April 11, 2008
by Paul Ohanian, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
Talk about a tough road to hoe.
Consider the schedule facing the second-year varsity boys' lacrosse program at Trinity Catholic in Stamford, Conn.
Not only does Trinity Catholic have the daunting task of trying to be competitive in one of the toughest prep leagues in the country, the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference (FCIAC), but it also faces that challenge while having to play all 16 of its games on the road this season.
Trinity Catholic is a team without a home field.
Evidently, when the program moved from club status to junior varsity five years ago, plans included a new home field.
"It just didn't work out that way," Director of Athletics Tracy Nichols recently told The Stamford Times. "When we started, we thought we'd be able to locate (an off-campus) site for them, but there is no place."
The team does utilize an unlined, off-campus field near the school for practices, but the dimensions are too small for a regulation field, making it unusable for official games. Therefore, two or three times every week, it's back on the bus in the road uniforms.
"I tell our players that this is just another challenge to overcome," said head coach Bob Cavaliero, who has been with the program since its inception. "Fortunately, we don't have as many lengthy trips this year as we've had in the past."
Ironically, there is a full-sized football field on campus, but it is situated across parts of the school's baseball and softball fields and therefore unavailable for use in the spring due to the disruption it would cause to both of those teams. Nichols says the school is developing a plan to redesign its field space, but no immediate relief is in sight.
At least there's some good news. After enduring an 0-16 campaign in its varsity debut last year, Trinity Catholic registered its first varsity win with an 8-3 triumph at Bethel last week.
* It seems like every time Maryland's Mount Hebron girls lose, they make history.
Last year, New York's West Genessee snapped the Vikings' five-year, 103-game winning streak. Last week, Mount Hebron lost its first game to an in-state team in 10 years, falling 18-9 to John Carroll, which is currently ranked third in the national LaxPower.com ratings. The 11-time defending state champs were last beaten by a Maryland opponent (St. Mary's) in April 1998.
John Carroll, defending champion of the Interscholastic Athletic Association, improved to 7-0 and strengthened its hold on the state's No. 1 ranking with the win. The significance of the victory was not lost on the players, either.
"We just sat there speechless, absorbing it all," JC senior Casey Ancarrow told The Baltimore Sun following the game. "There's really no words you can put it into. It's just awesome."
* At least 49 teams representing Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky are expected to participate in this weekend's Hannigan-Galipault Tournament, hosted by Thomas Worthington (Ohio) High School.
The tournament, named in honor of former Worthington player Chrissy Hannigan and former Worthington coach John Galipault, began as a boys' invitational in 1979 before morphing into a girls' event in the 1980s. It typically marks the unofficial start of the lacrosse season in Ohio and attracts programs from throughout the Midwest. This year's event takes on special significance, as Thomas Worthington's program celebrates its 35th anniversary as Ohio's first girls' lacrosse program.
* The six-time New York state champion Yorktown boys may have the most ambitious non-league schedule in the state again this year. In addition to its visit to Baltimore to face McDonogh last week, three of its next five come on the road against New York heavyweights St. Anthony's, Chaminade and Ward Melville. And if that's not enough, home games against Connecticut powers Darien and Wilton also await, as does a late-season meeting with last year's state runner-up and Section 1 rival John Jay-Cross River. Not that this is new ground for coach Dave Marr's Cornhuskers, who played all the non-league powers - minus McDonogh - last year also.
* Two boys' games in Arizona were postponed Tuesday due to a boycott by game officials.
The referees sat out the Desert Mountain-Highland game and the Brophy Prep-Desert Vista game because in protest of the Arizona Youth Lacrosse League's decision to review game video submitted by at least two coaches concerned about dangerous hits.
One of the coaches who submitted video, Chandler's Dave Henning, told West Side Lax, "To be honest, the officiating in Arizona has historically been very good. I had no intention of criticizing the officials. I was just trying to protect my kids." The dispute was evidently resolved within 24 hours, with the postponed games scheduled to be made up and the remaining schedule to continue without disruption by the referees.
* A showdown between two of Southern California's top girls' teams earlier this week finished with La Costa Canyon remaining undefeated with a 9-7 win over Coronado. LCC, the defending San Diego Section champions, also handled archrival Poway earlier this season and has a current 22-game winning streak, dating back to last season. Coronado, which is led by UMBC-bound Bria Phillips, had its seven-game winning streak snapped.
* The Poway girls take a break from their California schedule this week for a three-game road trip to Colorado. The Titans will play three of the state's best, with games against Cherry Creek, Kent Denver and Arapahoe. Poway's lineup features four players who have already committed to Division I programs: midfielder Liz Donahue (Richmond), midfielder Kelly Jablonski (Oregon), midfielder Anessa Jamison (UC Berkeley) and her sister Vanessa Jamison (UC Davis).
* Intersectional boys' games of note this weekend include: Ohio's Western Reserve Academy visiting Michigan's Brother Rice; New York's Garden City against Baltimore's St. Paul's; Tennessee's McCallie visiting Georgia's Lassiter; and New York's Shoreham-Wading River at New Jersey's Mountain Lakes.
* In the Upper Midwest, the season doesn't start for some teams until this weekend, but that didn't stop one team from already making its impact felt.
Members of the Madison (Wisc.) West boys' team recently visited with patients at the local children's hospital, spending their Saturday morning talking with the patients about lacrosse, school studies, TV shows and other things. The patients ranged in age from 4 to 19 and had the chance to throw and catch with some of the players and to try on some equipment. Coach Tom Darcy used the visit to remind his players that "sometimes in the heat of sports competition, we tend to forget how good we have it and how blessed we are."
Lesson learned.
Did we miss something? Submit news and notes, questions or comments to Paul Ohanian at gpohanian@uslacrosse.org.
