I know this is just a lacrosse website. And on our Twitter thread yesterday I stuck with that . . . reporting solely on the safety of the Stoneman lacrosse players. Thankfully they are all okay but it took until about 10:00pm last night to confirm that. One thing I have not tweeted yet was that we know that one of the victims, so far not named, is the younger brother of a former Saint Andrew’s player (edit – it turn out to be a former STA player and I apologize for the mistake) and until I have full confirmation I won’t speculate who it is but it is something I am confident is true from multiple sources (I know now but I am not going to print it.  I have asked friends of the victim if they want to write something and if they do so you’ll know).   I live 10 miles or so from the school and the coaching staff is among the closest relationships I have down here.  Coach Burton grew up near my college in upstate NY and we have fun with common stories.  Coach McAdorey and his wife are friendly with me and his son Connor wrote a blog for us on his Maccabi Games experience.  I’ve never gotten to know Coach Fenton but would like to. Just last week Wells and I broadcast the first Palm Beach Atlantic with two Stoneman grads playing . . . Austin Figas (who unfortunately injured himself and is possibly out for the year) and Blake Israel, the son of Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, a man who is becoming well known to TV viewers from this attack as well as from the Ft. Lauderdale terror attack. Many parents of players and grads have been more than friendly and more than helpful to FLN with their support and interest and I enjoy talking to them at every encounter, whether at a game or at a summer event. I watched both of them, and many others, blossom into top players and they certainly represented the best of what Coach Burton has built at the school. The season is scheduled to start Monday across the state and on Tuesday the team is scheduled to open their season at Saint Andrew’s. Given the school is closed today and tomorrow and Monday is President’s Day I suspect that is up in the air right now, and likely not on the minds of too many. I was certainly going to cover that game as my opener . . . I don’t know what is better . . . reschedule or play.  Good arguments on both sides.  I trust that the Douglas parties that make that call will get it right.   We’ve had too many of these incidents. Almost all the time it’s far away geographically and you are not likely to have any close connections to the school or kids Not this time I’m usually the type of person to look at these things analytically but twice in my life that was not the case One was on 9/11 Finding out a very close friend did not make it out of the South Tower And yesterday It’s a feeling I hope I never experience again But that’s selfish on my part   Today I know that there are kids I covered the past few years on their way home to mourn a friend They have far more right to hope this is it Of course, those of us who have lived as long as I have (60 this year) know that wish is fanciful I wrote once a while ago, talking to the kids, that life is not won or lost, it is lived Lessons learned are good and bad And life is not always fair   The only thing we can offer to the families are our heartfelt condolences And a wish that the surviving kids remember that looking forward is almost always more productive than looking back This will not be the last time you will be challenged emotionally and you can count on some pretty tough things to deal with in the future It’s easy to pull back within yourself and try to avoid any danger but that hurts you more than it protects you It’s one of the few ways that life can’t be lived And your friends didn’t die so that you can’t live Honor them with the way you live your life . . . they’ll see it from heaven.  Give them a lot to be proud of. Live for the both of you going forward . . . then their sacrifice is not in vain   God bless the families