When the guys at Shooters Lacrosse, who host the annual Grip-It-N-Rip-It Tournament, told me they were planning to put on the Beach Lacrosse World Championship this November I had a hard time picturing it.  “What happens if the ball goes in the Gulf of Mexico” is about as far as I could get my head wrapped around the idea of Beach Lacrosse. A quick Google search found a beach lacrosse tournament in Wildwood, NJ at Moreys Piers.  If you can judge by pictures, it sure does look like they were having a good time.  But I was still trying to picture how the fields (if that’s even what they would be called) would be laid out.  Would players be trudging through ankle deep sugar sand? That’s about the time my wife started dropping hints that we had an anniversary coming up and I should take her somewhere special.  Turns out it was our 25th anniversary and I thought it would be a great chance to do some scouting, so off we headed to the Sheraton Sand Key Resort for the weekend.  Home of the Beach Lacrosse World Championships on November 28th – 30th. What I found when I got there was pretty cool.  In addition to a world class hotel, the beautiful Gulf waters, and excellent service, the beach looks like it was custom made to host this kind of event.  According to group sales manager David Hahn, who was nice enough to show us around the place, when the property was built in 1975 the high tide came right up to the hotel’s sea wall.  This is only feet from the swimming pool.  Then, the Army Corp of Engineers built a jetty just a few hundred yards north of the hotel and the current was so drastically changed that now the water is about 200 yards from the sea wall.  The result is an incredibly huge, open, area that was once the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico but is now just about perfect for a lacrosse tournament.

The footing in the play area is not ankle deep sugar sand, it’s actual pretty firm and I can see a ball rolling on it.  No doubt the surface would change with hundreds of feet running on it through a weekend, but I think the play will be faster than I originally thought.   The fields are 50 yards by 30 yards with four players plus a goalie on the field.  With 10 players per roster and no horns or time outs it sounds like the action will be non-stop. The hotel is, of course, awesome.  There are several great restaurants at the hotel and with several Frenchy’s locations nearby the world’s greatest Grouper Sandwich is within your reach.  The Tournament will take place over the Thanksgiving Weekend with games kicking off at 2:00 pm on the Friday the 28th.  The cost per team is $700 unless your team stays at the hotel then the fee drops to $600.  You can find out more info at the Beach Lacrosse Championships Website and for info about rooms you can contact David Hahn at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort (727) 595-1611.