Understanding This Lacrosse Mumbo Jumbo
I cannot guarantee that you will learn anything about lacrosse in this column, so don't get your hopes up. But in just one week of watching lacrosse, I am starting to really like this game.
Photo By: Chris Barbay
Broad Run's Kenny McAdow plays goalie, but he also gets into attack mode and races the length of the field to try and score. Only in lacrosse do you see something like that.
Photo By: Chris Barbay
In Wednesday's broadcast, Choppy Burke told me that it wasn't all that bad to have a few guys on the field with guts that hang out of their jerseys. Now that is a sport every middle-aged man can love.
ASHBURN, VA - When I told my baseball buddies I was broadcasting lacrosse recently, the look I received was similar to the one my son Jack gave me when his mother made him eat his vegetables at the dinner table. I'm not going to lie, one year ago, I gave the same look when my colleague Derek LeComte said we needed to broadcast more lacrosse on the Gameday Radio Network.
But a year later, I'm hooked on the sport. This is partially due to the fact that lacrosse in some really foreign language means spring football. Yes, I said it! The game takes the best of soccer, hockey, and the physicality of football and combines them into one. What potato chip eating sports fan wouldn't love that combination?
Granted my knowledge of the game is in phase 1, but after watching a few games up close and listening to Heritage head coach Choppy Burke on our airwaves, lacrosse really is fun to watch.
In order to understand the game and be considered a part of the "In-Crowd of Lacrosse", you have to know the lingo. In my first broadcast, I called the thing that sits on the end of the stick a net, and the look I got from Derek LeComte was not a good one.
Apparently, calling it a net is like calling a baseball glove a mitten. I get that, I really do, but a pocket? Aren't pockets usually on your pants? No said Derek, they are on the end of the stick that each player runs with. And speaking of the stick, this piece of equipment is like a baseball player's bat. You don't mess with it, and you don't touch it.
Interestingly, lacrosse sticks come in some unique colors, that don't fit with the manly aspects of the game. Lime green, pink, and bright orange are common colors for even the toughest of players to proudly use.
And then there is what Derek calls a scrum, which describes the situation when several players are fighting to pick up a loose ball on the ground. During a scrum, you are very likely to get walloped upside the head with a stick and a pocket, (not a net) from an opposing player. It really gets nasty in there, and only the strong survive.
In lacrosse, much like in football, it pays to be the meanest player on the field defensively. Take Broad Run's Will Field, who never loses a battle in a scrum. Seriously, the kid always gets the ground ball in his pocket (not a net) when the dust settles. I am a fan of Field because if he's close to losing the scrum, he takes his stick and just physically starts abusing the opposing player until the kid drops the ball. It is quality entertainment.
My broadcast partner Choppy Burke called him the "Vacuum" and for good reason. He is the king of scrums, if that makes sense to you.
Lacrosse also has some cool rules, especially for goalies like Broad Run's Kenny McAdow. In soccer and hockey, you would never see a goalie go the length of the playing field and try to score, but in lacrosse, that is allowed. I didn't say it was smart, but it is allowed. And I love the rule, because I would get tired of staying in the same place the whole game too.
In Wednesday's win over Salem, McAdow took off three times and ran 80 yards with the ball, leaving his team's goal unprotected. I found myself sitting in the booth suddenly clinching my pen a little tighter, especially when Salem stole the ball from McAdow and went on the attack. Now that was exciting stuff.
I asked Broad Run Coach Dave Forman about whether or not his blood pressure rose a bit when he saw McAdow leave his post, and he said it was nothing new.
"I can't tell him not to do that," Forman said with a laugh. "It's kind of his nature; it's just the type of player he is."
I'm not sure all coaches would be that nonchalant about it, but Forman is a pretty cool guy to play for. Choppy Burke told me after the game that when he tries to compile his team as a coach for lacrosse, he looks for the craziest kid to play goalie. If you watched McAdow play football as a linebacker, you will know what he is talking about.
There are some rules that do not make sense though in lacrosse. For example, when a team tosses the ball out of bounds, possession doesn't go to the other team, which would be logical. Possession stays with the team that is closest to the ball when it goes out of bounds.
That explained a ton for me, because in the first game I watched, I couldn't understand why both teams were diving horizontally toward the ball after it had already gone out of play.
The other rule that goes against common sense is the fact that players are allowed to hit other players with their 6 foot long sticks. Now in my household, we have a rule that is strictly enforced for my two sons. Well, it is mainly to protect my 1 year old from my 4 year old. The rule states that when anyone is close by, you aren't allowed to swing a bat or stick like object.
I guess I will have to keep Jack from watching lacrosse with me for the next few years, because I can just see the conversation now. "Daddy, that player needs a timeout because he is swinging his stick at the other guy, and that's a no-no."
My answer would be, "Yes Jack, he will get a timeout if he hits the other player, a 30 second or 1 minute timeout depending on what kind of mood the official is in."
When a player is penalized for being too rough with the stick, he gets to sit out for 30 seconds to a minute and get a drink of water. Some penalty that is, I mean if they wanted to punish him, they should make him fight Will Field for the ball in a scrum without pads on.
And then there is the beginning of a lacrosse game when the two teams go to mid-field and get a "Talking To" as my colleague Derek describes it. The officials apparently give the players the business, to let them know who is in charge. Yeah, that lasts about 30 seconds into the game when someone gets blasted with a stick in the knoggin.
In lacrosse, both teams use the same sideline, which makes little sense too. Especially if you really want to keep the peace after someone gets whacked pretty good on the field.
But overall, I'm growing fond of this game. It has some quirky aspects to it, but I can get used to that. I'm not saying that this baseball guy has been converted, but I am saying that I now believe I have room to enjoy another sport.
I'm sure my wife will love to hear that.
If you would like to comment on Andy's Point After, he can be reached by e-mail at GamedayMagazine@aol.com.
