Home Games

[Dulax31]

My team only has one home game this year, does other teams / conferences have this problem? I know the biggest factor that hurts us is a shortage of referees. Thoughts?

[mholtz]

We had that problem last year. We only had two. The CCLA reorganized, and the way it worked out we play all our conference games at home one year, then away the next.

[murphlaxtx]

We have had an uneven balance in ours as well....this year is more home though. However, what we did is play a couple away games at a team we travelled to the year before...just to balance it out a little.

[Vols2]

As Scott mentioned, that's the best way to do it to re-balance out your schedule.

UGA did that a couple years ago, they came to UT 2 years in a row and in the same process also coordinated it so their trips to UT and Vandy fell on the same year and in turn made it into 1 trip, which is also a smart idea to do.

[NELAX21]

We only had 2 last year because we moved from B to A and owed some teams games. This year, being back in B we have a pretty good balance because a lot of the B teams wanted to come to us early for our indoor facility and most of the game we have with A teams are away.

[dulax19]

i think part of the problem with us not having home games also has to do with the fact that its below freezing til like mid april up here

[CATLAX MAN]

UCSB only has 4 home games this year as they travel to both Utah & Colorado this year.

[Sonny]

Those of you with unbalanced schedules should change to balancing out your home and away games each year. Even if it means you make a road trip to the same school twice in a row.

Balancing things out helps keep your budget level (travel $), ensures you have a relative stable number of home games, and doesn't put unfair travel pressure on next year's squad.

[horn17]

I think the issue with us focuses more on weather issues....we would love to host teams such as Sonoma, Poly, etc....but who really wants to play lacrosse in below zero wind chill weather? I hated the cold, and now that I coach, I hate it even more. I think its easier to for us (UMLL) to pound out as many games on the weekends in domes simply because you never know what the weather was going to turn into. I think Nationals a couple years ago was a prime example (keep in mind the Twin Citites is usually at least 10 degrees warmer than Duluth).

[mholtz]

We don't have the same weather as Duluth, but it's not THAT much different. UM and CMU are fortunate to have indoor home fields. We do have turf which makes it easier to get outside earlier, but it's still no fun to play in 30 degree weather.

This week it's supposed to be over freezing most of the week, so we're hoping the snow will be gone. Til it is, it's more practice indoors.

[Sonny]

I think the issue with us focuses more on weather issues....we would love to host teams such as Sonoma, Poly, etc....but who really wants to play lacrosse in below zero wind chill weather? I hated the cold, and now that I coach, I hate it even more. I think its easier to for us (UMLL) to pound out as many games on the weekends in domes simply because you never know what the weather was going to turn into. I think Nationals a couple years ago was a prime example (keep in mind the Twin Citites is usually at least 10 degrees warmer than Duluth).

Why not host some of those OOC games indoors in the Twin Cities ala the Chris Jenkins Invitational? This weekend's schedule with Cal Poly and Lindenwood seems like a great event.

Good teams won't want to travel to the Midwest consistenly when the weather is poor in Feb, March, and early April for outdoor games. (By the end of April, the conference tournaments take place and the season is just about over.) But indoors is a different story. See Oosterbaan at the U of Michigan for a prime example.

[LaxTV_Admin]

For Marquette we have issues because there are no indoor facilities in Milwaukee. As a result we cannot host any indoor games, and by the time it is warm, it is time for our conference games. Thus, as a result, we have to typically travel for our Out of Conference Games.

For our conference every team gets one weekend at home, so that works out okay for us. We travel most weekends, but get one weekend in Milwaukee. It would be nice to find a way to get some of those Out of Conference Games to be home games.

Overall, I understand Duluth's problem, but they did a nice job this year of teaming up with Minnesota to get the Chris Jenkin's Invitational. Hopefully we can continue to get tournaments like that in the Midwest.

[horn17]

I think the issue with us focuses more on weather issues....we would love to host teams such as Sonoma, Poly, etc....but who really wants to play lacrosse in below zero wind chill weather? I hated the cold, and now that I coach, I hate it even more. I think its easier to for us (UMLL) to pound out as many games on the weekends in domes simply because you never know what the weather was going to turn into. I think Nationals a couple years ago was a prime example (keep in mind the Twin Citites is usually at least 10 degrees warmer than Duluth).

Why not host some of those OOC games indoors in the Twin Cities ala the Chris Jenkins Invitational? This weekend's schedule with Cal Poly and Lindenwood seems like a great event.

Good teams won't want to travel to the Midwest consistenly when the weather is poor in Feb, March, and early April for outdoor games. (By the end of April, the conference tournaments take place and the season is just about over.) But indoors is a different story. See Oosterbaan at the U of Michigan for a prime example.

We are doing that - and since we traveled to both locations, it worked out. I think we are focusing on more "HOME" games up at UMD in this regard Sonny. I believe we are undefeated at home in the past 15 years (?)....in other words we've never lost there. As far as "Good Teams not traveling" - thats a cop out - we have to go to Cali and play when its hot and sunny - and I see the point, but it would be nice to host a top ten match up at home once. Its exciting for some of the players to play in front of all there friends....and when we do play at home, we draw a great crowd. We arent complaining, its what we've always had to deal with - so we are used to it now. But its a struggle to only have the ability to schedule one home game due to the weather issues - its not that we like playing in it either....Where's the global warming at?????

[Hi-Line Lax]

We always have trouble getting home games since there is only one ref in the state of Montana and our closest conference opponent is 5 1/2 hours away. In my five years, the most home games we have had are 4 in a season. This year, we are fortunate to host UVSC, Linfield, and Montana State for some round-robin games. This only happened because of Linfield's Tim Hart making the effort last year to bring these games down to UVSC... who has graciously returned the trip this year. The plan is then to go to Linfield in '08. Other than that... our league scheduler would have given us only one game at home.

This is really a problem for us, as no home games = little local exposure = troubles fundraising locally = hard to start up high school games = hard to get refs interested in getting certified = continuing this cycle. It's hard.

I feel for Duluth, it's not fun to always have to travel... but it's good to see that they can still compete at a high level.

[horn17]

I'm feeling for you too Hi Line......

It sounds as if your situation is even a bit more difficult than ours - our competition is at least 2 hours away.....