Sorry for the delay in the article recap to the two teams . . .    On Saturday Ponte Vedra completed their two-day Southern swing with a solid 16-8 win over Gulliver Prep on the Academy Campus in Pinecrest.  I’m going to do a little different game story on this one because it was very difficult for me to read numbers due to the glare of the sun and I’d rather not have to go back to the article to make a lot of corrections.   This game features an interesting snapshot of how the sport has evolved down here.  Gulliver Prep was started in 1926, by a man named Gulliver, in Coconut Grove as a place where New England students could attend when vacationing in the winter time according to Wiki while Ponte Vedra has only been around since 2008 as a response to the rapid growth in population in their area.  Gulliver’s lacrosse history extends back quite a way and Lake Mary head coach Garrick Robinson spent many years at the helm there.  Current head coach James Piggot came from the lacrosse hot beds of Illinois and Iowa and had the team off to an 8-2 start before this game.  Some of the more notable alumni include members of the Iglesias family of musicians, Jeb Bush’s son George P. Bush and Eduardo Saverin of Facebook fame. Ponte Vedra is the other side of the coin . . . part of the massive wave of nouveau riche lacrosse, and a highly successful leader of that pack.  Coach Tom West is from a true hot bed on Long Island and his team was coming off their only loss of the season, to highly ranked Jupiter the night before.  Since the school was started in 2008 the first full lacrosse class graduated in 2011 and when you look at their list of graduated players in college you will see it is pretty lengthy for the amount of time it is around.  But the school itself has not been around long enough to really produce big name alumni . . . I have no doubt that will be coming soon enough.  

Ponte Vedra jumped out early as they took a 4-0 lead after one.  Miles Silva scored twice and Rob Peeters and Ryan Weile also scored.  PV outshot GP 9-4 in the quarter and scored on 4 of the 6 shots that hit net.  Turnovers were 4-3 PV and the game looked comfortably in hand at that point.  PV was able to run their offense effectively and found the middle enough times to both score and start to get GP’s defense to start to back in, allowing more open space up front later in the game.

  The two schools are located in vastly different locales.  Ponte Vedra (again from Wiki, as is most of the info I use here) is located in the northeast corner of the state, and has a population of about 38,000 over a 34 square mile area.  To me it is one of the true epitomies of ‘New’ Florida, the rapid growth of the flight south the country has taken over teh past few decades.  For those that missed the announcement a few months ago we passed New York in population.  When I think of the city the first thought that comes to mind is the TPC at Sawgrass and the Player’s Championship. When you travel to both the Gulliver Prep campus and it’s older location, Gulliver Academy in Pinecrest, you drive through the true old Florida, of trees overhanging the road, with homes dating back decades and a number of gated, hidden homes where you can just feel the old South American money hidden from their home country.  This area was one of the hardest hit during Hurricane Andrew in 1991 but you would never know it today.  The schools are near the University of Miami and are close enough to downtown Miami that the traffic to get there is arguably the worst in the U.S., as anyone who tries to commute home on I-95/US1 will gladly tell you.  The area is old enough to have SIX sister cities, and keeping with the demo four of those are in Spain and South America.  I’m not sure Ponte Vedra even has a sister city yet, but it seems to have the highest concentration of professional golfers and professional tennis players, past and present, that you can imagine living there.  

The second quarter opened quickly and kept up the pace.  The teams traded 4 goals each to make it 8-4 at the half.  Walker Gautier scored three (Neil, you were spot on for that one . . .) for Gulliver and CJ Hassan added one while four different scorers lit the lamp (hockey term for those who wonder) for PV; Silva, Clay Welch, John Harding and Weile.  Six of the 8 goals were assisted and according to my notes Trevor Pelletier picked up two of them for GP while the rest were spread around for both teams individually.  The stats were also even as GP hit the net on 6 of 8 while PV hit the net on 6 of 9.  Faceoffs were even at 4 as one faceoff was eliminated by penalty.  Total turnovers were only 4, with Pv only having one.  Both teams took advantage of their only EMO opportunities.  GP was able to finally find some space in the middle of the PV defense and that was where they were able to be effective while PV was able to vary their attack, combining goals off inside feeds with some alley work and a score off a turnover.

  When you look at these schools they are quite a distance apart . . . 345 miles to be exact . . . most of it on scenic I-95.  So why do these two schools play each year?  Last year Tom told me that the Ponte Vedra athletic department limits him to one Southern trip a year and each year he includes Gulliver Prep when it’s his turn to travel.  Some fans down here wonder why he doesn’t schedule SA and Jupiter, for example, or SA-Benjamin/St. Thomas.  Well, for one very good reason . . . Coach West and Coach Piggot are very good friends.  It goes back to their lacrosse histories and a chance phone call to welcome a newcomer. Jim Piggot’s travels to his current position and Tom West’s have very little in common.  If there were a term ‘gym rat’ for the sport at the coaching level it would fit Tom to a ‘T’.  It would be completely off base for Jim. Tom grew up on Long Island as a Rangers fan living in a residential community of NY Islander players (a handicap I’ll forgive him for . . . but just barely), went off to Castleton State College in Vermont to play lacrosse (the same school that also produced famed Sports Psychologist Robert Rotella, who actually played lacrosse in college well enough to make the North-South game!!) and ended up coaching college ball at St. Michael’s in Vermont before family needs had him relocate to the northeast Florida region.  His path to the PV coaching spot goes through Flagler Palm Coast, which split into two schools so Tom started the program at Matanzas, then on to Nease (where he failed to get Tim Tebow to grab a stick . . . ), and finally on to Ponte Vedra when that was spun off from Nease. Kind of making him the Dominic Moore of the area . . . Tom, I wonder how many of your peers will get that one?  Just means many want you!  And here he is . . . guiding arguably the most successful public program in the state.  And in 2009 about to make a phone call to someone who he had never met before. Jim grew up in Chicago and ended up at the University of Iowa as I mentioned above. Trust me, the story gets better. After working for awhile in Chicago the wanderlust of a young man kicked in and he decided Costa Rica made an interesting next step and went down there to teach English.  Meanwhile, his brother was down in Miami, living in Coconut Grove and attending the University of Miami . . . enjoying it so much he told his brother that he might want to check it out himself.  So Jim went to visit, fell in love with the area and started on his path to lacrosse coaching through that all too common route of plumbing and construction work in the area . . . Chance circumstances then kicked in as Coach Robinson decided to leave Gulliver Prep, and one day a Gulliver parent happened to come upon Jim while he was wearing a lacrosse shirt.  One conversation later Jim was on his way to being interviewed for the position and a little while later was hired to coach the school’s lacrosse program.  See kids, sometimes you just have to be open to change . . . Tom noticed the new hire through the lacrosse network, which is still pretty tight, and decided to give Jim a call to try to arrange a game. Not only did they agree but they found out just how much they had in common and that phone call led to a strong friendship as well as coaching together on Team Florida. Hence the desire to play each other every year . . . even with the distance.  

The third quarter started with Gulliver scoring the first two goals to cut the lead to 8-6 and Tom had visions of the last game . . . one of the risks of planning a spring break trip is that the kids actually think it is a vacation with some games to play instead of games to play a distance away from home.  Tom sensed that in the Jupiter game and when I arrived for the pregame I could see why as about a third of his kids were warming up without their shirts on.  That’s a pretty good sign of a mindset.  But this time his team responded the way he wanted, going on a four goal run to end the third and take a 12-6 lead into the fourth.  Gautier and Enrique Falla gave GP the hope and Silva, Peeters twice and Logan Taucher doused the flames quickly.  PV’s defense finally started to take away the middle and 6 GP turnovers in the period helped turn the tide.  All four of PV’s goals in the period came off working the right half of the offensive zone.  A last-second goal by Reid Smith for PV was waived off, I guess for a crease violation.  The sun was working it’s way to a spot where the few stands were losing their shade and there seemed to be a light haze coming up off the field as the hottest day of the year was starting to take a toll on both my eyes and the thinner Gulliver bench.

  Miami is a very unusual city.  It’s recent history really is a by-product of two phenomenon, one good and one not so good.  Starting in the 90’s the city experienced a huge influx of South American money and over time that started to include a number of other ‘investment’ capital from the housing boom across the nation as migration from up north combined with real estate speculation from countries like China and even Russia as a way to invest newly earned wealth from successful entrepreneurs in those countries.  Driven by a desire for a lifestyle combined with the climate that allows us to wear shorts about 350 days a year . . . throw in how much the modeling industry started to inhabit South Beach . . . well, you get the point. It is still a mainly Latin-influenced scene and it is also an area where football is king, particularly with the large African-American population that still dominates that scene down here.  The Latin influence still screams soccer and to a lesser extent, baseball.  And the administrators who run the athletic budgets will still feel the pull of tradition down here. That makes the introduction of lacrosse as a competitor still a tough sell down here.  Coach DeLang at Columbus Catholic broke through two years ago with a run to the Final Eight with a mainly Latin/Hispanic starting lineup.  When you look at Coach Piggot’s lineup you start to see that seeping in . . . Benitez, Alonso, Zelaya, Falla . . . alongside Gautier and Pelletier and Walker.  It takes a long time to change a paradigm.  But the camel’s nose is under the tent now. Even Tom feels this pull too.  Even with the success of his program he will still have to deal with certain restraints.  Like not being able to travel more.  Thankfully the quality of the opposition is on the right path up there but it will take time and resources and that isn’t in any greater supply in his area then it is in Jim’s.  Just ask Coach Robinson about that . . . better yet, don’t.  His record was every bit as good as Tom’s while at Gulliver. But eventually both areas will have to pay more attention at the decision-making levels.  If the kids and their parents want to play lacrosse in school and avoid other sports even the densest administrator will eventually have to listen. And then Tom can get another trip.  

Ponte Vedra put the game away by continuing their run into the fourth quarter, scoring the first 3 goals to make it 15-6 before GP scored two of the last three to make the final 16-7 as Tom was able to go deep into the roster.  I have the PV goal scorers as Eric Applegate twice and Silva twice while Hassan and Nick Butnaru finishing for GP.  The fourth quarter had a slower feel to it as the heat made it’s presence known and the GP spirit finally gave in, not mentally but physically.  It really felt anti-climactic for most of the quarter as PV kept possession for a good amount of the period.  Tom would find something to be completely happy about as I did not record one turnover for the team in the fourth.  As the clock ran down it must have been sinking in to some of the PV players that the trip was over and a VERY LONG bus ride was looming.  Even a lot of pizza and whatever beverage best quenched the thirst does not completely take the bus trip issue away. For both coaches, the post-mortem will not be fully positive.  A game lost can not be regained.  Each team experienced that over the weekend.  But for the coaches, at least another opportunity to get together, in friendly rivalry.   The next phone call won’t wait until the fall . . . it will happen again and again and again . . . even before they set next year’s return trip.  

The game itself served a purpose for me as I only get to see PV on average once before the playoffs and those impressions have to last me for a while, on podcasts, and Media polls and other considerations.  What I saw was an experienced offensive squad that knows what it wants to accomplish and a defense that is good enough to go far when it plays with intensity.  I suspect that intensity will by fully on display in May but before it is late April will require a similarly full effort.  As for GP, the chance to get to see how they improved from the early game I saw at American Heritage/Boca. Ponte Vedra continues on their spring break before playing next Wednesday against a very good Bishop Moore squad while Gulliver Prep fell to Barron Collier at home after this game to fall to 8-4 on the season.  They are on their own break until they host Illinois power Lake Forest on the 28th as they also gear up for the difficult District 31 playoffs.   Note: Individual Statistics are likely not to be fully accurate due to the issues I was having with reading numbers.  Please excuse the accuracy and not pummel me with corrections!   Team Statistics Faceoffs:  Each team won 14 Shots:  PV 41 – GP 24 Shots on Goal:  PV 26 – GP 16 Turnovers:  GP 13 – PV 11 Penalties:  PV 4 – GP 3   Individual Statistics   PV Miles Sylva  6G Rob Peeters  3G/2A Eric Applegate  3G Ryan Weile  2G Logan Taucher  1G/1A Clay Welch and John Harding  1G each Reid Smith  2A Liam Anderson and Hal Swan  1A each   GP Walker Gautier  4G CJ Hassan  2G/1A Enrique Falla  1G/1A Nico Butnaru  1G Trevor Pelletier  2A John Walker  1A   Goalie Colin Peaks of PV made 8 saves and goalie Lucas Rego made 10 saves for GP . . . if the backup goalies made any saves I apologize for missing that!   Thanks to both coaches for talking to me at length for this article!