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Mother’s Day Musings . . .

Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in , , .

Happy Mother’s Day to all!

I’ll be working on the Final Polls this week after focusing on the college scene last week. If VSN would like to do the rollout plus a recap of the Final Four, with highlight clips, we’ll look there. If not, I’ll likely be rolling them out on our YouTube channel.

And remember, hit that SUBSCRIBE button!

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Going back to May 4th, what a span this has been for the sport in Florida!

A first-time champ in Lake Mary (and remember, almost all the starters are back next year!), the next installment of the AH-Delray-LHP rivalry, with AH-Delray winning the title back. Bartram Trail Girls going back-to-back, with a last ten seconds that will make Maddie Stevens a local legend for a long time to come (even woke up the NFHS announcer, which took a LOT!). And a Saint Andrew’s-Bolles instant classic that should portend the rise of another program to prominence.

UF and JU Women again faced off in the NCAA D1 tournament

A full Florida look in the South Region for the Women, as Tampa, Rollins, FSC and Flagler made up the 4 teams in the South bracket, while the Men were populated by Rollins and Tampa.

Keiser Men win the NAIA title yesterday, their first in school history, to match the Women doing so a few years back. Christian Tomei went on a streak in goal and AJ Badik put up 8 goals in the win.

The MCLA entrants from Florida, UF in D1, FGCU and FAU in D2, fell in the first round unfortunately. But 3 schools aren’t bad for an Invitational event that covers a LOT of colleges!

UF’s Sarah Reznick was one of only 11 draftee’s to the Athlete’s Unlimited Lacrosse Pro League for Women, while Troy Hettinger of JU went #12 overall in the PLL Draft.

Club teams are in full swing already and the FLN Prep Showcase drew a large number in Sebring this weekend.

And the USA Lacrosse Festival revs up this coming Friday with US National Team Development Program tryouts, the Hall of Fame Dinner, the All-American Games and a Sixes event.

All American lists have mostly been released, with the normal laggard . . .

And of course, since it’s the Stanley Cup playoff time, we get our annual ritual:

Sorry Pajama Boy . . . once again. Should have kept at lacrosse, like your uncle!

That’s a LOT of lacrosse highlights

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Florida Dairy Farmers Player and Coach of the Year

For the first time, I’m actually voting for the Florida Dairy Farmers Player and Coach of the Year. Not sure why I wasn’t a voter in the past since I’m easy to find . . .

Regardless of the etiquette, it’s a worthy list to choose from, with one or two exceptions; just like the Tewaaraton Award, there seems to be a lack of recognition this year with goalies and defenders (Sean Jordan did win the Award as an LSM twice, but was a rarity, as he is the only defender to win).

The Awards were first handed out in 2009, with Matt Bellando of Saint Andrew’s and Jamie Reeg of Park Vista winning. Bellando repeated in 2010. Katy Pridemore of Vero Beach won it back-to-back in 2013 and 2014. Kevin Crowley won it twice at St Thomas while Caitlyn Wurzburger won it 3 times in a row,

Anyhow, even though it’s a secret ballot, I think it’s fair, given my role at FLN, to disclose my picks this year:

Boys Florida Dairy Farmers Player – Caden Harshbarger of Lake Mary

Boys Florida Dairy Farmers Coach – Garrick Robinson of Lake Mary

Girls Florida Dairy Farmers Player – Ryann Frechette of Bartram Trail

Girls Florida Dairy Farmers Coach – John McClain of AH-Delray

It certainly was easier to pick the Coaches than the Players, given the selections presented. AH-Delray DESERVES an Inside Lacrosse Top 25 national ranking. There were two other young ladies I strongly considered and the same with the Boys. Harshbarger had the most competition in my opinion but going 24-0 and how Lake Mary dominated the Final Four with him as the on-field leader, led me to that final choice. Statistics are not the be all and end all; impact in the on-field game isn’t always captured.

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Ahh, the NFHS does it again . . .

Boring, boring, boring.

And they couldn’t even capture all the action!

Took until the 3rd quarter until the video appeared, and the announce actually tried to blame it on ‘all the people in the park using Wi-Fi’ at the same time!

I guess they totally forgot 2021 at Austin Tinsdall Park . . . or they are TOO CHEAP to use a hard wire and a truck? Funny, the B1G Ten Network managed just fine with 4,500 in the stands. But they’re PROFESSIONALS who know what they are doing.

Unfortunately for lacrosse fans, the Spectrum right of first access to broadcasting runs out this year, and they were not interested in broadcasting high school sports championships the past number of years. NFHS Network is next in line, and they couldn’t give a ‘you know what’ about quality as long as they had cheap content to offer.

I wonder if Mark Koski could even spell lacrosse . . . if you spotted him the first 7 letters, and even then would he get the ‘e’ right?

FHSAA, PLEASE find a solution. The Bud Light advertising team would do better.

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Lacrosse Journalism is Starting to Thrive in Florida

There are plenty of other places to get great lacrosse information in the state.

Whether other websites and Twitter users, Facebook pages and Instagram accounts. Ray Carnicelli’s Lax904, who gave me my first interview back in 2014. Plenty of journalists on local newspapers give great coverage, as well as SBLive, who’s local contact in my area, Michael Costeines, I got to know this season.

We even had many more Submit Game Recaps this year than before.

For many years, TampaLaxReport.com has been at the forefront. James Broome and I got to sit down and talk about how they started:

Thanks James, from the entire lacrosse community!

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The Tewaaraton Trophy . . . It Stands on its Own

I want to call out all the lacrosse TV personalities on this one.

I don’t want to hear all the time the phrase “the Tewaaraton Trophy, the Heisman of College Lacrosse”.

Say it 10% of the time. It sounds like I hear it 100% of the time.

If you have to say it 100% of the time, you haven’t educated anyone.

It’s The Tewaaraton Trophy . . . that’s ALL you should say. We’re the older sport. We’re the best sport. We’re nobody’s second fiddle. Start announcing like it.

It’s this:

It’s NOT this:

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