Editor’s note: Andrew “Butters” Butterfield, a rookie member of the Woozles Lacrosse Club, stops by to share thoughts from his experience at the 2011 Tahoe Lacrosse Tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Butters is currently a sophomore midfielder at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT and an all around super fellow.
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This is a thank you note; nothing more, nothing less. Well, that’s a lie. It is a bit more than just a thank you note. This is a thank you to Jeff, and the rest of the Woozles, as well as my best recompense for the huge favor Jeff and the Woozles did for me. This post can’t possibly make up for the experience I was granted in Tahoe, but I hope it’s a step in the right direction!
In my book, the invitation to join the Woozles squad was a long time coming, and I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning when the words came out of Jeff’s mouth. Subconsciously, I immediately knew my answer to be “yes”; regardless of obstacles. I would be going to Tahoe in 2011. As introductions went around at the first night team BBQ, I knew I had been waiting for years to be able to say: “Hey, my name is Andrew, most of you probably know me as Butters by now, but I’m a first year Woozle.”
Originally, my main concern was, of course, the Woozle swag. The information about us receiving matte black Warrior TII buckets was leaked early on to me, which I knew would look sick with the Darth Woozle shorts, a sweet pink jersey, and our Woozle socks. Of course I was thinking of all the guys I would meet and all the great nights we would have, and of all the great lacrosse we would play. What I failed to realize, was that the social aspect of my time in Tahoe would eclipse the rest of my experience. And I’m not talking about the hanging out, the wild nights, and the team aspect, but the community that the Woozles are. After all, it takes a village.
As I learned out in Tahoe, each and every rookie Woozle has to be vouched for by an already established Woozle as an upstanding guy. Through this tradition, each and every Woozle ends up being a great guy. This became very apparent when our huddles consisted of comments about remembering to have fun, keeping egos off the field, and getting back to our fundamentals.
This experience really opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of the game. I love lacrosse because I am good at it and it is a necessary competitive outlet for me, but Tahoe helped me realize what the game is really all about. As Jeff, Connor, and their associates are trying to do, the game of lacrosse is meant to be shared and enjoyed with a bunch of really great people. It’s easy to lose sight of this while playing competitive college ball; it’s fun, but in a very different way. I will hopefully be able to take some of the joy from Tahoe and the Woozles back to the field with me in a few weeks when fall ball starts up again.
Tahoe is heaven on earth, some of my best memories are with the Woozles now, and nothing beats some good ol’ summer tourney lax. I can’t wait to get Woozely again in Tahoe in 2012!