2011 Adrenaline Challenge

[Billax]

I went to a lacrosse tournament and a football game broke out.

Fog City Scored 35 goals in Saturday's three seeding games, while allowing 15. You'd think that might get them an unblemished record on Seeding Saturday. You'd be wrong. The City boys won their opener handily against the St. Louis Samurai, 16-0. The Samurai have performed pretty well at the Challenge and this must have been a dispiriting defeat. Then the Fogsters played Zip-It!, a Southern California team. In several ways it was Fog City's most over-the-top performance. On the plus side, they won 21 of 23 faces for a 91% win rate. On the dark side, they had more unforced turnovers than - maybe - all the rest of their games combined. The upshot was an 11-10 loss to Zip-it! and a lost opportunity to play in the A Bracket playoffs. The final seeding game saw Fog City defeat a solid Orange County LC team, 9-4.

In the All-Star group, Fog City had three "committed" All-Stars who, appropriately, were ineligible for the All-Star game - Bobby Gray, JW McGovern, and Will McKee, along with two not-yet-committed players - Chad Cohan and Matt Emery - who did play. Congrats to these players. I'll mention here that Johno Gibbons, Harrison Mallen, Chase Whiitingham and Nick Fotsch made my personal All-Star team.

So, the Fog City boys played the hand they were dealt, unconcerned that they'd have to defeat two higher seeded teams to make the B elite Championships. And beat them they did. The 15th seeded Fog City team knocked off the #10 Tucson Elite, 12-1 and then sent home the #11 seed LA Lazers, 8-3. Fog City was in the B Elite Championships! There, they'd meet the top B seed Arizona Burn.

As I arrived at the field on which the Championship game was to be played, I saw the strangest sight! The Arizona Burn were moving the goal at their end of the field off the pitch. What gives, I thought. Then, I looked to the Fog City end and saw those boys removing their goal from the field. Here's what followed:

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Did it follow our sport's traditions? You be the judge:

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Did both teams enjoy it?

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Did they have real refs?

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And here's a picture of your 2011 Adrenaline B Elite Co-Champs:

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Here's the back story. The boys were hangin' out an hour or so prior to the Championship game when an AZ Burn player walked by and said, "Are you guys lookin' forward to the game? To which several Fog City boys said, "Nah, we'd rather play Flag Football. We're laxed out." The Burn player went back to his teammates who were excited about the idea. The Burn coach wanted to verify and came over to talk to the boys as, by that time, the Fog City coaches had left for home due to prior commitments. The Burn Coach thought it sounded good, so GAME ON!!

It was a back-and-forth battle, that was well-reffed. The game ended with each team having two touchdowns, with the Arizona Burn adding a safety to take the victory. Nothing was said by either team suggesting the Football game was a proxy for the Championship. It was just... fun!

[OwntheCrease]

What a great story! I know many boys made new friends this weekend.

[Billax]

The NorCal Ducks had a good tournament. They finished Seeding Saturday with a 2-1 record, but their goal differential wasn't quite high enough to make the B Elite Championships. The Ducks drew the tournament's biggest crowds, as all the other NorCal folks wanted to see the Ducks play. In addition, the Ducks v Sniper game drew the biggest crowd of the tournament - save for the All-Star game.

Think of the Ducks this way: 1/3 Sophs, 1/3 Juniors, and 1/3 Seniors. A nice mix. There was a lot of "Bling footwear" on the Ducks as California Gold cleats seemed to be the most popular turf wear.

The NorCal ducks had three players who have already committed to NCAA DI schools who made the "Committed" All-Star team. They are - Connor Hunt, Mike Tagliaferri, and Bear Mistele. In addition, Kris Hoglund and Jack McCormick, and Will Montero made the All-Star teams that actually took the field. Nice looking group of All-Stars amongst a very good team of Ducks! In the Ducks games I watched, Wiley Osborne and Carson Mead made my personal All-Star team.

[SkylineCoach]

Billax, your recap of the consolation finals made my day.

Sports are fun!

SO great to see kids - and the AZ Burn coach! Probably the most surprising part of the story, I'd love to meet that guy! - having fun. LOVE it. Well done, players, coaches, refs, and parents.

[Billax]

OK, I'll 'fess up. I've been a Sniper fan for a LONG time. I've long admired the Diablo Scorpions and the Sniper name under which many former Scorps play. Monte Vista carried the Sniper name into the Adrenaline Challenge, as they have for a number of years. So, here's the first thing I like: The Snipers mostly represent a single school. Sure they had a few players from other schools - Teddy Wilm, the DLS goalie for one - but they were primarily Monte Vista Mustangs. Very few teams enter the Challenge as a Single-school team. I GREATLY ADMIRE THE TEAMS THAT DO. Second, you get to see a different brand of lacrosse when you watch single school teams. You'll be watching wonderful coordination among players who have learned each other's moves through a number of years. This "line knowledge" produces what I have long called "pretty lacrosse." The Sniper Attack unit is emblematic of this style of lacrosse. Casey Hock as the righty Attack, Jared Welker at X and Jack Michel as the lefty Attack are just a joy to watch. At close D, Zack Dutra has become a beast with footwork. It's a pleasure listening to him coordinate the defense. Casey Hock made the Adrenaline All-Star team and the other guys I've mentioned made my personal All-Star team.

GO SNIPERS!

[Billax]

The Fog City Jays are largely the 2010 Fog City JV, minus a few 2010 JVs who moved up to the Elite Division Fog City team. The Jays went 0-3 on Seeding Saturday. I didn't see any of the Jay's Saturday games, but I saw a Sunday game that the Jays won handily. In fact, the Jays won BOTH their Sunday games. They got better at this tournament! Since I saw only one game, picking out All-Stars is tricky. Nonetheless, in the game I watched, both Chad Bell and John Meany looked good. I wish I'd been able to watch another game!

P.S. To their credit, the entire Fog City Elite team watched every minute of every Fog City Jays game, rooting on their younger brethren. Nice!

[honorthegame]

What fun reading the reports from San Diego! Thanks particularly to Billax for his always supportive and insightful comments and pictures.

Wish we could have been there!

[Billax]

Info about teams I didn't get to see

At a tournament with so many Divisions, so many teams, and so many games being played simultaneously, I inevitably missed some teams and a lot of players. Here are some notes gathered from other sources:

First, congratulations to Team Talon for winning the Middle School Championship at the Challenge. Team Talon also won the Middle School Championship in 2010. This team has performed at a very High level for several years now, so it came as no big surprise that they won the Championship of this division, Still, you have to play the games to win a Title and Team Talon ran the table. They were the only NorCal team to win a Championship at this event! An appealing article about Team Talon's performance at the Challenge can be read at:
http://laxbuzz.com/2011/01/11/western-club-lacrosse-team-talon-boys-lacrosse-defeated-oc-kings-7-3-to-repeat-as-middle-school-lacrosse-champion-of-the-2011-adrenaline-challenge/

Second, several players from teams I didn't get to watch made the High School All Star team. Here they are:

Mikie Schlosser Davis HS NorCal Braves
Mike Hernandez Piedmont HS NorCal Braves
Connor McLeod Serra Golden Gate U18
Sean Scott Berkeley Golden Gate U18
Henry Thomsett Berkeley Golden Gate Elite
Tommy Reigelman Golden Gate Red

Congrats, guys, for making the All Star teams!

[DlaxDad]

The Adrenaline Challenge this year was the boy's swan song -- and probably mine, as well. It's always been a personal favorite, perhaps in part because DlaxGrandpa and DlaxGrandma have now made the trip to San Diego five times. They have a time share on Hotel Circle, and the boy and I have been able to hole up with my parents -- and it's been a special gift for them to see the boy play and grow as a player and as a man. Mom and Dad came for the first time in 2007, when the tournament was at Lancaster, at the National Soccer Center, and the fields were frozen in the morning and we watched a young Parker Brown feed lasers to cutting midfielders on the NorCal Stars -- you want it shoulder high on the right side, that's where you get it, at pace -- and I thought, "This is such a pretty game, when it's played right." Met Dave Campbell, coach of my alma mater, that tournament, before it ever occurred to me that lacrosse might have something to do with the boy going to college. Dave is one of the sport's stand up guys -- I really shouldn't have given him a hard time about losing to Colby last season.

This year had a bit of everything. As wonderful as the games were, the lacrosse was a backdrop to a stroll through the wonderful friendships I've had a chance to form trailing along in the boy's wake. I had a chance to thank Mark Morrell, Wittenberg's D coach, in person, for how great he was to the boy and me on our visit last January. Coach Morrell saw the lad a few Challenges ago, and found us through a roster, or the boy's web page. He and Coach Harris run a pretty fine program out west of Columbus, Ohio -- the Tigers beat the Denison Big Red for the first time last season -- a player and his family could do a lot worse than checking them out for a D3 option. And what a treat to meet a whole new crowd -- the Ducks and their parents, as the boy played with some old friends and some new friends -- even if he missed the beach. The game's ability to bring people together never fails to astound. And I got to look ahead to the coming four years of Haverford -- Franklin and Marshall games. Squirrels v. Dips. Gotta love those team names.

I can remember when there was just a team or two from NorCal -- and this year we had, what? six? With Northern California players on the Brady's teams as well. I had a chance to watch almost all of them, including a group representing the third season of the NorCal Braves, a team I helped start, to give agreat bunch of players the chance to keep playing together, and their parents a chance to hoist a few after the games. Almost all new players now, but it looks like the Braves are here to stay.

But if I can only press one memory into my failing cortex, it would be the Sunday morning Ducks game. Standing along the sideline watching a great bunch of kids, sharing years of anecdotes with new friends, mom and dad, friends from club days, from the Vail/Park City trip of 2006, BraveHeart, and the lax pallies, with whom I have shared a few adult beverages and cigars, watching Conan make a few more mad rushes up the field with a ground ball before the wild, but exciting long pole unguided missile. Our boys are headed off to colleges on both coasts and across the country. I feel so grateful for the incredible blessings of this game and its proponents, for the coaches who taught my boy to respect the game and his opponents, for the people who shared their knowledge with me, and for all of my fellow travellers along the path. I've loved every step of the way. You all are the greatest.

[livinlax]

Henry Thomsett Golden Gate Elite Gold (Berkeley) also made the HS All Star Team.