Glen's Look on Lax

Duke Lacrosse Hoax Books Doing Well

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:04:36 -0600

So I was browsing Amazon today – Christmas Eve is not too late to be shopping for presents – and came across the Duke Lacrosse books for sale. I knew former Duke Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler had co-authored a book, but I hadn’t realized there were two others on the market. I’m glad to see it. I hope a lot of people are interested in hearing the true story now that the sexy headlines are no longer in the national media. However, I seriously doubt all those who were so dangerously eager and fast to accuse the team of wrongdoing will give any time or interest to understanding the whole story. They were hoping the truth to be something other than reality, and once that hope expired their interest did as well.

I do have to question the decision of two of the publishers to put the three accused player’s faces on the cover. Their pictures were already widely circulated, but it seems unnecessary. If these books truly are an attempt at justice than the photos seem to contradict that effort. But I guess that’s a naïve view. Covers have the sole purpose of selling books, and I’m sure the publishers know what their doing in that respect. It is interesting that the Pressler book didn’t take the same approach though.

These three books all seem to be getting good user reviews. I haven’t read any of them yet – mainly because I very rarely have time to read a book. But I am interested and plan on picking one up. Might as well be the Pressler book I guess. This man has been severely wronged so I hope this book puts some good money in his pocket.

Duke Lacrosse Books

Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)
by Stuart Taylor (Author), KC Johnson (Author)
Average rating – 4.5 stars

It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered (Hardcover)
by Don Yaeger (Author), Mike Pressler (Author)
Average rating – 4.5 stars

A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case (Hardcover)
by Nader Baydoun (Author), R. Stephanie Good (Author)
Average rating – 4.0 stars

Smartlink Must be Stopped!

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 16:39:32 -0600

It was the Germans, then the Russians, the Terrorists, now Smartlink...

For those who have never heard of Smartlink they are the powerhouse Annapolis/Baltimore based post-college club lacrosse team.

For years the outdoor team Single Source was an unstoppable force in the USCLA outdoor club league. Single Source, run by Brendan Kelly, eventually became Smartlink after Kelly's company changed names. However, Smartlink no longer fields an outdoor team.

Instead they have decided to take their winning ways indoors to the Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League (BILL). For the past few years they have fielded a powerful team that some claim is simply too good. In fact they haven't lost a game in over two years. The roster is filled with MLL and NLL players in their prime.

This has lead to some speculation that the league powers will break up the dynasty by separating all-star goalie Erik "Godzirra" Miller from his squad; sending him on a rotation that will have him tending net for teams such as the South Baltimore Bad News Bandits, and the Screaming Burritos anchored by the Menendez brothers.

Without Miller in cage, will the dominance continue? Will contenders like Pickled Parrot, Dewalt, e-Lacrosse, and Cummings step up for the upset? We'll have to wait a year to find out.

As a member of a team (Pickled Parrot) that competes in the BILL - I can say that it is fun playing against them. It let's you test yourself against some of the best in the game. But it has to be rough for some of the other teams in the league.

This year's Smartlink Box roster:

Zack Burke, John Ciliberto, Buggs Combs, Casey Connor, Ben DeFelice, Kyle Fiat, Matthew Florio, Spencer Ford, Mark Frye, Erik Miller, Ryan Moran, Brian Myers, Shawn Nadelen, Tucker Parnell, Evan Santini

My New Lid - Cascade pro7

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:46:00 -0600

So I recently picked up a new helmet - the Cascade pro7. I have to admint I don't really stay up to date with all the new changes in helmet technoolgy. I would still be content with my Cascade Cpro from a few years ago. But as many players do I seem to accumulate helmets through club teams and various other sources. With that being said, this is a pretty nice helmet. I don't notice a whole lot of comfort or weight difference from the CPX, but apparantly the pro7 offers some enhanced technology. The Seven Technology - basically the mesh plastic helmet lining - is suppossed to improve shock absorption and injury prevention. The patented pro-fit fit system allows you to adjust the helmet as needed. If the adjustment system works as advertised this would allow young players to adjust the size of the helmet as they grow; potentially eliminating the need for new helmets every couple years. Of course that assumes a kid would be content to keep the same helmet for a few years. Which is unlikley. With the rate that lacrosse manufacturers put out new helmets, it's hard to keep up with the latest and greatest; but inevitably that's what kids wants.

Top 25 Lacrosse Programs - by number of MLL players

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:07:50 -0600

I saw a breakdown of the schools feeding MLL rosters a while back; but I wanted to put up an updated breakdown. Of course this isn’t necessarily an indication of a programs overall strength because there’s obviously a lot of variables at play. Some great college players decide not to pursue a professional lacrosse career.

These numbers are based on the 10 MLL rosters on their websites as of 1/2/08. It’s possible that some of the players on those rosters won’t make the final squad. When a player attended multiple colleges, the most recent school was used.

It’s amazing how many players the top 5 schools put into the MLL. I’m surprised to see only 5 from G-town and 4 from Duke. I guess the alum are too busy making boat loads of money on Wall Street or wherever else. Dartmouth with 4 players surprised me; I need to stop sleeping on them I guess. Salisbury was the only non-D1 team to make the top 25.

Rank	School	# of MLL players *
1	Syracuse	24
2	Johns Hopkins	22
3	Virginia	21
4	Maryland	19
5	Hofstra	16
6	Navy	11
7	Princeton	10
tie	Towson	10
9	Cornell	9
tie	UMASS	9
11	Delaware	8
tie	Salisbury	8
13	Loyola	7
tie	North Carolina	7
tie	Penn State	7
16	Brown	6
tie	Denver	6
tie	Ohio State	6
tie	UMBC	6
20	Georgetown	5
21	Rutgers	5
22	Dartmouth	4
tie	Duke	4
tie	Notre Dame	4
25	Albany	3
tie	Fairfield	3

* Based on Rosters on Website as of 1/2/08

LaxPower Adds a Media Section

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:57:55 -0600

Looks like LaxPower is now also jumping on the online video bandwagon. After all everyone knows that video is king on the Web these days. I've been a huge fan of LaxPower's forums for years. So I'm glad to see them adding this new dimension to their site.

http://www.laxpower.com/media

E-lacrosse.com has featured a lot of lacrosse video over the years and could probably be considered the pioneers for lax video. Inside Lacrosse has obviously come on strong more recently. Now with the addition of video on LaxPower we have another outlet for quality lax video on the Web. The new media section seemed to have some minor bugs to work out when I took a look. But I would expect them to work those out quickly. Hopefully we can look forward to lots of great content from them. It's amazing how far the lacrosse on the Web has come since the early days of lax.com and e-lacrosse.com.

Here's a sample video - LaxPower interviews Philadelphia Wing Pat Heim.

Salisbury Keeps Squeaking By

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:59:41 -0500

I had a chance to catch my 2nd Salisbury game of the year last Saturday vs. Villa Julie and it turned out to be a nail biter. I saw them play the week before at Gettysburg where they looked really bad for the 1st half, and really good for the 2nd half. This game they looked really good for a quarter (outscoring VJ 6-0 in the 1st) and pretty bad for most of the other three quarters.

For a stretch of the game a lot of Salisbury fans and alumni were thinking this might be the day that lightning strikes; the day that the Sea Gulls lose their first game in CAC history. But in the end the Gulls showed the resiliency they have had all year and pulled out the victory. There were a couple close CAC games vs. St. Mary’s a few years back, but this is the closest Salisbury has ever come to losing a conference game. And this year's CAC playoffs will be the first year that Salisbury is not a sure thing to win it.

For the third straight game they came from behind to win a close game. Some will argue that this inconsistent play will come back to hurt them; whether it's vs. WAC in the War on the Shore, or in a potential rematch with Villa Julie, or in the NCAA playoffs. On the other hand you could argue that this will help them win tight games down the line, and give them the confidence to know they are never out of any game. I tend to think these hard fought close games will only help them. They can't get lazy; they should be hungry to prove they are a better team than some of these scores indicate. And at the very least, these games have been a lot more exciting then most of the games in recent years.

The two biggest factors in this game; sloppy ball handling and passing by Salisbury, and penalties. Salisbury had 11 penalties for a total of 8:00 minutes. Villa Julie scored 6 man-up goals. The refs were calling this game extremely tight, and many of the fouls for both teams should not have been called. But that’s beside the point and certainly not an excuse.

Salisbury's offense looked good in spurts but overall they couldn't string three or four passes together the way they normally do. There were a lot of dropped passes, bad feeds to nobody, and weak passes attempted while fading away from defensive pressure. It looked like the Gulls didn't have anyone who was easily beating their man to generate offense. As a whole the Sea Gulls look like a small team, especially in the middle of the field. They usually make up what they lack in size with great team stick work and shooting. But in this game both aspects weren't up to their normal standard.

Salisbury sophomore Mike Von Kamecke has been a great offensive weapon the last couple weeks. He really needed to get the ball more this game. He looks like someone who could possibly develop into a Justin Smith type player with his quickness. Villa Julie recognized this and was switching a close defensmen to play on him when possible. This left one of the Salisbury attackmen gaurded by a short stick.

For the Mustangs junior midfielder Greg Furshman looked good and tallied 5 goals and an assist. I'm not sure how many of those came on man-up.

Salisbury played three different goalies in the game, as coach Berkman did not seem happy with the performance of starting goalie Zach Krissoff (who played great in the Gettysburg game) or Mike Petti who went in when Krissoff was pulled. Riley Clark was put in to play most of the 2nd half. The three goalies only had 8 total saves, so it was not a great performance by the goaltending group. To Krissoff's credit I didn't think he looked bad enough to get pulled. I think you got to stay with your starter a bit longer. It's safe to say that all the SU goalie's confidence levels have taken a beating. This is something Salisbury definitely needs to work out soon.

Salisbury sophomore long-pole #15 Connor Burgasser looked like one of the best players on the field. He was throwing some great checks (although most didn't dislodge the ball) and looked good on ground balls and clears.

The press release below says there was a crowd of 500, and another article said 1,500. Obviously both are estimations because they weren't tracking the entrance, but I would put the crowd at more like 2,500. I would guess this is the largest crowd ever to attend a Villa Juile game. The facilities there aren't setup well. There was not enough seating or standing room for the crowd. Only one side of the field was open to fans; as a result people ended up standing 5 deep in some areas to see the game. Villa Julie's bathroom facilities consisted of 4 port-o-pottys. Obviously the school is in a bit of a growth mode and the facilities haven't caught up yet.

However, it was a great atmosphere at the game. A lot of students were tailgating and drinking; which made for a nice lively/obnoxious crowd. Players always love those types of environments. It's great to hear some heckling from the crowd. Although, the Villa fans really do need to get a bit more creative. Most of their chants consisted of "Salisbury Sucks." A little more imagination would be nice, but I think this might have been the first time attending a game for a lot of the fans. But I do commend Villa Julie for allowing fans to tailgate. Salisbury has never allowed it.

As an alum, it's been great to see Salisbury dominate over the past few years. But it's also exciting to see them in some close battles this year. And it's also great to know they will be returning a lot of talent next year.

Salisbury certainly has everything they need for another championship run. Their offense led by Kylor Berkman can put together 3 or 4 goal runs very quickly. Their defense with a lot of talented poles has proved they can shut down high powered offenses (Gburg) when they play well. So even though many are waiting for them to fall back to earth in D3, I wouldn't bet against them making the trip to Foxboro.

Next game: vs. St. Mary’s Friday night under the lights. Should be a good atmosphere, hopefully some students actually turn out.

Press Release---------------------------------------------------------------
OWINGS MILLS, Md. - The No. 1 Salisbury University men's lacrosse team got by No. 12 Villa Julie College, 13-12, as the Gulls held the Mustangs scoreless in the final 14:40 of Saturday's Capital Athletic Conference showdown before a crowd of 500. The victory improves Salisbury's unprecedented conference win streak to 95 games where the maroon and gold is 76-0 in the CAC regular season.

Salisbury (13-0, 6-0 CAC) cycled through three goalies in the match-up, as junior Riley Clark (two saves) earned his 11th victory of the season, in relief, as he allowed just one goal in the final 19:22 to close out the game for SU. Junior Zach Krissoff (six saves) started his second consecutive game where he allowed nine goals in over 37 minutes. Fellow junior Mike Petti (0 saves) came in for a few minutes but surrendered two Mustangs goals.

The Gulls made it tough for their goal keepers as SU was at a disadvantage for eight minutes as they served time for 11 penalties. The Mustangs (8-3, 4-1 CAC) capitalized as they scored six extra-man goals while Salisbury was 2-for-6 on man-up situations. Salisbury battled through the adversity as it faced a 12-10 deficit with 14:40 left to play. The Sea Gulls turned the tide as they rallied to score the final three goals, all unassisted, to win their 36th straight game since 2007.

Junior Patrick Bonanno (one goal, one assist) started the comeback with a goal at 14:04 before sophomore Jake DeLillo (one goal, one assist) knotted the game at 12 with 6:11 remaining. SU midfielder Ryan Brown (10-for-21 face-offs) won the ensuing face-off which allowed sophomore Mike Von Kamecke (one goal, one assist) to win the game with a rip with 5:50 on the clock.

The one-goal victory was Salisbury's third of the season, and the second half comeback was the fifth in the last six games for the defending national champs. The uncharacteristic 12 goals allowed against the Mustangs is the highest total given up by the Sea Gull defense since the 2006 national championship game against SUNY Cortland. The Red Dragons won 13-12 in overtime.

Senior attack scoring duo Matt Hickman (one goal, two assist) and Greg Titus (three goals) led the way for the Sea Gulls as they each recorded three-point games on the day. Senior Bruce Richardson (two goals) rounded-out the multiple point games for SU. Salisbury scored the game's first six goals and led 6-0 after the first quarter but had the tables turned in the second when VJC scored six to send the teams into the half tied. The Gulls and the Mustangs were evenly matched as both teams got off 40 shots, VJC won 16-of-28 face-offs while both teams were nearly perfect on clears (VJC 21-for-21, SU 27-for-29). Villa Julie scooped up three more ground balls than Salisbury, 38-35.

Three VJC players combined to score 15 of the Mustangs' 21 points. Greg Furshman led the way with five goals, four of which came in a 10-minute stretch, and one assist. Steve Kazimer netted one goal and made four assists, while Nicola Bevacqua put in three goals and made one assist. VJC goalie Eric Fleegle recorded 13 saves against his former team in the loss. Mustang midfielder Brandon Hastings won 16-of-25 face-offs.

Salisbury will close out its CAC regular season schedule on Friday, April 11, when they host St. Mary's (Md.) College under the lights in Sea Gull Stadium at 7 p.m.

The Top 50 Ranked High School Players

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:50:47 -0500

Rankings from the TAKKLE Top 100, powered by Sports Illustrated and Blue Chip Camp

Tyler Fiorito - Goalie, McDonogh - Owings Mills, MD
Princeton (written)
Chad Wiedmaier - Defense, Delbarton - Morristown, NJ
Princeton (written)

Steele Stanwick - Attack, Loyola-Blakefield - Baltimore, MD
Virginia (written)

Matt MacKrides - Attack, Malvern-Prep - Malvern, PA
Penn State (written)

CJ Costabile - Long Stick Midfield, New Fairfield - New Fairfield, CT
Duke (written)

John Greeley - Midfield, Lafayette - Lafayette, NY
Johns Hopkins (written)

Chris Lightner - Defense, Calvert Hall - Towson, MD
Johns Hopkins (written)

Mark Cockerton - Midfield, Monsignor Paul Dwyer HS - Oshawa, Ontario
Undecided

Dave Lawson - Midfield, Middlesex - Concord, MA
Duke (written)

Tyler Knarr - Defense, LaSalle - Wyndmoor, PA
Georgetown (written)

Charlie McComas - Defense, Boys Latin - Baltimore, MD
UNC (written)

Chris Bocklet - Attack, John Jay - Katonah, NY
Virginia (written)

Daniel DiMaria - Defense, Half Hollow Hills - Dix Hills, NY
Harvard (written)

Mike Shakespeare - Midfield, Governor's Academy - Blyfield, MA
Maryland (written)

Chris LaPierre - Midfield, Shawnee - Medford, NJ
Virginia (written)

Jonathan Meyers - Defense, Greenwich - Greenwich, CT
Princeton (written)

Robert Rotanz - Midfield, Fairfield Prep - Fairfield, CT
Duke (written)

Daniel Savage - Midfield, Garden City - Garden City, NY
Penn (written)

Matt White - Attack, Ridgefield - Ridgefield, CT
Virginia (written)

Jim Dunster - Attack/Midfield, Greenwich - Greenwich, CT
UNC (written)

Jeff Cohen - Attack, Syosset - Syosset, NY
Harvard (written)

Will Fields - Midfield/Face Off, Notre Dame Academy- Middleburg, VA
Navy (written)

Jake Bernhardt - Midfield, Lake Brantley - Lake Brantley, FL
Maryland (written)

Steven Rastivo - Goalie, Ward Melville - East Setauket, NY
Penn State (written)

John Cunningham - Defense, Fairfield Prep - Fairfield, CT
Princeton (written)

Peter Borror - Defense, Haverford - Haverford, PA
Virginia (written)

Marshall Burkhart - Midfield, Dublin Jerome - Dublin, OH
Johns Hopkins (written)

Grant Oliver - Defense, Upper Arlington - Columbus, OH
Maryland (written)

Jarrid Puzes - Defense, Aldei E Stevenson - Lincolnshire, IL
Virginia (written)

Kevin Drew - Midfield, John Jay - Katonah, NY
Syracuse (written)

Tom Palasek - Attack, Rocky Point - Rocky Point, NY
Johns Hopkins (written)

Owen Blye - Attack, Downingtown East - Downingtown, PA
Maryland (written)

Connor English - Attack, Manhasset - Manhasset, NY
Virginia (written)

Conrad Ridgway - Midfield, LaSalle - Wyndmoor, PA
Penn State (written)

Michael Sawyer - Attack, Charlotte Catholic - Charlotte, NC
Loyola (written)

Mike Chanenchuk - Midfield, St. Anthony's - Melville, NY
Princeton (written)

Joe Cummings - Attack, Loyola-Blakefield - Baltimore, MD
Maryland (written)

Nick Gantsoudes - Midfield, Avon Old Farms- Redding, CT
Bucknell (written)

Brian McLinden - Midfield/Face Off, Madison - Madison, NJ
Virginia (written)

Greg McBride - Midfield, Gilman - Baltimore, MD

Daniel Cooney - Midfield/Face Off, Ridgefield - Ridgefield, NJ

Delaware (written)

Landon Carr - Midfield, Curtis - University Place, WA
Duke (written)

David Miller - Midfield, Notre Dame Academy - Middleburg, VA
Maryland (written)

Craig Sullivan - Defense, Duxbury - Duxbury, MA
Maryland (written)

Henry VanWagenberg - Midfield, Georgetown Prep - Bethesda, MD
Georgetown (written)

Chase Winter - Midfield, Mountain Lakes - Mountain Lakes, NJ
Johns Hopkins (written)

Mike Poppleton - Midfield, Fayetteville Manlius - Fayetteville Manlius, NY
Johns Hopkins (written)

Francis McDonough - Midfield, Garden City - Garden City, NY
Georgetown (written)

Ryan Barber - Midfield, West Genesee - Camillus, NY
Syracuse (written)

Keenan Ochwat - Long Stick Midfield, Farmingdale - Farmingdale, NY
Ohio State (written)

2008 Lacrosse: Duke, LeMoyne, Gettysburg Grab Most All American Honors

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:30:58 -0500

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at this years 2008 Lacrosse all Americans and see how the numbers correlate to the team's overall success. Not surprisingly the teams with the most all Americans in each division (Duke, LeMoyne, and Gettysburg) all had great seasons. However, none of those teams won the championship. Coincidentally the teams with the 2nd highest number of all Americans in each division won their respective championship - Syracuse, NY Tech, and Salisbury. So sometimes it's good to be #2.

2008 USILA Men's Lacrosse All Americans By Division

Division 1
Duke University	9
Syracuse University	8
University of Virginia	7
Johns Hopkins University	5
Cornell University	4
The Ohio State University	4
University of Maryland Baltimore County	4
University of North Carolina	4
University of Notre Dame	4
Georgetown University	3
Princeton University	3
University of Maryland	3
Colgate University	2
United States Naval Academy	2
Brown University	1
Bucknell University	1
Canisius College	1
Dartmouth College	1
Drexel University	1
Hobart College	1
Hofstra University	1
Loyola College	1
Penn State University	1
Providence College	1
Rutgers University	1
Stony Brook University	1
United States Military Academy	1
University at Albany	1
University of Delaware	1
University of Denver	1

Division 2
LeMoyne College	6
C. W. Post College	5
New York Institute of Technology	5
Dowling College	3
Limestone College	3
Mercyhurst College	3
Adelphi University	2
Bryant University	2
Catawba College	2
Merrimack College	2
Molloy College	2
Wingate University	2
Pace University	1

Division 3
Gettysburg College	10
Salisbury University	6
Western New England College	6
Ithaca College	5
Lynchburg College	5
SUNY Cortland	5
Cabrini College	4
Middlebury College	4
Rochester Institute of Technology	4
Washington College	4
Denison University	3
Endicott College	3
Haverford College	3
Villa Julie College	3
Hampden-Sydney College	2
Muhlenberg College	2
Roanoke College	2
SUNY Geneseo	2
Wesleyan University	2
Bowdoin College	1
Clarkson University	1
Colorado College	1
Connecticut College	1
Drew University	1
Nazareth College	1
Ohio Wesleyan University	1
Springfield College	1
St. Lawrence University	1
Stevens Institute of Technology	1
SUNY Maritime	1
Tufts University	1
Union College	1
Ursinus College	1
Virginia Wesleyan College	1
Washington and Lee University	1
Wesleyan College	1

Lacrosse Com - Lacrosse Blogs, Videos, Photos, News

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:30:19 -0600

Lacrosse Com

You'd be surprised how many people miss type what they are looking for in a search engine. In many cases they leave out a letter or character. So this blog post is really just a test to see how many people type lacrosse con in a search engine. Sorry if it bores you...

But since you're here might as well check out these nice lacrosse hits.

Lacrosse com, lax com