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Miami Bump & Grind Preview

On January 22nd, 23rd and 24th, I’ll be playing for StrikerDanger/STX in the Miami Bump & Grind Tournament in South Beach.  The tournament is put on by Lacrossewear, an equipment, apparel and custom uniform manufacturer based in South Florida close to Ft. Lauderdale.  Lacrossewear is owned by Bo Lamon, the all-time leading scorer at New England College, a lefty and an all-around super dude.

The tournament fields are pretty close to South Beach (like the beach, beach) and that’s also where the action is.  A lot of the teams stay right on South Beach and the nightly parties take place there as well.   StrikerDanger has straight hooked it up for the tourney in the uniform department.  They’re sick and in 3D.  Suck on that, James Cameron.

Put on your Avatar glasses, then regain your equilibrium. Yeah, they’re sick.

Our team is looking pretty good and I’ve got to say it starts with our leadership.  The guys from STX and StrikerDanger are really taking care of everything in terms of organization and as someone who has organized teams before, I can tell you this is no easy task.  Ask the dude who runs any summer team you play on.  He’ll agree.  Anthony Kelly is our coach (yeah, we have a slightly injured giant for a coach, what of it?) and I feel like he is going to have us running like a well oiled machine in no time.  Or we’ll just stumble to the beach.  We’ll see.  We’ve got some big names on the roster in Kyle Harrison, Brendan Mundorf, Steven Brooks and Chris Gill.  We’ve also got some awful, no-name guys like… me.  I’m really just hoping I can keep up.

There are 12 men’s teams entered and the remaining 11 are: the home team of Lacrossewear/Headstrong, Wells Fargo out of NY (I guess that bank still exists), Stickhead/ProAthletic, Aspen Hooters, Salt Shakerz, Uno Mas, Team Absolut, Fat Rhinos, Team Awesome, Team Cans and The University of Miami.  One can pretty much guarantee that there will be a bunch of other MLL players will be in attendance and that each team will boast a couple of guys who play on a different level.

The games start on Friday afternoon when each team will play one game.  On Saturday each team will play 2 more games and then the playoffs start on Sunday.  A 3 day tournament in Miami in January is genius and I’m excited to be able to play there this year.  The competition looks good, my own jersey is going to give me a migraine (I can’t imagine what it will do Sunday morning!) and it is way too cold here in NYC for my sanity.  I think I’m getting soft in my old age.

I’ll keep you posted on the tournament when the time arrives and will be sure to provide a full report on EVERYTHING.  or something.  You’ll see.  Thank God I got a little tan last week because I’m not bringing any suntan lotion.  Sock tans are cool, right?

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About the Author:
After helping to start the program at Weston HS in Massachusetts, Connor Wilson went on to play at Wesleyan University. Post-graduation, Wilson stayed on and coached at Wesleyan for 2 years. He also played in Australia and the American Lacrosse League. Currently Wilson plays for the Southampton Lacrosse Club in NYC and enjoys dyeing lacrosse sticks, eating breakfast sandwiches and a pretentious writer’s bio on LAS.

Contact him at connor@lacrosseallstars.com