Victoria Tournament August 25th, 26th, & 27th

[Kyle Berggren]

The All-Star team won their first game 5-3. It was a slow start, and an early game (8:30 am).

[Timbalaned]

any word on how the Big Foot team played?

[Tim Whitehead]

="Kyle Berggren"]4 pm SoundLax vs. Team Harrow Victoria (I hope Whitehead is on this team)

Tim's a great dodgeball player, just too bad he plays the same way in the cage.

Will Aiden be on it as well?

Sorry guys, I'm posting this from Germany, so I'm obviously not in Victoria right now. I think Aiden is being a golfer this summer, and not a lacrosse player....

[Kyle Berggren]

We headed out right after our game on Sunday (all of us had ferries to catch and most players had class on Monday), but we played Bigfoot Saturday as our second game & lost 8-7 with time running out. Tolzman was as aggressive as I've seen him & did a great job controlling most of the first half. You'll get more details on that soon, but that game really broke our backs. Bigfoot was in the Semi's & and playing well when we left.

[mikec900]

I don't mean to start any arguments here, but why wasn't the A division all-star team given the same chance to play in this tourney? I know that sponsorship is the obvious response, but really both the A and B divisions should be treated equally.

If the A players were extended an offer to play and i have missed the post, then sorry for this post.

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

I don't mean to start any arguments here, but why wasn't the A division all-star team given the same chance to play in this tourney? I know that sponsorship is the obvious response, but really both the A and B divisions should be treated equally.

If the A players were extended an offer to play and i have missed the post, then sorry for this post.

I don't know who made the suggestion a couple years ago - it may have been Dan Wishengrad - but when we decided against an all-star game at the PNCLL Final Four, it was suggested that maybe we put these kids together and have them play in a tournament like Vail or Victoria.

Kyle and I talked about it during the final four and decided that we would do the "leg work" and put this thing together. We decided we would put a team together, coach them together (we currently coach the Tacoma Starz H.S. Elite team together), and Sound Lacrosse would be the sponsor. This was NOT a PNCLL sanctioned or sponsored team.

The reason for this is simple. Putting an "all-star" team into a tournament like this is unprecedented, so really none of us knew how it would be received. As it turned out, we had tons of interest and the whole project worked out well.

Why the "B" division? Really it's simple. Kyle currently coaches in the B division, and I used to coach in the B division as well. When we came up with this idea, Kyle decided he would help sponsor the team using his new company Sound Lacrosse. Sound Lacrosse paid the entry fee and put jerseys on the players backs. The kids who showed up paid for hotels and their ferry ticket to Victoria.

Kyle and I have good relationships with Kevin Flynn of Montana and Adam Lent of WWU, so they were instrumental in getting their players to come and play in the event. Kevin helped Kyle coach when it turned out that I couldn't be there. Players were also invited from Albertson, SOU, WOU and Whitman, but Dan Snell of SOU is the only player from those schools who was invited and actually made the trip. PLU had 5 or 6 players, WWU had 2, Montana had 7 or 8, and UPS had the other two.

We hope this sets a precedent and the A division will put together a solid group to compete in Victoria in 2007. I was contacted by several A division all-stars that were looking for a team to play on this year. I know Sound Lacrosse plans to sponsor another B division team for next year's event. If there's interest I would be willing to assist an A division team in their attempt to find a sponsor for this kind of endeavor in 2007.