Now that the high school season is behind us I’d like to send a personal thank you to the entire lacrosse community for your support, interest and desire to continue to participate in our web site and to listen to our podcasts. Now that I’ve had a couple of days to decompress from the high school season (and thanks to my broker/dealer I am able to do this from a remote location that unfortunately does not allow me to access ESPN Watch, so instead of watching the games I thought I would take advantage to write this while only being able to follow the ‘Live Stats’ online! On May 9th I was able to participate in three separate events that really sums up what our lacrosse community is becoming in this state. In the morning my first stop was the annual Pockets & Sockets charity event in Delray Beach.  Those who read my column last year after this event know how I feel about it so I’m not going to go into recapping it again in the same way as it would sound pretty repetitive, so let me just say how proud I am of being a small part of publicizing this.  Since the last P&S event Mikey and older brother Harris became almost ‘celebrities’ in their own right (albeit without the baggage that so many modern celebrities carry!), appearing on pretty much every national TV station and carrying it off pretty darn well.  During the season I could kind of see it on Mikey’s face . . . sometimes being out of the spotlight isn’t bad either.  Harris finished the marathon with only one year to train for it, and while also participating in lacrosse games before and after it.  Congrats to Harris on winning his conference’s ‘Newcomer Of The Year’ too.  Not a bad 12 months for the Stolzenberg family . . . The next event of the day was the FLN Florida High School All Star game for graduating seniors.  We decided to make if a statewide event this year instead of going with the regional approach that we hosted at Saint Andrew’s last year.  Although the logistics took a lot of wrangling back and forth it finally got settled and the game went off smoothly at the new FAU stadium in Boca, complete with utilizing the scoreboard and Jumbotron (with replays of the goals!).  We had participants from as far away as Maclay, which was really nice to see.  Thanks to Meghan and Jeanie for helping us to pull it all together and making the event a memorable experience for all of the kids. On a personal note I’m going to miss covering this graduating class.  Last year’s was the first I covered but it really was a short-term thing since I really didn’t get to know the kids last year.  This year’s crop spent a whole year cycle in my coverage and I was also able to get to know their families pretty well too.  Everywhere I went to cover a game parents would come up to me and show their appreciation for what we are doing and it is very gratifying to know how much pure fun the site has become for the families.  The kids too are experiencing something that most of them never dreamed about when they first picked up a stick; recognition on a level that that even their football compatriots would be proud of.  The parents were always accommodating and I hope that they also continue to come out to the games when they can, even though their kids have moved on to college. As for the coaches, I spoke about them in my acceptance speech attached.  What I do know is how much I appreciate their patience with me before and after the games.  And while I’m not always going to be accurate on my predictions before a game or sometimes mis-analyze a game afterwards you’ve always treated me with respect and patience, and my writing is the better for it. Which brings me to the last event of May 9th, the South Florida Chapter Awards Dinner, featuring the All-Americans and so many other award winners for their achievements that range far and wide; academically, community-wide, and just plain old being a mensch, even at a young age. That night I was given some recognition that has few toppers in my 55 years on this planet.  And it was pretty humbling given that just about every one of the award winners besides me had spent more time and achieved far more in lacrosse than I did.  When I heard about some of the stories that played out at the Awards dinner, like those for the Bob Scott Award won by Jason D’Aoust and how he started a middle school program and Bianca Diaz’ Haitian experience I almost have to laugh at being honored for just writing columns, kind of like the Wayne’s World scene backstage at the Aerosmith concert.  I make kids and coaches feel more appreciated but these kids make a real difference in people’s lives and to be able to bring their stories to our readers is a privilege. When I found out about my award for Man of the Year it didn’t really register at first.  I’ve only been doing this for about 15 months and I always looked at this as fun.  But after thinking about it I started to understand my role better.  Although I received this award it really was a team effort between Brian, Ernie, the parents and coaches who submit game content and our great photographers who allow us to share their work.  Throw in Wells Dusenbury for believing in the viability of our weekly podcasts and it all comes together in a wonderful product; the raising of Florida lacrosse to take its proper place in this state.  And in some ways to go above and beyond most. What we’ve done, at its heart, is to deliver lacrosse ‘respectability’ as a true sport.  On par with high school football statewide and, if we are truly honest, probably at a level beyond ALL other high school sports in this state.  Is there truly any other Florida-based coverage of any other high school sport that approaches this? And in retrospect, that is the true accomplishment of FLN.  It is also why I am so humbled by this.  It really should have been FLN the entity, not just me. But I’ll settle . . . The dinner itself was so much fun for me (even if I didn’t get to speak until late!), to get to know so many more of the kids and the other participants.  Even if it seems I went everywhere this season in reality I didn’t come close to meeting most of the award winners until that night.  Just another layer of getting to know the scene.  Almost like an educational seminar for me. I decided to post the whole speech I wrote out for accepting the award.  Due to the time I had to leave some of it out while up on the dais and I think it reads better if I leave it as is.  Also, there is a section late in the speech where I talked off the cuff about one thing all of us need to talk about, the one thing that disturbs me the most about the game down here, the issue of players not having enough respect for each other in two ways:  high shots to the head and neck area and unnecessary rough hits late in a game when the result is no longer in doubt.  I will take on that issue in a separate column (partly because I didn’t write down what I said) and try to think through how we can discourage this in the future. So, again, thank you for this wonderful honor and I look forward to continuing to help our great sport continue to grow and thrive as we go along!   Speech Accepting The Man Of The Year Award