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Connor Wilson Must Dye: ILF Italia Edition

In early June I headed out towards the northeastern-most Point of Long Island to play in the LI War on the Shore with the guys from the Southampton Brewery LC.  Those of us that are regulars were joined by a couple of younger guys and two of those strapping young bucks were the Fortunato Brothers out of Dirty Jersey.  Rob is going to be a Junior at Virginia and has to be considered the front runner to be Adam Ghitelman’s replacement next year.  His older brother, Mark, played club ball up at Hobart and plays with us from time to time in the City.

Both of these guys are playing on the Italian National Team at the ILF World Games this summer and they were checking out one my dyed sticks (who am I kidding, I was showing it off) and they asked me to cook them something up.  I’ve done sticks now for New Zealand and Australia so why not Italy?  I’ve got nothing against the Azzurri.   Except for that braid wearing Roberto Baggio.

Dye jobs in mid-process. Green? Done. Niedermeyer? Dead!

The team colors are blue (or azure = azzurri), gold and white and the flag is red white green.  As if none of you have ever seen an Italian flag before at the beach!  Ha.  For Mark’s stick I dyed the top like the Italian Flag and the rest of the stick blue with the word AZZURRI in my boring block lettering.  I really need to get better letter stickers.  Noted.  The blue isn’t perfect but I blame that on the fact that I had to dye Gait heads.  Their plastic reacts weirdly to dye.  More so than any other manufacturer’s heads.  It’s weird.  I also strung up a sweet little mesh number in about 15 minutes.  Ok, Gait sticks are easy to string.  Lots of holes.

Very Niiiiiiiice.
A little backside action...

Rob gave me a never before seen Gait goalie head and he liked the glue gun drizzle so I went with that.  First of all, glue gunning a goalie head is a lot of work.  Chipping the glue off is even worse.  I went red white green with a lot of glue gun splatter.  Little tip:   Before pulling off the glue, pop the head in the freezer so the glue hardens up a bit.  It’s much easier to pull off and using pliers is never a bad idea after your fingernails feel like they’re going to fall off.

Yes, Gait makes a goalie head. SPLATTER!

I also decided to re-do the string job on my STX X10 with the MarcMesh.  Sure, one doesn’t NEED a V shooter but I put one back in anyway.  The top two shooters are crosslace and with a worn piece of MarcMesh, rock hard shooters are great for a fast release and great velocity.  I shot with it last weekend and it was money.

Annnnnd... I restrung this stick. Again.

I’m also trying to recreate MarcMesh at home and it’s not as easy as I thought it might be but I’m not giving up yet.  If you’ve done it successfully, email me and we’ll put your advice up on LAS so everyone can learn the trick!  Or we’ll keep it a dirty little secret.  We’ll leave it up to whoever can figure it out!

I've dyed the mesh a bit. Stripes were tough. And it's been buttered. Now it's drying. But it doesn't feel quite right yet.

 And just in case you were wondering… Yes, the Thumbpocalypse rolls on during the Summer season.  And now this sports epidemic has made it’s way to not only High School kids, but Fellowship of Christian Athlete HS kids.  So sad.

This is about as blatant a violation as you will ever see (unless you're watching Max Quinzani play! We Got Jokes!)

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About the Author: Connor is a life-long lacrosse player who doesn’t know when to give up on the game. He played and coached at Wesleyan University and now plays for the Southampton LC in NYC. Connor lives with his fiance in Brooklyn and thanks her for allowing him to keep the dream alive.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com.