Grow the Game®

bill-baltimore-indoor-lacrosse-league
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp

Hot Pot: What The Heck is the BILL?

The BILL kicked off last night down in Baltimore. What the heck is the BILL? Allow me to explain…

The Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League is a box lacrosse league, which is obviously located in Baltimore. The games are usually on weeknights, they are played at the Myers Pavillion in Maryland, the season starts in mid-September, runs for about 10 weeks, and ends before the National Lacrosse League season kicks off in early January. While there is plenty of field talent learning the box game down in the BILL, there is also a strong collection of dedicated box lacrosse players, and many of these players come together on the same team each year for the BILL.

The core group of box players makes sure that this is a real box experience, and not just field players alley dodging in a hockey rink. If you don’t pick and roll, or know how to deal with a crosscheck, you’re gonna have a bad time. It’s rough and tumble, high level American box lacrosse, and I’m sure you’ll recognize more than a few of the names on team rosters. Here are just a couple of the names that should be familiar:

Joe Fletcher, Shawn Nadelen, Jack Runkel, Justin Ward, Eric DiProspero, Matt Hickman, Brent Hiken, Jeff Joy, Ryan Boothe, Jordan Hall, Erik Holt, Ben Hunt, John Hrum, Scott Joyner, Scott Prestridge… the list goes on and on.

To give you a better idea on what the BILL is all about, I spoke with a couple current and former players to get a better idea:

Julian Maliszewski – The level of competition is always high in the BILL. There are great players from all levels including NLL, NALL, PLL, MILL, MLL and D1 NCAA. Most of the players have box experience from earlier in their careers, or they understand the basics of the game and learn more and more as they play. Players help each other get better. Most of the players are from the Greater Baltimore area and play against each other in several venues and leagues throughout the year.

It’s a great league with great people. There are top level refs, and we play our games in an interesting venue that has a great view of the city at night. Shot clocks make the games fast paced. It’s constantly growing but box isn’t an easy game and it’s not for everyone. So the people that play year in and year out all have some aspect that they connected on, and it keeps them coming back.

Ginny Capicchioni – The level is similar to senior lacrosse in some leagues in Canada, but we play FIL rules so there are some differences. Approximately 80%-85% of the league has box experience, so the new players are mostly learning from the players on their own teams. It is competitive so it is also an efficient way for people to stay in game shape/speed during the fall. 

Larry Fila runs the league down in Baltimore, and it looks like we might see full game stats this year, which would be exciting. The league also videotapes games from time to time, so check out a couple of videos of past season’s action below to get a visual of the BILL in action:

2010 BILL Championship

2006 BILL Goal – Video

To stay up on the 2014 BILL season, check out the Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League homepage. Hopefully there will be some more video this year. We can’t wait to see how it all pans out!