WCLL Week 4 (2/16 - 2/22): Schedule, Thoughts, & Scores

[Billax]

Catlax writes: "However, if you think it is so easy to secure backup fields with less than a week's notice, then perhaps you should be offering your services to the local coaches & team administrators."

Happy to oblige, Catlax, since I do it already. Here's my offer: For a $1,000 annual fee and $300 per instance of use, given 24 hours notice, I will guarantee your club a field within 2 hours driving time of SF city center, all driving time estimates derived using www.mapquest.com. Dressing rooms not included. On gameday, you must be willing to accept any 2 hour daylight slot on any artificial turf field I find within the driving distance I've specified above. I will give you at least 3 hours notice as to game-time and location. If I fail to deliver under the terms specified above, you get your $1,000 back as well as a $500 penalty payment from me. Your team pays the field rental fee to me, via certified check, immediately after the game. If you fail to pay timely, your club will be on the hook for the money. Field damage and clean-up costs are your responsibility and your club will sign an agreement to that effect with the field owner. Of course, I'll facilitate all this paperwork.

Sound good? Please PM me so I can give you my Bona Fides and tell you where to send the check.

[P.J. Ripper]

Catlaxman,

Charlie Salemi has missed the first two games because he has been hurt. He will be back soon though.

[Bluevelvet]

Sonoma 10 Arizona 6 final score. from WCLL.com:

Sonoma prevails over Arizona late in the fourth, making the final score 10-6. Both teams played extremely hard, in an emotional game bewteen the #4 and #5 teams in the nation. Arizona played an excellent game on defense and were led in scoring by Middie Dave Sherman(3 goals). Sonoma played a very well coached, ball contoled game. Sonoma State's J.D. Hamman won 13 of 15 faceoffs making it hard for Arizona to make a comeback late. Hats off to sonoma on another great battle and good luck with the rest of their season. Arizona plays Utah tommrow @ 1pm, in tucson.

[CATLAX MAN]

Don't offer your services to me; offer it to the local coaches & team administrators. By the way, I'd seriously doubt if they's take you up on your offer as they normally don't have that kind of money to throw around. But, hey, you seem to have all the answers, perhaps you should be running all these teams.

[bbandlax]

Back to the Utah/ASU game,

I saw ASU in Vegas and although they received some credit (and rightly so) for stepping up their program this year, they still lack two or three impact players to make any real noise in the WCLL. Utah however is vastly underrated at this point in the season. Several folks I talked with that watched the BYU/Utah scrimmage noted that this is by far the best team Utah has put together. They have top 20 potential and may become that fourth bona-fide team the RMLC so desperately needs (though not yet at AZ or Noma level). Coach Goodhand is as knowledgeable as any coach in the league and has slowly been adding depth to that team.

With Arizona's return to past glory (hopefully, I miss the old BYU/Zona rivalry) Sunday's game should tell us if Utah belongs at the 10-15 range or in the 15-25 layer (I believe they are definitely top 25).

I would like to know what kind of showing you WCLL guru's think Utah needs to show they are a top 20 team? I think you guys see more second tier teams every year than any other league (especially since so many of the top teams from other leagues come out to play in Cali.)

[Billax]

Catlax says, "But, hey, you seem to have all the answers..."

Ah, Catlax, I have very few answers and I make mistakes all the time. For example, I thought you were serious when you said it was very difficult to find artificial turf fields on short notice. Moreover, I thought you were knowledgeable when you berated jtlax and Strykr11.

I do know one ineluctable thing: Money talks and you know what walks. I made a serious economic offer to solve a problem you felt was impossible to solve - and you put on your walking shoes.

[Bluevelvet]

ASU was #26 and Utah was #27 in the MDIA preseason poll. The Utah win was impressive, on the road, but not completely unexpected.
I think Utah could possibly make it to MN. This is what Utah needs to overcome:

UMLL-AQ
GRLC-AQ
PCLL-AQ
LSA-AQ
PNCLL-SFU & Oregon
CCLA- Michigan & Oakland
SELC-FSU, FL, Ga Tech
RMLC-BYU, CSU, Colorado
WCLL UCSB, SSU, AZ

That is 17 teams for 16 spots. If one of those teams does not falter or UCSD or Chapman or Cal Poly or Miami OH or Texas Tech or Texas or TAMU go on a run, that could make it even more difficult. I don't think it is fair but Utah may have to beat Arizona to make it to the top 16.

[Grizz]

Billax,
To add to your list, in the 680/580 area, Amador Valley, Foothill, California, Monte Vista and San Ramon High Schools, as well as Diablo Vista park and Sycamore Park (2 fields) all have artificial turf fields, lighted fields. That's about 8 miles from end to end.

[Timbalaned]

I looked quickly, but I don't think I saw DVC on there either, but it might be, and I know that is turf.

[PNWLaxer]

As an allocator and administrator up in the Northwest I can understand both sides of the story. But I personally must side with Catlax and here are the reasons why. There may be a number of fields that have synthetic surfaces but those are the ones with regular users and very little time available for last minute bookings. At least in my area most if not all synthetic fields are being used by regular users from 3:00pm until almost midnight during the weekdays and from 8:00am until almost midnight on the weekend.

Regular users do not like to give up their time as they know that if they are willing to do it once they will be asked over and over again to. For a lacrosse game to take place a team would most likely need to book 4 hours of field time. Most fields here are booked in 1-1.5 hour slots, so 3 or 4 groups of users would have to give up their time to slot a lax game in. Add to the fact that most synthetic fields are not properly lined for NCAA rules adds at least 30 mins of time to line the field.

Yes there are fields out their but getting on to them is key. A lot of time you are SOL if you are trying to find a synthetic surface within a week of game time. Bill your offer of $300 per use is almost as rediculous as some of the stuff going on in the NHL lockout dispute. If you were really interested in helping you would at least make a reasonable offer.

[bbandlax]

That is 17 teams for 16 spots. If one of those teams does not falter or UCSD or Chapman or Cal Poly or Miami OH or Texas Tech or Texas or TAMU go on a run, that could make it even more difficult. I don't think it is fair but Utah may have to beat Arizona to make it to the top 16.

I agree with most of what you said, however I dont think that winning the Arizona game will be their key (although I think a good showing would go a long ways). Utah will play Texas A&M, Cal Poly and UCLA. With that in mind I think that their main competition will be the second or third qualifiers from the SELC, LSA, and PNCLL (i.e. Florida, GA Tech or any other possible qualifier from the SELC, Simon Frasier, Texas A&M and maybe Texas or Texas Tech). The Cal Poly and A&M games will be huge for Utah. If the WCLL has a fourth team that really steps up then I think Utah will be in a world of hurt as far as MN goes.

Of course all this assumes that Utah is indeed a top 20 team....

(I guess this post belongs in the polls or RMLC forum)

[Billax]

PNW laxer,
Thank you for your useful comments. I parse your post as saying that what I propose is very difficult to do - perhaps impossible, but my price is rediculous (sic). Last time I checked, things that are difficult to do cost money. I've made an offer to do it. I'll stand by it. If you can do it for less money, or with greater reliability, you can own the market. Talk is cheap. Please! Make a better offer. Perhaps you can drive the price down to a point where someone will take it.

I'm a seller of services in a free market. A problem expressed as intractable has been surfaced. I say its not intractable at a certain price. Yet I have no takers. That means that: a) my price is too high for the problem, b) the problem is not particularly serious and is not worth solving or, c) some club teams are willing to stiff away teams who spend lots of money on airfare or gasoline to get here, by saying that rain cancels all commitments. Duh!

The market is a way of signaling the value of goods or services through transactions. Please, someone, undercut my offer. I'm beginning to believe that there is a 'Reality Distortion Field' around college club lax. To wit, there is a problem, there is a proposed solution, everyone says the solution costs too much but no one offers a better price, so you attack the offeror, demanding that he provide the service at a price below cost.

Yawn. This is an old story. Frederich Von Hayek won a Nobel Prize in Economics long ago for exposing the logical inconsistencies inherent in your comments.

[laxobs]

Billax offers his services to help find a field for use in the rain:

"For a $1,000 annual fee and $300 per instance of use"

I think coaches and players (who are already short of time and money) would appreciate any donation of expert services so they could just play lacrosse!

[the lax]

Back to the Utah/ASU game,

They have top 20 potential and may become that fourth bona-fide team the RMLC so desperately needs (though not yet at AZ or Noma level).

THe RMLC has the 2nd ranked and 3rd ranked team in the country. Why do they need a fourth bona fide team? Colorado in the top 10 not good enough for you?

[CATLAX MAN]

That means that: a) my price is too high for the problem, b) the problem is not particularly serious and is not worth solving or, c) some club teams are willing to stiff away teams who spend lots of money on airfare or gasoline to get here, by saying that rain cancels all commitments.

Bill, you make quite a case. Unfortunately, you forgot to consider alternative d). That's the one that acknowledges that team administrators are full time students and might not have the time or the necessary contacts to find all possible solutions (either real or imagined) and most coaches also hold down full time jobs and honestly do they best job they can possibly do considering the time that they have available. Perhaps, it also could be alternative e) that they seek help from people who are willing to lend a hand without being compensated rather than work with self-proclaimed mercenaries. It's easy to sit back and criticize people, rather than do something to try and help.

That's the last you'll hear from me on this subject, because you don't understand the basic tenets of contributing or understanding. Perhaps, Sonny's signature sums it up best:

"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain......and most fools do." - Dale Carnegie