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Miami B&G Recap – Friday

I’m back from Miami and as expected, it was a great time.  For the guys and girls coming down from the North, the warm weather provided a nice respite from seasonal depression and the action on the lacrosse field was a nice added bonus!  When I got down on Friday, the weather was 75-80 degrees, sunny, breezy and beautiful.  Cover Girl.

I met Lacrossewear/HeadStrong’s fogo, Greg Gurenlian, at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport and we caught a ride down to the fields in Miami from some of Greg’s teammates.  Before we got picked up, Greg had a chance to show off a new piece of goalie Marc Mesh.   I love dyed heads and customization so I’m sure you can only guess how I feel about this:

Goalie's yelling 'popcorn!' wasn't enough? Now their mesh can mock me? Sweet.

The fields were located 20-30 minutes West of South Beach in Hialeah, an industrial and residential neighborhood in Miami’s sprawling suburbs.  Like the mesh shown above, there were a lot of great images this weekend.  This one wasn’t too bad either:

Maybe it's just me, but that sign seems to be engaged in racial profiling. Not cool.

The fields were in pretty decent condition at Amelia Earheardt Park even though they were still being lined when I rolled up.  The tournament used a 2 point arc located about 12-13 yards from goal and in our first game against Team Cans, Steven Brooks wasted no time in letting a 2-pointer rip.  Top Cheese.

Brooks and Brendon Mundorf did a lot of the scoring for the STX/StrikerDanger squad in our first round game and John Dicomillo absolutely dominated the face off square when he wasn’t throwing box fakes or dropping knowledge.  Malcolm Chase may have been the most dangerous longstick at the tournament and showed it by dropping btb goals, throwing kayaks like his life depended on it and jacking anyone up who wasn’t paying attention.  I wish I could still play like that!  Once upon a time…  of course, he’s older than I am so I really have no excuse other than the fact that I work a desk job and that I’m really lazy.

After the game, which we won teens-2, I headed to South Beach in one of our many team vehicles (an orange minivan, a lime mv, a tan mv and a big black pickup) and checked in to the Shore Club.  The Shore Club was at one point, THE spot in Miami and although it’s no longer right at the top of the list, it is still a pretty hopping spot and more affordable than places like the Raleigh or the Delano.

View from the top of the Shore Club looking towards da beach.

I met up with Malcolm Chase and we stocked up on water, bananas, hangover snacks and more water.  After dropping off the supplies, we headed to Free Spirits, a beachy dive bar right next to a Days Inn.  For a bunch of lax dudes looking for some afternoon beverages, it was perfect.  After a couple drinks, I headed back to the hotel to get settled and get ready for dinner and then a night out on South Beach.

I grabbed dinner at Soyka’s Cafe & Bar which is in Miami but North and West of South Beach, with my ladyfriend and her family.  A couple James Bond style Martinis always start a night off dangerously.  After a great dinner, we headed back to South Beach and made our way over to the Clevelander Hotel, which has a HUGE outdoor bar area.  There were a ton of lax dudes there and I saw a ton of people I knew from my many years living the full-time lacrosse lifestyle.

I am still amazed that no one fell in the pool. It was so close!

The night ended with a cab-ride debate over whether or not lacrosse players suck.  My girlfriend took the position that we do (primarily because I insisted on wearing a tshirt out at night… hence we couldn’t get into a club filled with 40 year old men and 16 year old girls at the Fountain Bleu Hotel unless I paid the bouncer a hundo. Ha! As if!), while our team’s assistant coach and head heckler, Pete Dillon, took the opposite tack.

We’ll call the argument a draw that will just have to be continued next time.  As we walked back to the Shore Club, Daunte Culpepper pulled up next to us in a white Bentely and my girlfriend told him to stop oggling her and that he was washed up.  Really.  He had a good laugh and drove off after she ripped on him some more.   I think she finished him off with a good one about the Detroit Lions needing a bailout.  Honestly, I’ve never been so proud.

I’ll be back later this week with more stories, updates and pictures/videos, whatever I can get my hands on.  If you’ve got stuff from the tournament you want to show off or a story you want to share (think long and hard about that one) then send me an email and we’ll get it up on LAS!  We’ll also be posting the more lacrosse-heavy side of things with a rundown of how the top teams did, who was playing and possibly an all-tournament team… or at least the MVP.  There will also be continued ridiculousness, as is expected.

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Contact the author of this post at connor@lacrosseallstars.com