Championship Thoughts

[Ballaholic]

First of all I would like to thank the USLIA board and the Dallas group for hosting one heck of a tourney. It was a pleasure to be a part of this tourney. Its great to see so many coaches, players, families and friends come together to put on such a great and unique event. This is truly something special, that not any other club sport can emulate. It's due the commitment of many people across the country and their love of this great game. I hope the success can continue on for years and i look forward to being a part of it.

I hope the expansion of the B division will continue next year. It was unfortunate that we had our first team bail out of the tourney because they truly missed out on a great experience.

I have only one complaint about the tourney. I have been involved with hundreds lacrosse games over the past 9 years and I have never had a problem with the people running the scorers table/penalty box until our semifinal match with USD. I know these guys volunteer but most of them our conference board members and they did not conduct themselves in a professional manner by any means. They gave two late horns after the whistle was blown, continuously made inappropiate comments to our bench and found it very humorous to change the scoreboard after the game to 8-5. I have run scoreboards and know that this cannot happen by accident. You must hit 3 buttons to change a score. One of our players asked them to change the score and he proceeded to ask our player to come over and "say it to his face" and suggested that "our coach should teach us respect". I think this is something that a team should not have to deal with while trying to participate in the biggest game of their season. I am sure this is an isolated incident but it might need to be addressed before next years tourney.

Kevin Stout
#7
Montana Lacrosse

[gomontucky]

emotions tend to run high during season ending games, anyone reading this forum can attest to that. we did experience a bogus incident... no question there. overall the tournament was run very well, i felt, and i personally do not hold any sort of grudge against the governing body/volunteers for what seems to have been a relatively isolated incident. i'll put forth that no changes need to be made, but that we were understandably upset when we played a hell of a game for a two goal difference and watched it grow to three after our hand shake... especially given that they made a big deal out of our request (during the game, mind you) to put the score up to six in the first place. i'm sure everyone was doing their best and this is not a big deal. much ado over nothing i suppose, you be the judge.

[MandibleS4L]

Strange is the other side to any story. To hear from Montana complaints about the volunteers running the box/score/etc. is quite odd, but not unexpected. When losing a game most will look at everything done as a slight on themselves instead of a simple error.
Case in point- the score board after the game. As the timekeeper was busy filling out the stat sheet and rechecking his information an inadvertent brush of the score/clock caused a change in the score. Without knowing, a point was taken off the Grizzlies score. Before there was an opportunity to realize the error, a few players emotionally charged and upset over the game verbally highlighted the mark to the scorers table.
To say their request was polite would be a bit of a stretch, but given their adrenaline and charge relatively understood. However, when a young man yells at a grown adult, who spends countless hours to provide a decent league structure for which his team can compete, to "Fu**ing show some respect", well..... the irony is just golden. When Parents jump to the fray and denigrate the same men who made this whole game/tournament possible- it belies the same, overarching type A minus, myopic vision associated with overzealous soccer moms and hockey dads who haven't a clue about the sacrifices made on their sons behalf. Shameful to say the least, downright embarrassing when looked from afar.

Tempers flare, kids get upset, its an understood part of being part of sports. Montana, for their part, seemed to be a great group of kids with a genuinely nice coach. The table's comments during the game, merely remarking on the geographical location of the kids hometowns being outside of Montana, were far from derogatory, inappropriate nor directed at the bench. Rather they were part of the conversation amongst the staff on how well the Grizzlies played. Late horns, etc, I find to be of a subjective matter. Mind you, horns are dictated by the respective teams requests.

Having been there for this episode I hoped it would meander the way of the dodo and disappear. Unfortunately it did not. But to see an issue painted with such a one sided brush is laughable. Perhaps something should be done next year. Perhaps the teams can shell out much more money to pay robots to be at the tables instead, ready with plaques of Great Respect for every team in the tourney. Or more respect may just come from within, benefitting all of those around

[eastbaylax]

Hats off to the USLIA and to Sonny for a great job on posting the action online. The radio feed for the championship game was awesome as was the online live update feed. This was a huge improvement over last year.

Don't forget to donate some money, as I know most of us followed the action close all week from home and office for free. Again, great job Sonny, and video clips too... wow!

[DanGenck]

What is the date/time of the CSTV recap?

[shrekjr]

I will jump in and first say what a great time I had during the week meeting a lot of the people on here from around the country. I spent most of the week working the tables as a local volunteer relaying the scores to the PA tent. I was not present during the Montana game where the incident took place. However, I will say that while all of the guys working the tables with me as clock operators and statisticians did a great job doing their assigned jobs, I did notice in two different games when they were obviously pulling for one team over the other. By rule, all table personnel are to remain as impartial as possible since they are somewhat an extension of the officiating crew. Table personnel should not yell "offsides" when it occurs, or yell to officials about calls made or not made. Again, I think all the guys vounteering their time did a great job overall, but maybe a reminder to them at the beginning of the week to remain impartial at all times when working the table would be appropriate. Perception goes a long way and a losing team hearing the table guys "cheering" against their team is certainly going to escalate any potential situation.

[Hi-Line Lax]

Well...since I obviously can't censor what the kids on my team post on this forum, I can't really take back what's already been said. Coaching on the sidelines during the game, I can say that we (Coach Krug and I) did not notice really anything coming from the score table, as we were focused on the game, but did have several players ask us during the game to tell the score table crew to stop making comments towards them. We told them to ignore the table and focus on the game and never made a comment toward the table. The player who started this thread is a team captain and true leader of this club and he took a lot to heart when someone on the crew called him an idiot for requesting a horn after it had apparently been blown. During the championships on Saturday I met with several tournament officials about the incidents during the game and was certainly planning on filing these complaints in a private manner...and I hope that it can return to a private conversation. We have had an amazing time at the National Tournaments the past two seasons and have been incredibly appreciative of the support of those who make it happen. I hope that we can keep this incident isolated and move on. Congratulations to San Diego for an incredible match and for their second Championship...I hope you continue to inspire others to elevate their games, as it can only breed better competition for us all. Also, congratulations for all the teams that made the trip to Plano this year, it was awesome to see such great competition, and for the amazing event staff that made it all possible...we really do appreciate everything.

Kevin Flynn
Montana Lacrosse President

[Danny Hogan]

-only a coach can ask for a horn

-the horn was previously given

-no one called anyone an idiot

-'late horn' or 'quick whistle'? the horn(s) were upheld by the trail official,
make your own judgements

[Pinball]

SJU was impressed by how EVERYONE handled themselves from the table staff, refs, media, russel creek people, water people and everyone else involved. GREAT JOB!!

[wailerwoo]

A big thanks to everyone with US Lacrosse, MDIA, WDIA, the teams and the volunteers. I produced the broadcasts for CSTV. It is an incredibly challenging event for us to cover. We started the day on Saturday with little information and afer 2.5 hours of meetings with teams, receiving tournament stats written cleanly on paper (Sam you have nice handwriting), and not having enough time to fully prepare we were able to put together two pretty good broadcasts. It is a unique event, as a former club player myself (the earliest days of the SELC), an event that I enjoy covering.

In my next life I want to be a Texas high school football player. Kimbrough Stadium is a fantastic facility to do television.

Thanks again to everyone who gave us the tools we needed to do our jobs. For the men's game, a miscommunication led to us missing the opening face. When you watch the game in two weeks, ease up on that an appreciate that both the men and women are receiving complete game coverage this year.

That's it. Continue to support CSTV and our lacrosse coverage. Everyone out west watch all of our Mountain West coverage this fall when our new deal starts with them, and continue to support US Lacrosse. I'm not sure that everyone appreciates how much hard work and passion the they put into this event.

[Sonny]

Perhaps something should be done next year. Perhaps the teams can shell out much more money to pay robots to be at the tables instead, ready with plaques of Great Respect for every team in the tourney. Or more respect may just come from within, benefitting all of those around.

Priceless. Absolutely priceless. I think we have found the next great MDIA award to give out at Nationals.... The "Plaque of Great Respect."

Folks you can't pay enough for coverage like that. Almost as good as...

After the final whistle blew today in Murphy, Texas (in a sickeningly incredible high school football facility) - USD celebrated about as much as a man who won two free oil changes.

[Sonny]

What is the date/time of the CSTV recap?

WDIA GAME (Cal Poly vs. Michigan) - 8pm on Monday, May 29th (Memorial Day)

MDIA Game (CSU vs. Colorado) - 10pm on Monday, May 29th (Memorial Day)

[Pinball]

There were people manning cameras during the B Div Champ game. Are they just going to be showing random highlights or what will happen with that footage (if there was anything)

[Sonny]

There were people manning cameras during the B Div Champ game. Are they just going to be showing random highlights or what will happen with that footage (if there was anything)

They probably were just getting set up for the WDIA game which followed the MDIA Div. B game. Don't know if CSTV will show any of the Div. B highlights during the Div. A title game coverage. We will certainly find out on Memorial Day night.

[lil lady lax fan]

I'm sure it was due to exhaustion. They were still psyched about repeating.