I have some questions about this......?

[jessexy]

Does anybody in the Lone Star Alliance want to win? This season has been disgraceful and watching the Texas' best teams get their butts kicked is no fun and embarrasing. Ican understand a defeat by CSU, but not our top teams getting blown away by 20 points. New Hampshire came down here without having played a game all season long and whpped a team by a shutout. how can you score zero goals in a game? i dont wanna call anyone out, but I have some questions.

what is wrong with this A&M team? Youve lost to UNH, Utah, and Tech and only score 10 goals against UNT. I dont know what to expect against Baylor.

will the real Longhorns please stand up? Lindenwood and SMU? i know both teams are improved, but you guys are texas. and arent you supposed to have backup fields prepared?

will they get too proud in Lubbock? you'll have to beat A&M again in the LSA playoffs (hopefully). its taken you 14 years to do that. Realize who your playing in St. Louis before you go up there and lose to some good teams. I hope they dont make you travel back to Austin after last weekend. its nice to see the commitment that you guys are making, but please make it for MINN in case you are the LSA rep.

Can we please get a goalscorer in Louisiana? anybody that can toss the ball into the bignet with the fat guy in front of it would suit me just fine.

whats going on in Houston? Rice was always one of the steady performers in TX lax, but what happened?

I'm not just asking the A division teams, either? LSA-B cant defend home turf after ST. Johns, UC-Irvine, Harding, etc. came down here and left with victories.

It only gets worse as Michigan and UCSD come on their swing thru and Texas goes to Florida, while Tech is in STL. Is Baylor going to Colorado or have they cancelled that trip. I have herad that the promising level of organization in Waco has disintegrated and its FUBAR again.

This is crazy fellas. go win some games and show some pride. earn your respect as a league that way, the right way, instead of playing these "which is the best league" rankings. I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm embarrased because all I do all over these message boards is defend Texas Lacrosse. but how can i defend this?

CP/Tarzan, I'll take my scolding like a man. I couldve taken some shots a teams (like Missouri) but i wont. but I had to ask some questions about the state of this league.

[Rice University Coach]

Whoa, the world is not ending. Each team has different circumstances. Tony's boys at A&M are young. Give them a couple of years. Next year they'll be better and the year after. Mark's team at Tech is still developing. He has developed a team that consistantly competes with UT and A&M, and they'll continue to get better as long as he is there. Look what a job Sean has done at SMU. His teams play team concept Lacrosse. Noah has his boys focused and they are young also. Give him another year. The pendulum swings both ways. Rice had a lot of young guys this year also. It's a shame what happened there. I'm sure they will bounce back. Look at the B division. Chris had lost many boys at NSU, but from what I saw in the fall to who we played a couple of weeks ago, was night and day. Bill at Southwestern always deserves plaudits. He always has a good team at Southwestern and this may be his year. Gary at UTA continues to push the competitive envelope with his scheduling of tough OOC games and is to be complimented for his recent hosting of the games at UTA. The bottom line is yes, the LSA hasn't competed that favorably in OOC games, but I haven't lost confidance in the coaches or players in this league. We at UH have had a year of challenges. I had four boys that were enrolling at UH not make it in for some reason or another. I had an injury to my son (car accident - 7 fractured vertabrae in the lower back) that hurt. He took all our face offs and ran man up / man down. He'll be back next year, and two key starters from last year not enroll in school this past semester. Add to that three key injuries after the first two weeks of the season. Everyone has there problems, and this year seems to have been full of them for many teams. Keep the faith, promote Texas lacrosse and the LSA. The league is strong and will bounce back.

[PigPen]

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Things will get better-I hope. Mike-fractured vertabrae? And he will be back next year? Sounds kind of risky, but for those who love the game...I might do the same if I was in his position. But it sounds dicey. Good luck to him though. What is Sam Houston's status? Amyone know...Park, you hear anything.

[Rice University Coach]

He just started physical therapy and will go 3x / week for 3 months. He's a strong kid and I know he'll be back. Thanks for asking!

[natgoal25]

im there for you next year coach....



HEAD

[PinkSnappa21]

Well im the new goalie for UNT and I been at it for a little over month now. If its a win you want out of the state of Texas i'll try to give it to you. Guess I'll have to work extra hard this week and get my team to work even harder. Haven't got my shut out game yet but maybe this is the week for it. I'll ask Karl to turn up the juice in the warm-up drills I do. Oh yeah I love to win. Its the sound of the fans screaming and the other teams face that makes me happy in life.

[mikeg123]

"Haven't got my shut out game yet but maybe this is the week for it"

dont put too much emphasis on this, a wins a win. ive been playing goalie for about 8 years now and usually the shutouts ive gotten have been blowouts/unsatisfying. winning is most important and how u play crucial situations (up by 1) will be what u remember most

as for the first comment you never mentioned TxSt but that's probably cause nothing to be expected of us anyways, but we have our problems as well, we play teams like lindenwood who wasnt that much more talented but much more organized, efficient, and flat out played better team ball, which is something we have to change for this team to take it the next level

[benji]

Hey LSA, the rest of the USLIA seemed to all have lost faith in us. Let's step it up already, and not lose faith in ourselves. Im getting really tired of hearing blah blah blah about how the LSA can't "bring it" this year and what not. It's time we crank it up a notch and show em' "how we roll."

[Walter]

Hey LSA, the rest of the USLIA seemed to all have lost faith in us. Let's step it up already, and not lose faith in ourselves. Im getting really tired of hearing blah blah blah about how the LSA can't "bring it" this year and what not. It's time we crank it up a notch and show em' "how we roll."

good luck with that.

[Brent Burns]

In the darkest hour for Great Britain in WWII, Sir Winston Churchill proclaimed, "Never, never, never give up!"

From the world of academia when it comes to attributing quotes, I learned that this quote which became one of his famous quotes from his speech to Harrow School on October 29, 1941. The text of his address can be found at www.school-for-champions.com/speeches/c ... giveup.htm.

If the link does not work, you can try the following:

*http://www.school-for-champions.com

*Scroll down and click on "Speeches"

*Scroll down and find Winston Churchill's "Never give up" speech

[uzisuicide]

These are my thoughts on this years decline in the LSA. One is that most of the conference is young this year. Also another factor that I think could make for a valid argument is that perhaps the incoming talent is not as good as it used to be? Here is my argument for this so bear with me. For the most part LSA teams are primarily made up of instate or southern talent. This could be said of the big 3 (UT, A&M, TTU) as well. While these teams manage to bite off some out of state talent, the majority of their crops come from the Lone Star State. The one execption would be perhaps SMU, since it is such a prestigious private school, it tends draw people from everywhere for academic reasons. But the face of High school lax in TX has changed. More people are playing and the talent is improving. The reason though that this does not necessarily help out TX club ball is that since the kids coming out of high school in TX are better more and more of them are going to play for the big fellas in the NCAA. TX started to migrate more realistically up to the east starting in the mid to late ninties. But then is was still not the norm. Now is it is not completely uncommon for a kid to make a jump to that next level at all. Especially in the Dallas area which has eclipsed Houston as the Lax hotbed in TX. It is now realistic for NCAA teams to take TX kids and for them to actually make the first move in looking at TX talent. So basically more and more kids are leaving the Lone Star State to play elsewhere. If not an NCAA team but perhaps a top tier out of state USLIA program. At least this is something that I see that could be possibly thinning out the talent in the LSA. But then again it might not be significant enough to make an impact. This is just a theory and I'd love to get peoples thoughts on this. Because even though teams are young right now I do still see a talent difference in the league. To me there aren't as many complete players as about 3 to 5 years ago. Just a theory, I could be wrong, I'd like to hear what some others think about this.

[mikeg123]

Especially in the Dallas area which has eclipsed Houston as the Lax hotbed in TX

This is very true

More people are playing and the talent is improving. The reason though that this does not necessarily help out TX club ball is that since the kids coming out of high school in TX are better more and more of them are going to play for the big fellas in the NCAA

This I'm not so sure about, while you may be right about the quality in highschool improving and that some of them are leaving to play NCAA, you have to realize that quality has improved from top to bottom and our league is made of those who choose not to play NCAA lacrosse

Colorado St just beat Colorado College (DIII) because they had a better team comprised of people who at some point chose not to pursue a NCAA career

[uzisuicide]

I think that your missing part of my point that many of the major stand out players from many of these TX highschools that 2 or 3 years ago would have not gone to NCAA are now going. & I assume that you mean the LSA when you say that your league has improved from top to bottom. If that is the case then I would not agree, in fact this thread is about the poor play from the LSA this year. Now I would argue that perhaps teams like TXST and UNT may have improved some but they still cannot beat the top teams that are obviously down this year. Yes the improvement of highschool LAX would mean that even the bad players or mediocre players are better than previous years, but they are still not play makers. The fact is that the majority of the play makers are going off to play out of state for bigger programs. As for your point about CSU beat CC I recommend you reread my previous post. Read the part where I mentioned about TX highschool players that may not go NCAA, but go to top tier USLIA programs. Just think about the primary areas from which the big three draw from. A&M draw lots of Houston kids due to proximity (Kingwood & Woodlands). UT draws in a mix of Houston, Dallas, Austin, & San Antonio kids. Tech tends to draw mainly from the Dallas area. I know this is generalizing it a tad but this is the continuing trend. Houston and Dallas have always been the strongest areas. For a while Houston was the top, and back in the day when a TX player going to play for a NCAA, or perhaps a CSU calibar team, lots of these kids funneled into UT, and a ton to A&M. & this would include even the stud players. Hence why UT and A&M dominated for so long. Now that Houston is not the hotbed it once was and those top players from their are most likely furthering their careers else where, the well is maybe starting to dry up a little at the moment in that area. Because think about it this way if Tech gets the largest influx of Dallas players, and Dallas is now the biggest talent pool, then should Tech just be destroying everyone? But this is not the case. & when I say everyone I mean Out of conference opponents as well. Now Tech is a decent team, but they are not 'destroying' everyone. The reason is that most of the stud players from the area are furthering their careers else where, be it NCAA, or big dog USLIA teams. I think most people in the LSA know the kind of play makers that teams like ESD, St. Marks, Jesuit, or even Plano have been churning out lately. & I think that it's safe to say that almost none of these players are playing, at Tech, UT, or A&M, much less any other LSA team. I think this is a pretty good assumption. But anyway lets keep the comments coming, I'd like to hear more opinions on this matter. :wink: & I'm not saying this is the only reason the LSA is down this year, like I said in my previous post there are other reasons as well, like teams being young. But I think that this could be a strong contributer to the dilemma.

[FlockOfSeagulls]

Mr. Suicide,

I was about to type the same exact thing. I've been thinking about that all season. The lambs, dunns, and alters of today are going out to the east coast... Tech still gets some good dallas kids and SMU pulls players nationwide, which is why these two schools are having the best seasons so far... Its a tough road ahead, because the LSA will have to get much more reputable before some of these kids start coming back, but they need these kids to become more reputable in the first place... its the chicken or the egg... quite a conundrum my friends...

[Rice University Coach]

I think that UZISUICIDE has some great points. It's a combination of things that have contributed to this so called "off year" in the LSA. I agree about boys going out of conference. I coached Clear Lake H.S. for 4 years and I had boys going to USC, Auburn and other USLIA schools. Their choice was first academics and secondly Lacrosse. I had the majority of my Lake boys stay in state. A&M and Texas got the lion share of my grads with Baylor following up. I believe in state that Texas and A&M will always get their share of Texas talent. Private schools such as SMU and Tulane, will pull from out of state. Tulane is predominantly made up of boys from the northeast. I feel that commuter schools such as UTA and UH have the hardest battle in competing for talent. The majority of boys playing lax in Texas are good students, and want the "full college experience" and want to live on campus. I know that UTA has made improvements in campus housing and so has UH, but we still are at a disadvantage. I lost out on three boys from the Dallas area who decided to go to Tech and UNT versus Houston. I try to sell the University first, the facilities that we use and the league that we play in. I agree with UZISUICIDE that Texas talent has reached the level where our best players can compete on the NCAA level. Jimmy Weiss comes to mind. He played at Houston Lamar and is now at Princeton. That says something about our H.S. programs in Texas. It's more about the evolution of the sport in Texas.