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Cajun’s Corner – Middle Of Nowhere Lax Update

A whole bunch of nothing is going on in the deep south. It’s too damned hot to even think about going outside. One would think our daily shower (recall that it is hurricane season, which makes the coastal states a bit like England) would cool things off, but what actually happens is the rain gets hot, creating a steamy, humid, swamp-like environment. If you’ve ever worn pads in this kind of humidity, you know about “the stank.” You might as well set your pads on fire to avoid radioactive poisoning. Surprisingly, we haven’t had rain in three or four days now, which is nice because I can finally roll my windows down.

Black Jeep + Hot Weather = Hot Jeep

From the looks of things, I should have knocked on wood. Weather forecast.

In local laxy news, we had a pick up a couple weeks ago and the turn out was pretty nice. We had two or three middle school kids, and a few guys who had never played before. But what was really cool is a girl named Carrie showed up to play. She just moved here from California, and played goalie.

When she walked up to me and asked if she could play, I have to admit, I was thinking “This is like something you see in a movie.” So I told her to suit up, and she definitely held her own. Props to Carrie Yang for shutting down some of our better shooters, and for going to coast to coast a couple times.

The Louisiana League officials and head coaches held their annual meeting last weekend. Since we’re pretty much the newest League in the nation, we have growing pains, which is expected.

We elected a new commission (congrats to Darren Ball, a Louisiana lacrosse ref who stepped up to the plate), and we made some minor changes to the way we run the league but nothing worth blogging about. If you’re just dying to know, feel free to ask, but you’ll probably be bored with my answer.

There was one subject that came up that we definitely did not spend enough time discussing, and I’m still trying to figure out why. It was clearly the most important thing on the docket.

League Expansion

Virtually no one had input on the subject, including myself – I wasn’t quite sure how these meetings are run, as it was my first time attending. I’m seriously regretting having not opened my mouth. The commissioner opened by saying that the way to get the league growing is to start up a bunch of middle school teams, which to an extent, I agree with.

Personally, I think that growing the game at the high school level and letting it trickle down through word of mouth (little brothers) is the best way to grow the game in our area. I’m not denying that middle school programs would be effective, but there’s a MUCH higher demand for lacrosse at the high school level.

It would certainly be easier to grow the sport at the high school level because of the demand. Middle schoolers don’t really know what lacrosse is, or who plays lacrosse, unless their older brother is on a team.

High schoolers definitely know which schools have it and a ton of high schoolers in our area want to play it. For example, as you probably know, I coach Dutchvegas, but I have players from Dutchvegas HS, East Ascension HS, and St. Amant HS. If we had more people stepping up to coach lacrosse, EA and St Amant would probably have teams of their own.

After I wrote that last sentence, I thought to myself “Damn, we really need more coaches.” If you read this, live in Louisiana, and think you can handle some recreational coaching, please step up to the plate. Beyond the fact that the Louisiana Lacrosse League really needs your help, lacrosse as a sport really needs this.

Only Mike Brantley from Jesuit – New Orleans had relevant input on league expansion. He mentioned there is an urban public school in New Orleans that is trying to form a freshman only team, but needs financial assistance to get it going. He suggested the league support them by waiving their annual league team dues, which to my astounding surprise, was actually met with some opposition.

Really? Really?? Pretty obvious to me now that Private schools have more money than they know what to do with, and don’t quite get how tough it is for a start up public school team. Hell, if it comes down to it, I will pay their dues, but it’s complete nonsense that we’re making it difficult for this team to get started.

Now I’m all worked up. Perhaps a baby inside of a watermelon will calm me down.

[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=kfEmHmbraww”]

Did the trick. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Other cool stuff I got the iPhone 4. Yes, it definitely has signal problems when you hold it in your left palm, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking that the phone is awesome. Sometimes I think its a bit overkill – it’s basically a $200 tweet machine

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LOS LINNNKS

Baton Rouge is getting it’s own brewery, which to beer snobs like myself is pretty cool. Mid-August can’t get here soon enough. Hopefully another pick up game this weekend, weather permitting. I believe pictures and video will be in store for this one. We will hold our final, official recruitment meeting for Dutchvegas the last week of August. Saying prayers that I will be overwhelmed with the turnout… Have you seen the LAS Rocket Pop gloves? For the first time in 10 years, I will purchase a lacrosse product not made by Brine.

OH. MaGad.

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A challenge of sorts: I’ve noticed a lot of major lacrosse companies always post pictures of custom gear they made for MLL players & teams, and NCAA players & teams.

My challenge to you company reps is this: Post pictures of your charity work.

These pro and NCAA guys get plenty of cool stuff all the time. What about the people who want to play lacrosse but can’t? What have you donated to them? I double-dare you to give the gift of lacrosse to a group of kids, and see if they’re more excited about their new pads than the professional players. ______________________________________________________________________________

Just found this picture and thought it was pretty cool. Gli Azzuri have been on a hot streak.

Italy and Switzerland after the very close game. Italy 7, Switz 6

This picture and more can be found here __________________________________________________________________________________
About the author
:
Knox is a 24 year old High School Head Coach in a small area east of Baton Rouge. He played High School ball for four years, and college ball for about 1 week until he realized his collegiate priorities rested with more important things like partying and eventually trying to get his grades up. He enjoys things that most Louisiana people do – eating boiled crawfish and alligator, a cold Abita Amber, anything LSU, his dog, and his beautiful girlfriend, Audrey. Lacrosse is not listed because most Louisiana people have no idea what lacrosse is.

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