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A friend of mine had a son in the journalism course at one of the Toronto Colleges a few years back when Joe Bowen, the 20-year play-by-play voice of the Toronto Maple Leafs came in as a guest lecturer. READ MORE »
As you might expect from watching his video tutorial on how to achieve the perfect fu-manchu mustache, Frank Resetarits is a very busy man. Lucky for you Inside Lacrosse has him in the Fan Zone hot seat this month, answering any question you can think of about him and his career, be it with the San Jose Stealth, Long Island Lizards, his Tewaaraton finalist past in the NCAA, or even his decision to become the lone American in a very Canadian league when he opted to play Jr. A summer ball in Ontario. For extra credit, maybe find out if he’s gotten any better at fishing. Head here to begin the interrogation, and check back to see if your question makes it into a future issue of the magazine and a feature on insidelacrosse.com.
The Rochester Knighthawks have announced the mid-November opening of their training camp, and the first two practices are free and open to the public. Saturday, November 15th from 3:00 to 6:00 PM and Sunday, November 16th from 9:00 AM to noon the 2009 Knighthawks players and hopefuls will take to the floor at the Rochester Sports Garden (1460 East Henrietta Road). Players and coaches will be available following work-outs for autographs.
In other news, San Jose Stealth assistant GM Doug Locker has been honoured for his role in growing lacrosse in California. Locker will be inducted into the Whittier College Purple & Gold Hall of Fame for not only founding the lacrosse program at the school, but for racking up a record of 293-72 in a 21-year coaching career with the team. He was named the NCAA Div III coach of the year in 2002 after helping his team to its first ever NCAA tournament berth. And speaking of west coast lacrosse, has anyone noticed that new Portland assistant coach Darren Fridge has a son named Jaxon?
As first reported by NLL Insider’s Bob Chavez, 12 year vet and former Champion’s Cup and Mann Cup winner Dan Stroup has inked a deal with the Portland Lumberjax for the 2009 season.
Stroup had been released by the Edmonton Rush earlier this off-season after Rush GM and Coach Bob Hamley loaded up the team’s offense in a flurry of signings and trades that have completely changed the make-up of Edmonton versus just a year ago.
This’ll be Stroup’s sixth franchise stop in the NLL after having played in Baltimore, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado and of course Edmonton and now Portland.
“He’s changed his game,” said Portland GM and Coach Derek Keenan. “He was a creator, but now he’s an off-ball guy. He can still get the job done, though.” READ MORE »
The world of lacrosse has lost a dear friend in Cy Lemon, who died of a heart attack at an Owen Sound hospital late last week at the age of 78.
Elias McKerroll Lemon, a Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Famer, learned to throw and catch with the aid of the door on the family barn while growing up in the 1930s, which led to his adult career that started in the 1940s and eventually to a Mann Cup title with the Owen Sound Crescents in 1950. His son, Brian Lemon, is the National Lacrosse League’s vice president of operations and NLL referee Chet Couture is his son-in-law. “He was a lot of fun, and he taught a lot of life lessons as a teacher and as a coach,” Brian told The SunTimes of Owen Sound. “He had his own personality and his own style of how he would do things, and he treated everyone fairly.”
Check out the SunTimes story to read how much Mr. Lemon truly loved the game not only as a player, but as a coach and instructor at all levels of the Ontario Lacrosse Association. He will be missed, and sincere condolences are extended.
So what do you call the players on a lacrosse team who stand 6-foot-10, 6-8, 6-6 and 6-5? Well, “sir” would be a safe start.
But for our purposes, we’ll call ‘em the Portland LumberJax and lest you’re fooled by that 6-10 record they sported during the regular season last year, you can’t be anymore. Sure, the 1-5 start to last season didn’t really open eyes, and even the 5-5 mark the rest of the season didn’t really scare anyone. But they did enough to get into the playoffs and when they did, they won a pair of games to land in the National Lacrosse League title game, where they came up just a bit short against the Buffalo Bandits. But you know what they say about success. Get a taste of it and you want it even more.
So that’s what’s on the mind of these LumberJax as they get ready for 2009, but they’re gonna have to chase down that success without the services of one of the game’s most dominant forces in Dan Dawson.
There’s few that can turn up the heat like Colorado Mammoth forward Brian Langtry.
Just ask the Portland Lumberjax, who almost found their name in the record book when Langtry posted nine goals and 13 points against them last winter.
In 2007, Langtry damaged Toronto for five goals, the same team he nailed for seven earlier in this career in one of the single best one game performances from downtown this league has ever seen.
When “on”, few can shoot the lights out like the former NLL rookie of the year, who just came off an insane summer playing for the Denver Outlaws in the MLL. READ MORE »
In keeping with our recent theme of sophmores in the NLL, this week’s fan poll is gonna centre around just that, next year’s second year pros.
Will Craig Point and Jordan Hall continue to help dominate their team and league scoring charts?
Will defensive studs Tyler Codron and Mike Carnegie continue to be key ball players in their team’s own end?
Will Dane Dobbie finally find a spot on Calgary’s pretty deep O and produce like he did this past summer in the WLA?
Who will be this year’s soph studs and slumps? Let us know after the jump… READ MORE »
With some quiet off-season chatter that long time Toronto Rock defender Dan Ladouceur mighta been joining teammate Jim Veltman by hangin’ em up and a callin’ it a career, those rumours were put to rest on Friday afternoon, after it was announced that Laddy re-inked for at least another season in the NLL.
“I am excited to be returning to play another season”, said Ladouceur. “Management has worked hard in the off season to add pieces to our puzzle and I look forward to remaining active in the pursuit of another Championship.”
Other not as high profile off-season signings that have kinda gone under the radar but worth noting…
- Boston signs Buffalo’s third keeper, Dan Sams, who impressed many with his clutch showing against Chicago last year with both Mike Thompson and Kenny Montour suffering from post concussion syndrome. Sams posted a pretty unreal 68 saves, only allowing eight in a 13-8 Buffalo win. Sams is also a two time Minto Cup winner with both St. Catharines and Peterborough. READ MORE »
The inclusion of Rookie of the Year winner Craig Point in NLL Insider’s Top 50 ignited a flurry of emails and posts on the forum of where exactly the Minnesota Swarm snipe show should be penciled in in today’s NLL.
No one really chirped about the slick first year he threw down last winter, but many cited a “likely” sophomore slump in his upcoming second year in the bigs.
Will Point avoid “the slump” in 2009? Does it even matter if his numbers dip a bit this year when talking about what Point, or really any player, brings to the table?
After the jump, check out the worst stat drops by second year guys in the NLL (or MILL) and the best bumped up sophomore digits too. Try and make some guesses before hittin’ the link, cuz there are definitely some surprises in the rundown. READ MORE »
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