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Last weekend’s NLL Entry Draft in Boston is gonna be “that” draft.

It’s gonna be “that” draft that years from now everyone says, “Oh yeah man, 2008 is the year things really started moving.”

I know, I know, we’ve had top shelf American field studs try their hand at pro box. And we’ve definitely had top shelf American field talent do ridiculously well in the NLL on top of that.

That level of American influence on our brand of ball has been there since the NLL, and MILL before that, and actually NLL before that, put down their roots in the North American lax scene.

But one thing we had in the 2008 draft that we’d never had to this level that we’re seeing now straight across the board, is commitment and passion from the American field lacrosse player.

In a lot of cases, it was the one thing we were really lacking from bridging that gap on a larger scale.

Whether you think any of that matters or not, if GM’s that drafted a host of Americans in this year’s entry draft have things go according to plan, the NLL will be a pretty different place in a pretty short amount of time due to what went down a week ago today.

Like we mentioned earlier this week, the 2008 NLL Entry Draft smashed a lot of American based records that we hadn’t come close to matching for a number of years.

Were those records a fluke? Hell no it wasn’t a fluke.

Gone are the days of Canadian born GM’s simply picking American names in the later rounds (even early rounds), hoping they might feel like packing their gear up on a Friday night and doing them a favor and show up to training camp for a weekend. Those days are pretty much done.

Here’s a secret I’ll letcha in on too. American field ballers aren’t the pussies we make ‘em out to be. Believe it or not, a lot of the guys that are passionate about playing in today’s NLL, love the rough stuff. That rep they gained years ago has passed its expiry date, so no more broken record, cool?

Jarret Park mighta got his clock completely cleaned against Jon Harasym last season, like I’m talking polishing everything from the digits to the coo-coo bird, but the dude took his lumps like a man and didn’t even come close to goin’ in turtle mode. Park ate Harasym’s fists like it was part of his initiation into the sport (and yeah, I know he’s a three year vet), and even though he came out the loser in the dust-up, he gained a ton of respect from guys who thought he was just another American trying to make a couple extra bucks on the weekend playing that “other” brand of ball. After the 2008 season, ask any GM, Jarret Park is one of the sport’s best two-way threats, and he can take a punch (or twenty) too.

Jay Jalbert, who unfortunately obviously doesn’t do his thing in the league anymore, was one of the dirtiest, nastiest, take no sh** SOB’s the NLL has ever seen. His style of ball was the definition of Canadian summer lacrosse that can only be found in, well, Canada. Jalbert is from Huntington, New York, not St. Catharines, Ontario and played smash mouth box lacrosse better than most Canucks in today’s NLL.

The NLL needs more Jay Jalberts, and we finally might start getting them on a more consistent basis. Definitely looks like that trend really kicked off in Boston last weekend.

Over the last year, I’ve talked to a number of GM’s, coaches, scouts and players, and the one thing they said that was always lacking from Americans as a whole was, commitment. That’s it. The skills has alway been there. The athleticism has always been there. The knowledge has always been there. But without the commitment of picking up those tiny nuances of the indoor game (and willing to take the odd hit), then you can forget about it. Just imagine how many Jay Jalberts, or Casey Powells (who took many years to gain the respect of most Canuck fans, but there’s no denying he’s one of the league’s best today), or Regy Thorpes, or Jake Bergeys we missed out on cuz guys weren’t willing to commit fully for a year or two to see what they were capable of. It really is a damn shame when you think about.

That commitment is there heading into the 2009 NLL season.

Paul Rabil told me back in like January that he was beyond amped to try and land a gig in the NLL. Ditto for Josh Funk (whose love for box lacrosse is nothing like I’ve ever seen from an American). Ditto for Kevin Huntley. Ditto for Stephen Peyser. Ditto for Kevin Buchanan (the guy Shanny thought was a Canadian at the combine he looked so damn good). And ditto even for guys like Tony McDevitt and Nick O’Hara, who’ll likely miss this season due to injury, but damn have Philly and San Jose gotta be happy these killers will be showing up a year from now to camp (both wanted into the NLL real bad way back in the winter). Ditto to almost every American taken this year, cuz unlike previous years, fishing season is over. The US kids actually dig the indoor game.

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching ball in the summer up here too. Hell, it’s some of the best lax on the planet, but it’s a vastly different beast than today’s NLL. The NLL is an up-tempo, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it style of ball, a lot of Canadians would drown in, and have downed in (sometimes badly). And visa versa, a lot, if not most, Americans couldn’t cut the mustard up here from May to September, but with the summer game lacking severely in every area outside of their on-floor product, does it really matter? Unfortunately, summer ball in Canada hasn’t moved an inch in years, unlike the NLL. Not trying to be harsh, just truthful.

Last NLL season I asked the players in the NLL if they think our game needs Americans coming into it, and a whopping 85% said we definitely do.

And the best thing is, we’re starting to see a few more American kids sneak into the junior summer game too. Frank and Joey Resetarits were clutch scoring machines for the Athletics. Funk made a massive impression on NLL GM’s in just his lone season with the Burnaby Lakers in 2007. Mike O’Brien was not only one of the best defenders with the K-W Braves this year, he was one of the best defenders in the province, period.

Just image how insanely, freaky good Joey Resetartis is gonna be in four years after he’s done at U of Albany. We just need more Resetarits’s to really get this machine churnin’, cuz Americans have infiltrated the Junior A game before (see Casey Powell & Chad Whittman in TO), we just need more doin’ it than a handful of guys each season.

The American revolution on the box game is on, and even though guys like Tom Ryan, Kevin Finneran, Tim Soudan, Sal Locascio and a host of others have helped dominate the NLL game for well over a decade, the flood of top shelf NCAA talent has finally realized that the NLL is more than just American football tossed into a hockey arena. They realize that it’s as legit and real as any sport comes.

Don’t believe any of this? Come see me in as little as five years and we’ll chat.

Check back this coming week for more post draft coverage, including team analysis and insight heading into the 2009 NLL season.

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