I Discovered Something on Saturday...

Shooting lacrosse is hard.

Here are some of the shots that actually came out half decent. You'll notice that there are very few action shots. There are some that refer to it as "the fastest sport on two feet." I can tell you they may be right after trying to photograph it.

Senior Blake Best, about to restart play from the endline.

Not sure who this is (can't make the number out, but I think it's 41, Tim Stratton), "cradling" the ball as he was trying to avoid an oncoming defender who didn't make it in to the shot.

A Towson player after getting rocked, looks to be 23, Clint Brakebill. If you have keen eyes, you'll see the he still has possession of the ball, though, good for him.

One of the things I love about the sport is that when the ball hits the ground sometimes, it simply becomes chaos. Tiger player off his feet, and a Penn player stuffed by his own teammate as they both are trying to get the ball at their own feet.

Two Tigers celebrating after a score.

Tiger moving on the net, ball cradled in stick, longstick defender right behind him, another defender right above him. Looks like it might be Clint Brakebill again

Some of the other shots were interesting, but not post worthy. Either blurry (or I had the wrong perspective in focus...like a few shots of faceoffs from ground level that would have looked great had I not been focused on the ground about 5 feet in front of them) or simply poorly framed with no easy fix. But enjoy these, lacrosse fans and non lacrosse fans alike.

A View from the Booth

Here is my view of a lacrosse game at Unitas Stadium. I thought you guys might enjoy a "Bart's eye view" of things sometimes.

Maybe you're being a little Lax

So, lacrosse. Fastest sport on two feet.

Start watching it.

I'm being selfish, though. If it gets popular, they'll make a video game for it. They should already, but what do I know. Oh yeah, everything. Kind of like Jack Black's character in "Heat Vision and Jack." Which about three people saw, and probably none of the people that regularly read this. So that was a fairly esoteric reference to make, but I'm okay with that.

Back on track, though, I was never much of a lacrosse person until college. And I grew up in Maryland, which has been pushing hard for awhile to have the state sport changed to lacrosse (from jousting...a concession was made to make lax the team sport of the state, but how stupid is that? You only see jousting at the Renn Fest and Medieval Times, and that's fixed). But once I got here, I really grew to appreciate the game. It really is the fastest sport on two feet.

For those of you readers who are really lost at this point, lacrosse is a team sport, with origins in Native American life. Players carry sticks, or crosses, which have a net in the top (with pocket sizes that are strictly regulated), and the ball is a very hard ball a little smaller than a tennis ball. From there, the rules are kind of like soccer and hockey. Except the ball is played from crosse to crosse, not played along the ground. If you've ever seen the movie American Pie, that's the sport that Oz and Stiffler play. It's huge on the East Coast of the US, most notably Maryland through New York (though it does go as far down as Florida, but you'll find more youth and secondary school teams in the primary area). It has caught on in the Denver area, too. It's the national summer sport of Canada, and I know for a fact that there are youth leagues around the world because I worked the Under 18 World Lacrosse Tournament 3 years ago. And most of the country probably knows lacrosse as the sport those kids at Duke played, the ones who were accused of raping a stripper last year.

Admittedly, it's hard to follow at first. That ball zips around quickly. But once you get the hang of it, it's a great fast moving game that takes a lot of athleticism. Can you run the length of a lacrosse field (depending on men's or women's, indoor or outdoor, the field varies) while "cradling" a ball in your pocket (an action that requires turning the stick back and forth with a wrist motion in order to keep the ball in the pocket of the net) while defenders slap their sticks against yours, most of the time hitting more of you than the stick? I know I can't.

Give it a chance.