The regular season is already in the books . . .     Good news . . . only about 293 days until the start of the 2020 regular season.  Plenty of time to hit the wall for those for whom their season is over as of Saturday. Even better news . . . 64 teams are playing this week . . . and 32 next week . . . and so on. Final Four is coming up on May 9^th . . . and 10^th . . . and 11^th . . . if Flag Football will finish on time and no rain interferes.  Imagine a Sunday final for the Boys thanks to the blinders in Gainesville . . . aw heck, why b***h unless it actually happens.  Like it did in Bradenton in 2014 when the Girls showed up on Friday morning and didn’t finish until Sunday afternoon. Damn, I’m feeling withdrawal even BEFORE the season ends.  And no Launch to help fill the gap . . .  

Might as well get this out of the way first: For those players, parents and coaches who are finished this season, and are moving on . . . to college, retirement, etc., THANK YOU for your efforts.  Whether playing or coaching or being a ref, or sitting in the stands after driving the player, the dedication and effort that goes into high school sports can be thankless, financially draining and physically challenging . . . but also exhilarating, thrilling and satisfying.  Good luck with whatever the next steps in life take you! For those I have met and talked to, debated and even sometimes took to task . . . I hope you got out of it what I intended.  And thanks for sharing this part of your life with me!

  A little Florida action from the Gulf Coast . . .     Ponte Vedra Wins the Regular Season.  On the field.  Congrats to them for their come from behind victory at Oxbridge on Saturday.  The game was a roller coaster ride all itself.  If they meet again it might be Space Mountain.  

Last Week’s Top 25

  1t) Oxbridge – Let’s Get 1t) Ponte Vedra – It On! 3) Saint Andrew’s – guts out the 2OT road win over Benjamin 4) Cardinal Mooney – Friday at Bishop Moore 5) Bishop Moore – will be fun and revealing 6) Benjamin – they must learn to finish better 7) St. Thomas Aquinas – Jupiter beckons 8) Jupiter – offensive struggles are being corrected 9) American Heritage-Plantation – not letting up on the schedule this week at all.  Benjamin game huge for where they truly are. 10) Creekside – well, they competed but Ponte Vedra looks like Dallas Carter right now 11) St. Edward’s – no surpises at all 12) Oak Hall – road trip to Dallas Carter coming 13) Riverview-Sarasota – they will face Berkeley this week 14) Lake Highland Prep – still need to prove they can win a Top 10 matchup at this point 15) Newsome – Jesuit is the final test 16) King’s Academy – continues their growth 17) Plant – needs to stop the bleeding 18) Berkeley Prep – two tough games to finish 19) Pine Crest – Boca Raton looms Tuesday 20t) Hagerty – Okay, Lake Mary loses to Hagerty by 1 goal and Hagerty loses to Winter Park by 1 goal – hence the tie 20t) Lake Mary – looks like they are getting it together at the right time, but likely can;t handle the best teams.  Great schedule gets them respect . . . something a lot of other teams below them need to learn 20t) Winter Park – see Hagerty 23) Boca Raton – wins over Stoneman Douglas and Western . . . rapidly improving.  Threw away a game against Columbus they fully controlled. 24) SJP II – after seeing then earlier they’ve really achieved this season 25t) Gulf Breeze – big time win over Maclay 25t) Melbourne Central Catholic – AGAIN, schedule better next year, there’s no excuse at this point. 25t) Out-of-Door Academy – I want them to know I’m paying attention Also Considered: Boone, Bolles, Calvary Christian (Ft. Laud), Canterbury, Columbus, First Academy, Fleming Island, Gulf Coast, Gulliver Prep, Jesuit of Tampa, Lake Brantley, Maclay, Oviedo, Providence School, Steinbrenner, Stoneman Douglas, University School, Western   1^st Intermission – Continuing Our 1980’s Season! In the 1980’s one of the surprise movie hits was the film Dirty Dancing.  In honor of the lacrosse Mom’s, here’s the finale of that . . . kids, that movie was to your Moms what the Farah Fawcett poster was to those of us Men a little older . . .       District Playoffs Are On You can see our previews on the site and for many of the districts the regular season winner will easily repeat the feat but there are some real doozies out there too. Keep watching the Twitter feeds for @FloridaLX, @TampaLaxReport and @LaxNorthFl for the most updates!   Key Results From Last Week   Monday, April 8^th Chiles with the 16-14 win over West Florida Stoneman Douglas 13-9 over Martin County Creekside 12-4 over St. Augustine   Tuesday, April 9^th Oviedo 13-11 over The First Academy Western 19-6 over University School Barron Collier 14-8 over Fort Myers Saint Andrew’s 10-9 over King’s Academy Oxbridge 13-4 over Benjamin Newsome 7-4 over Bartow Cardinal Mooney 16-3 over Jesuit Saint John Paul II 12-3 over Belen Jesuit Pine Crest 9-8 over Boca Raton Montverde Academy 13-12 over Boone Riverview-Sarasota 13-10 over Berkeley Prep     Wednesday, April 10^th Columbus 10-9 over Gulliver Prep St. Edward’s 9-1 over Merritt Island Mitchell 16-11 over Alonso Bishop Moore 14-12 over LHP Lake Brantley 11-6 over Viera Bolles 6-4 over St. Augustine   Thursday, April 11^th Berkeley Prep 7-6 over Out-of-Door Academy Creekside 12-7 over Maclay Ponte Vedra 19-2 over Oak Hall Melbourne Central Catholic 7-3 over Oviedo Jesuit 11-5 over Newsome Jupiter 13-11 over St. Thomas Aquinas Western 19-11 over King’s Academy Hagerty 18-6 over West Orange   Friday, April 12^th Martin County 7-4 over Merritt Island LHP 16-11 over Lake Mary American Heritage-Plantation 10-6 over Benjamin Cardinal Mooney 17-8 over Bishop Moore Montverde Academy 16-8 over Viera Plant 10-8 over Riverview-Sarasota Boone 10-8 over Winter Park Saint Andrew’s 17-7 over Stoneman Douglas   Saturday, April 13^th Ponte Vedra 11-9 over Oxbridge Gulf Breeze 16-6 over Leon     Underdog Upset of the Week   Coral Springs Charter 11-10 over Cypress Bay on Thursday I did a double take on this one.  Cypress Bay is the largest school by population playing Boys Lacrosse at nearly 4,700 students according to my FHSAA info and Wikipedia, and Coral Springs Charter is a fraction of that.  Four years ago, Cypress Bay was a bracket team featuring Marquette recruit Anthony Courcelle and a solid supporting cast. Coral Springs Charter lost to John I Leonard this year and also had a stretch of scoring only 9 goals in 6 games against a tough district schedule. What the heck happened at Cypress Bay the last few years that led to this?   2^nd Intermission For the second intermission I want to introduce to many of you a YouTube channel that you need to follow and subscribe to.  Mike Loveday of Laxrecords.com, teams up with Mike Ward, who covers the Midwest high school lacrosse scene!  I’ve been a guest of Mike’s a number of times and he recently interviewed Pete Mastro of Tampa Lax Report too!  Mike is a big supporter of the Florida scene so let’s return the favor!     Sunshine State Conference Update   For those used to a certain hierarchy in the Sunshine State Conference on the Men’s side, how about this?   2019 Men’s Lacrosse Standings  

School	Conf	CPct.	Overall	Pct.	Home	Away	Neutral	Streak
Lynn	5-1	0.833	10-3	0.769	7-1	3-1	0-1	W7
Tampa	5-1	0.833	11-5	0.688	6-3	3-1	2-1	L1
Saint Leo	4-2	0.667	9-5	0.643	7-2	2-2	0-1	W2
Rollins	3-3	0.500	9-4	0.692	5-0	4-4	0-0	W1
Florida Tech	3-3	0.500	7-4	0.636	3-1	3-3	1-0	L1
Florida Southern	3-3	0.500	8-7	0.533	6-2	2-4	0-1	W1
Palm Beach Atlantic	1-5	0.167	6-9	0.400	3-3	2-5	1-1	L6
Embry-Riddle	0-6	0.000	8-8	0.500	6-4	2-4	0-0	L6

  Yes, that’s LYNN at the top!   And on the Women’s side we have this from today:  

Rank	Institution	Points	FPV	Record	Last Poll
1	Le Moyne	625	25	13-0	1
2	Adelphi	590	0	12-1	2
3	Rollins	555	0	13-1	T-5
4	Regis (Colorado)	537	0	13-0	9
5	Florida Southern	513	0	14-2	7
6	Tampa	488	0	10-3	T-5

THREE teams in the Top 6 of the Poll this week!   If you’re team has been eliminated from the high school and still need a fix, don’t forget we also have a heck of a college conference to attend games for too!  

Lace Up For Lax   Our sport’s generosity goes unnoticed in many parts of the national media, which still sees us as some sort of White Privilege poster child but we know better in our state’s lacrosse community and once again we showed up. On Thursday I witnessed the game between Western and King’s Academy and the latest installation of Lace up For Lax and both teams came to play, during AND after the game. Our kids are more special than their stereotype and that needs to be reinforced over and over, until the know-it-alls are left with nothing else to say.

      If you are downtown in Boca after 6:30pm, 7 days a week, or even if you are suddenly driven by the desire to hop in your car and drive 3 hours to the location, here’s Boca’s hottest new dessert place . . . really, the only place you get FRESH, MADE TO ORDER, baked goods and sweets!  Take your date, your parents, heck, even your dog . . . they even DELIVER within a couple of miles!   Let’s not forget the important hash tags . . .  #TAFTAG #LacrossePutMyButtInThisSeat #GrowTheGame #LayOffTheRefs #SportsmanshipRocks #EnjoyTheGameNotTheBlame!     Okay, once again it’s time for . . .

Lee’s Useless Pop Culture Trivia!

  Casey, you’ll owe me one for this!  And the company will too . . . Many of you are aware of the Casey Powell Video Game but do any of you know the company behind it? From their website: Crosse Studios is a Pittsburgh-based company that is dedicated to creating entertaining lacrosse video games across a multitude of platforms, allowing players to access fast-paced, competitive and engaging lacrosse simulations. Founded in 2009, Crosse Studios developed the world’s first field lacrosse video game for the Xbox 360. Crosse Studios has since developed over fifteen lacrosse video games, including two professional indoor games fully licensed and endorsed by the National Lacrosse League. Crosse Studios released its first mobile lacrosse game, Lacrosse Dodge, for iOS and Android in 2013. Most recently, Crosse Studios released Casey Powell Lacrosse 16 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Steam. How’s that for a FREE AD guys? Feel free to call us to discuss an Affiliate Marketing Agreement!   And finally, we need an introduction to the Triple Crown Lacrosse FLN Top 25 . . . And in honor of Ponte Vedra’s victory on Saturday . . .    

The Triple Crown Lacrosse FLN Top 25 for the Week Ending April 14th!

  1) Ponte Vedra – the t is gone 2) Oxbridge – the game is 48 minutes, not 36 3t) Saint Andrew’s – guts out another close call, 3t) Cardinal Mooney – and Cardinal Mooney deserves the co-ranking after their Bishop Moore win 5) Jupiter – offensive struggles HAVE been corrected 6) St. Thomas Aquinas – nearly the greatest comeback ever seen down here.  13-3 and then 13-11 before you knew it 7) American Heritage-Plantation – truly joins the elite level after the Benjamin win 8) Bishop Moore – was not fun but really revealing 9) Benjamin – this might be generous right now, and now a big hole at FOGO 10) Creekside – a holding pattern 11) St. Edward’s – keeps holding serve, should be a decent match for the Jupiter/Benjamin survivor 12) Lake Highland Prep – solid week with close loss to BM and nice win over Lake Mary 13) Riverview-Sarasota – did beat Berkeley, but now CM looms in District 14) Pine Crest – frankly this is getting ridiculous this year when you get to this area . . . but they only lost once and as I’ve said before, George Harris can coach 15) Oak Hall – not a match for PV, could easily be at 20+ the way this season is 16) Berkeley Prep – two tough games to finish and they split them on the road   I’m marking a line here because NO ONE CAN SEEM TO KEEP ABOVE THIS LINE   17) Western – a great opportunity to get to a regional final, can they? 18) Jesuit of Tampa – okay, I cheated a little and included today’s result 19) King’s Academy – the best one goal loss of the season followed by a butt kicking 20t) Hagerty – just a good season and a few goals shy of a special one 20t) Boone – win over Winter Park gets the nod 22) Winter Park – just a little short 23) Newsome – Jesuit is the final test . . . but they got a C- on it 24) Lake Mary – Great schedule gets them respect . . . but didn’t take advantage of enough chances 25t) Gulf Breeze – maybe gets closer to Oak Hall this time around 25t) Melbourne Central Catholic – can finally make a move in the playoffs 25t) Boca Raton – one goal loss to Pine Crest Also Considered: Bolles, Calvary Christian (Ft. Laud), Canterbury, Columbus, First Academy, Fleming Island, Gulf Coast, Gulliver Prep, Lake Brantley, Maclay, Out-of-Door Academy, Oviedo, Plant, Providence School, SJP II, Steinbrenner, Stoneman Douglas