is struggling to find an identity. Having some clutch goal scorers, the players are not finding the scorers when they are open and the timing is off. They have dropped two games against teams they can eaily defeat. This game comes down to getting the ball to your scorers and letting they do their job. Sometimes new teams get into the habit of trying to let everyone score on a play and most defenders are not good scorers. Chemistry needs to be worked out. They are not dropping games by much, but just a little. Northwestern, Notre Dame, Maryland were all watching them in their last game. 11-12 played well in their opener. Awaiting news on the score! Wrapping up day two – on again and off again rain on wet fields, but not too bad oevrall.

6/12/09 – 9pm – Started out a little slow with 4-yellow card game (and game that was only 35 minutes so you do the math). We had transition trouble with 10 Black trying to get thru the man down midfield. Our attack and defense played well in settled and were successful in their own right, but the trap with man down and a couple of transition turnovers cost us. I think it would have been another story if we had played more disciplined with our checking. But the players showed well for the most part and the fields were packed with colleges. After the teams had a cookout and the 10 Black team went to Panera. Everyone is beat so we are hitting the sack here – long day tomorrow and tough schedules, so we will need to be our best. Coach Mary’s 10 White team seems to be winning the ‘havin’ fun’ award. Lots of people excited and that is great. Florida lacrosse is growing! Gotta love it!

6/11/09 – 3:50pm – Almost everyone is checked into the Staybridge Suites. We have a great hotel and it will really allow everyone to stay relaxed and well rested during the trip. Rain has been saturating the ground up here for a week and they fear that more rain is on the way. This puts all of the schedules in limbo for the time being. They are working on an alternative schedule and we should find out about it tonight. Everyone needs to remain mentally flexible with the schedule. Our motto should be: “Have Stick, Will Travel”, or “Any field, Any time!”. Hopefully the staff will get a much needed good night’s sleep tonight so they are feeling the mojo tomorrow and his weekend. Everyone is working hard on the little details because we all know that it is the small things that make great things possible. There is a lot of focus work to be done with the girls. Personally, my daughter is more concerned with her room situation and hanging with her friends than she is with lax right now. Hopefully that is a sign that they are all relaxed and loose and not a sign that they are not zero’ing in on being their best this weekend.

6/10/09 – 8:50pm – We are rolling through North Carolina. Destination DC Metro area tonight for a little crash out. After the crash, we will get up before the morning rush and head to pick up the vans at BWI – about 12 hours from now. The great thing about the RV is that you can crash in it at any rest area, or mall. I plan on taking full advantage of the crashing. I require a couple hours of shut eye to be full-strength for a day. 8 hours of sleep is over-rated. I did not sleep a wink before my biggest games as an athlete, or the sleep I got was awful.  I am in full-on battle mode now – ready to meet all the crisis that await from the travel industry tomorrow. ‘G’ is behind the wheel right now. Jen drove for a few hours today also, marking the first time the Original Lax RV has been piloted by a woman! I get back large and in charge in a couple hours and make the final push of the day. Conference call in 30 – OUT!

6/9/09 – 10:50pm – Up late trying to get stuff together. Waivers, rosters, personnel. It’s been a long day. The phone rings off the hook – some good questions and some questions that make you want to go Postal. But all in all, a good hard day’s work! You know, in today’s economy, we should all be grateful for the gift of purposeful work. Tomorrow we have the long day putting the finishing touches on the schedule and tweaking the itinerary so it is just right. We learn from the lessons of the past and we focus on the future to anticipate the opportunities that make it all worthwhile. I keep thinking about the costs and trying to control them. You know, I don’t think you can go on an 11-day traveling vacation with a ‘driver’ and tour guide and attend so many cool sporting events for less, unless you are in your very own LaxMobile! Obsessing about details and procedures is all we can do now. Speaking of the LaxMobile, it gets picked up tomorrow. The AC is now working, but the hot water heater is missing its cover. Oh well – try driving your house down the road and see what actually DOESN’T break. It’s a miracle after 13,000 miles of service to the game that the Big Rig is still rockin’ same as first day off the lot!

NOTES FROM 2008’s MID-ATLANTIC TOUR!

• 6/22 – 5:56pm – From the Original Lacrosse RV I am filing this report. Another great day. Our club teams went undefeated today, 3-0-1. The tie was unfortunate. We were man down on defense with 30 seconds to go and they got one in. Oh well, live and learn. The players played great. Stacey Williams got “kid’s champagne” doused on her head after she completed a great sweep with her ‘11/’12 National team. Can’t wait to see those two teams next year – lots of championships lay ahead for them…and now that the 2009’s are legendary and the LaxRV has promoted Florida lacrosse to new heights (you wouldn’t even believe how many people know about Florida lacrosse now and know how good the players are from the LaxManiax), the doors are open for the 2011, 2012, and all the kids in Florida to experience college lacrosse just like the big dogs in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England. Fluke? I think not. Where you at, CTFLfan?? Not much to say now!
• 6/21 – 12:00pm – Yeah, okay! I am officially tired. We set up camp at 6am, and it was for real! RV and all. But I coached with Coach Sarah, Paul, Liz and Caitlin in the finale with the Maniax Elite team. It was an amazing 1-goal loss of tremendous intensity against a well respected SEPA 2010 team. I tell you what, this Elite team has some players who are either a) Moving on the college, or b) moving up to the National Team next year. They are grit-TEEE. The harder they work, the better they do. I hope they keep in mind that their intensity is what makes them special. Coach Paul and Coach Mindy are not tired – I don’t know what is wrong with them. I guess they really are LaxManiax afterall. Coach Sarah McGoey Burlingame is one of the best coaches I have been around. Being on Team Canada (eh!) makes her someone who has been there that the girls can count on. Plus, she is a great coach = that’s a huge bonus! 4 games to go!
• 6/20 - 11:00 PM – WHOOOOOOHOOO! What a day, it almost would seem like doing all this gets old, but no! We packed up this morning and drove to Gettysburg College, a beautiful campus and a great lacrosse program. Coach Carol Cantele was a fantastic host, organizing student tour guides to zip the Maniax around campus and answer any questions they had, then a meeting with Admissions, Q&A with with Coach Cantele, then lunch in the dining hall. Teams then headed over to Germantown for our 1st games of the Capitol Cup, and finished the day 2-2 as a club. The 11/12 National Team continued their 10 game unbeaten streak, demolishing Greyhounds 14-1, and the Black elite was victorious as well, beating Intrepid II 9-4. The 10 National team fell to Check-Hers, who was undefeated on the summer, but played a fine game, they have a lot of people watching them this tournament! The 09 National Team also was defeated in a close game, 8-4 by the Skywalkers, the top club team from last year and Champions Cup Tournament Champs last weekend. The 09’s were leading 2-0 about 15 minutes in, but the Skywalkers put together a run in the last 10 minutes and first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, and won the game. What is most exciting about the 09’s is the bracket they are playing in. After their performance in the Champions Cup last weekend, they were moved up a level to play against Skywalkers, CC Lax Red, and T3 Shore. Now not only are coaches specifically showing up to still watch the traditional powers, they are coming to see Maniax as well. It is an exciting time to be up here, all the girls are playing well, and if it comes together, can be really special. I will keep you updated on tomorrow’s games as they progress!
• 6/19 – 11:00 PM – 2 a Days! Well, sort of. We did have two sessions for the girls today, a 1-2:30 team session, followed by Coach Matt and Coach Paul going 2v2 against two guyss from Team Delaware U19. Well, we got our butts handed to us, but still played pretty well. What impressed me the most about the guys was their shooting accuracy. Many times Paul and Matt played tough defense, but a well placed shot into the upper 90 made it all worthless. It was still fun to get padded up and play some, keeps you honest in your coaching! Villanova and Duquesne were the colleges in attendance today, and both coaches ran excellent drills for the girls. Mike Scerbo of Duquense ran a drill that worked 3 simple but effective plays, and Coach Chagan and Henwood of Villanova worked stick skills and full-field transition. All 3 coaches were awesome, the girls will benefit greatly from their teaching and exposure!
• 6/19 – 1:00 PM - A little extra rest for the girls today, as they were off until 10:30 am. Then we hit the film room, going over the game tape for the 2010’s. There were teaching points applicable to every player and team to be found in the film, the endless lessons of going full speed, running to space, and transition.
• 6/18 – 10:35 PM – Another day, another great kudo. Today the emails began hitting Coach Paul’s system from some big-time colleges looking for players. It’s nice to know that the girls are garnering so much attention. We hope they all have options at the end of the tour. At camp we had the head coach from York College and the assistant from Penn (Nat’l runners up). We also spent the day at Penn for a tour of their amazing Philly campus, sat in the stands of Franklin Field and held a Q and A with the Penn staff, and downed Philly Cheesesteaks at Abner’s, a Philly tradition in University City. We returned home to a inprompto dance party in the hotel parking lot. The girls have the evening off and get to sleep in tomorrow before they have a Coach Paul film session, meetings with their coaches, team practices, camp practice with Duquesne, Villanova and Jacksonville University, and then hopefully some cosmic bowling to top is all off! The Lax University continues. What an education!
• 6/17 – 11:04 PM – Oh am I stuffed. The Charcoal Pit was a chance for all of us to chill and have some ice cream and bond. Today we had our busiest day yet. We got up bright and early and hit the road to Haverford College. We were given the VIP tour by their great head coach who had previously been the head coach at Boston College. We had a decent, not great, lunch on campus, and headed back to the hotel for camp. Today at camp, the counselors were college coaches from University of Delaware, Wesley College (DE), and Bryn Mawr College. In one day we had interaction with 8 different colleges and universities from three levels. The most common comments the coaches have are: ‘Your girls are so polite and coachable and learn quickly’, ‘Your girls are very fast’, ‘Your young players are going to put Florida lacrosse on the map – they are awesome!’. The camp coaches run drills and spend time talking to the players about what they look for in a player, what their favorite aspect of the game is, and what their schools offer. After practice we had pasta, then a college film session directed by Coach Paul (he was a video assistant with Coach Mindy in college). To add a cherry on top, we went to the ‘Pit’ to get some great ice cream treats. Pictures of that little excursion will be posted soon!
• 6/17 - 8:12 PM – Just got done with a late dinner. Today at camp, four schools came out to work with us. Converse (SC), McDaniel College (MD), Jacksonville University (FL), Clarkson College were all there. Pretty awesome exposure for the campers PLUS amazing instruction from people who have been there!
• 6/16 - 12:00 PM – From Villanova University. Up here, most Catholic school kids want to either go to Notre Dame, or Villanova. ‘Nova is a beautiful school located on Philly’s ‘Mainline’. Coach Paul played football against Villanova when he was at the University of Delaware. Here are the main points of what their head coach had to say to the camp: 1) It’s never too late to get a LEFT HAND. 2) As a college athlete your job is never secure. You have to constantly work at it to make it happen and keep getting better each year. 3) ‘Nova has a great sports, academic and Catholic tradition and is committed to keeping that way. I think our girls really learned a lot from the ‘tough but fair’ coach who really wants his girls to be committed vs. distracted. There are many talented high school players who need to hear that message!

• 6/15 – 11:05 PM – I am amazed by these players, the strides they have made in such a short amount of time. When I think about how well they play, and if we can tweak a couple things, how much better will they get? We all have so much potential, but I am continually realizing that “potential” is a dangerous word, one that I am reluctant to use now. Lots of people have potential, some more than others, but how much are you going to do with that? Girls, you ALL have the potential, lets all become the best players and people that we can be. The Maniax will give you the road map, you just have to follow it!
• 6/14 – 11:45 PM – Wow! What a great day for the club. We had some great wins, some good losses, but the best thing I can say in the games today was that each team in every game was COMPETITIVE. We haven’t always been able to say that top-to-bottom in our club, but in every game our girls were in the hunt until the very end. For a complete recap of the day, check out the post on the front page of the blog. More pictures too!
• 11:45 PM – Great day for everyone, the girls were awesome at the 1st game of the tournament, as the 09 Elite took on the USTC House Team. USTC came away with the win, but our Maniax played tough and give it their all the whole game. Carly Colon had a good game in the midfield, Danielle Wiedmeier played well in the cage, and Megan Then played well, directing the attack from down low. The Maniax sideline was loud and proud, always cheering on their teammates and having great spirit. Also, Happy Birthday to Sarah Hill!
• 2:30 PM – A good practice this morning, with teams going over concepts and schemes, a very mental day as we prepare for the weekend. We talked about playing in the moment, and always giving your best. You never know when a coach might be watching, what might they be seeing? That is within your control, go 110% and never lofe.
• 6/13 - 7:30 AM – Breakfast at the Maniax Mobile, bagels, juice, fruit, and other complex carbs
• 11:45 PM – Bedtime, hallelujah!
• 5:00 PM – Shake Down practice at USTC, this group of girls are alot of fun!
• 4:00 PM – Collapse onto bed, actually too tired to sleep.
• 5:00 AM – We’re almost in Virginia, our 5th state in 7 hours. Coach Paul is on his 2nd shift, taking us all the way into BWI. Coach Matt drove the Graveyard 1-4:30 am shift, because he is a “young college guy”, even though evidence suggests he is actually a mid-20’s married guy. Thankfully he performed quite well, and the interns are asleep again after a quick break at the gas station
• 6/12 - 2:00 AM – Despite all the big talk of a dance party and plenty of entertainment to sustain Coach Matt during the graveyard shift, the interns are sleeping soundly on the futon and fold out. We expect alot of energy out of them tomorrow

• 11:00 PM – Cruising through Georgia, Coach Matt is beating his head against the big rig because he grabbed the wrong transfer cable and cannot share the wonders of the RV with everyone. It will happen tomorrow everyone!

• 6/11/08 – 9:00 pm on Wednesday, June 11, Coach Paul, Matt, Liz, Jess, Caitlin, and Mel are on the road and rocking out! The tour has begun!

• 4/4/08 – Wow! 65 girls have signed up to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Elite Tour, its looking like a great week of lacrosse, fun, and friends! Now we are only 1 month away from the 1st Maniax Day of the season, and the excitement is building!
• Coming in June 2008, we will have live blogs, game updates, player and coach interviews, videos, pictures, audio, and more from the Maniax Elite Tour!  The Lax Maniax and Debeer Lacrosse… Always Thinking