NLL Insider

As the Rochester Knighthawks work on building National Lacrosse League championship aspirations, some of the fellas will do their part to help build support for a local charity. Steve Toll, Shawn Williams and the Evans brothers, Shawn and Scott, will join Knighthawks owner Curt Styres Saturday from 2-3 p.m. at the Build-A-Bear Workshop in Eastview Mall. Other players expected to show include Andrew Potter, Craig Point, Bobby McBride, Mac Allen and top draft pick Sid Smith. They’ll build bears to benefit the CURE Child Cancer Association for the third straight season and sign autographs. On Sunday, the players will join the rest of their teammates for the first day of training camp.

A National Lacrosse League (NLL) player rockets a back-hand shot top corner and… pumps his fist. But do you want more? Especially with this week’s big news that nine NLL games will be featured on TSN2, should NLL players put a little more creativity and emphasis into their goal celebrations?

Respect has to go to NLL ballers: They are the best players in the world and they battle hard every shift. Most don’t bother to brag and ignore the over-the-top celebrations, but should they help put on more of a show? (Read More…)

It was a year ago today, November 20th ‘08, that sports journalist Tom Borrelli passed away after complications from injuries sustained during an unfortunate accident at a Buffalo stadium while covering a high school football game.

Borrelli was one of pro lacrosse’s most respected, educated, informed and honest voices, writing about a sport during a time in the early 90’s few, outside of a small group of faithful fans and players, truly cared about it, let alone read about on a weekly basis. (Read More…)

In case you haven’t already heard, College Lacrosse 2010 has been released to the XBox Live Indie Game Channel. The cost for the game is $5 and can be downloaded by going into “game marketplace” on your XBox Live, scrolling up to “indie games” and selecting CL2010 from “new arrivals.”

So far, comments about the game seem pretty positive, as fans have sounded off on the official Facebook fan page, which has more than 55,000 fans. Get more information about the game by visiting collegelacrosse2010.com.
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“If you wanted to eat tomorrow, you had to work.”

That quote was pulled from an extensive retrospective on Rochester Knighthawks owner and general manager, Curt Styres, who was profiled in The Rochester Business Journal earlier this month.

Styres talks about growing up in Six Nations, working for everything he had throughout his life both young and old, his recent venture into the professional sports scene through both the Knighthawks and American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, and as The Rochester Business Journal puts it, a promise for a Champion’s Cup in Rochester this upcoming season. After the jump, check out more from the Styres feature, plus the links. (Read More…)

In the wake of this week’s broken off talks between the National Lacrosse League and National Lacrosse League Official’s Association, NLL Insider has learned that the NLL plans on moving forward this upcoming season using a two man gameday officiating crew, completely removing the technical referee.

The use and compensation of the technical official, often also referred to as a third official, has been the major hurdle keeping the two sides apart, ultimately leading to this week’s standoff. (Read More…)

Newly-signed Minnesota Swarm forward Zack Greer has been all over the Twin Cities in recent days promoting the upcoming season (Hey, if you’re the poster boy for the franchise, you’d better believe you’re going to hustle during the press tours). (Read More…)

So the National Lacrosse League season is approaching and the boys are starting their training camps around the league. Getting loose, getting their sticks back and connecting with schemes and coaches again. That’s all find and dandy for them. But what about us? The fans. How do WE get ready for the season and by getting ready, we mean what are your plans for getting to the barn? Are you a season-ticket holder with plans for every single home game? Casual fan with plans for a game or two? What’s up with your plans for this NLL season? (Read More…)

NLL Insider has learned through a source close to the situation that the National Lacrosse League and National Lacrosse League Official’s Association are currently at a standoff in recent contract negotiations, the league presenting their final offer to the officials group this past week, the offer rejected by the NLLOA.

With the rejection of what was described as their “last offer”, the league has now cutoff direct negotiations with the NLLOA and is offering contracts on an individual basis to both referees currently members of the NLLOA and others at varying levels of play. (Read More…)

In one of the biggest bombshells in the short history of high-profile recruiting in NCAA lacrosse, IL’s Geoff Shannon reported last night that No. 1 ranked rising junior Lyle Thompson verbally committed to the University of Albany and coach Scott Marr. Thompson, a middie who faces off, finished his sophomore season at LaFayette (N.Y.) in a championship game loss to Manhasset. He’s also been a staple for Akwesasne and was a member of the Iroquois U-19 Team.

Miles Thompson, a senior attackman and Lyle’s brother, signed a National Letter of Intent to Albany yesterday, as well, as did cousin Ty, an attackman from Salmon River (N.Y.). The decision comes as a surprise to many who expected Miles and Lyle to follow older brother Jeremy, a former NJCAA All-American middie at Onondaga CC (N.Y.), to Syracuse.
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