This was my introduction to covering the sport.  It was where I first covered some lacrosse games that I was attending at SA back around 2011 I would guess.  My user name there was LRoggy.  It led to a fun back and forth with Rich Coppersmith, the father of SA and Johns Hopkins player Lee Coppersmith.  Rich PM’ed me one day with the simple message: “I see you posting on both Saint Andrews and Hobart College (Rich actually was at Hobart with me, we didn’t know each other and he graduated a year before me), who are you?” We corresponded some and eventually we met when Lee was in the original Team Israel tryout when they toured down here in their first year of existence. There were a number of people from the Florida lacrosse community that would talk back and forth on the Forums.  Sometimes it get a little heated but mostly it was very respectful and fun to participate.  Even Quint Kessenich would show up once in a while to ask for some input. I think it was about 2 years ago that LP decided to try a premium paywall for a few things and it did not catch on much.  That’s a shame.  Some of you might remember that after the end of the 2017 high school season I made a comment in one of my articles about reaching the limit of what free content could provide.  This sport requires a lot of financial commitment from parents for their kids: school fees and travel expenses in the summer, showcase fees, private lessons at times. LaxPower provided a remarkable service.  Schedules, score reporting in an easy to use format, the highly debated Power Rankings and the wonderful Forums. But they were not supported financially by the greater lacrosse community and that is a shame.  MaxPreps looks like it is signing deals all over the country for high school score and schedules.  Inside Lacrosse wants to help that too. I can say that MaxPreps did an okay job with the scores but nowhere near as well as LP did.  IL actually does have Forums but it will take some time before they become second nature for the LP community to migrate. This is a real warning shot to the lacrosse fans out there.  There IS a limit to what FREE can provide.  Inside Lacrosse has the solid backing of a corporate parent and has certainly been able to sell advertising.  Lacrosse Magazine has the backing of the US Lacrosse organization.  But as all of you know, the most popular content on FLN is the high school coverage and that’s always the step child of coverage nationally because of the amount of resources available. There are a handful of regional lacrosse web sites around the country, including this one.  We’re the ones who tend to be most focused on the HS market for content at the local level.  Let’s all of us try to make sure that LP is not the start of a trend.  The NFHS just reported that their latest survey of participation at the high school level is up 11% for Boys and 25% for Girls!  We are now over 400 high school programs in this state alone. #TAFTAG, #WWCLWC . . . these are not just slogans or cute asides.  They need to be the START, not the end.  It’s a great sport to play, it’s a great sport to watch, and trust me, a great sport to write about.  Support where you can. I will really miss being able to discuss Hobart Lacrosse with my online buddies KMartin, OldBartman, LAStatesman, SenecaGuy and all the rest; it was a pretty good level of discussion. RIP LaxPower and thank you for many years of giving me a lot of fun and a lot of information!