lights out

“Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability. ”
― John Wooden

 

i just wanted to take a minute tonight to give a great big shout out to all the kids who played in the laplata/westlake lacrosse game.  and here's why.....as a county we are very new to lacrosse....and laplata has had the advantage really in that kris is an excellent coach, he has great knowledgeable help and a youth league to feed his program....this has all taken a ton of work on his part, but is clearly paying off in the speed at which we are catching up to the rest of the area....westlake is another story....they are a football school, with no lacrosse support, an inexperienced staff and no feeder program....clearly they are not progressing at the same rate - and honestly have been taking a beating from all of the other teams so far....it can NOT be a ton of fun to play lacrosse for westlake at this point....

 

but you know what - they came out tonight and NEVER GAVE UP....they played the game to the best of their ability - and they played it cleanly!  very easily they could have resorted to the frustrated urges to start hitting....but they never did....they just kept playing as best they could.....and i have A TON of respect for them....its easy to be on a winning team....it takes REAL CHARACTER to be on a losing team.....and these kids deserve to be recognized.....they played their hearts out - and played in such a way that you found yourself rooting for them....to me there is nothing better that can be said about an underdog...you WANT them to be successful.....don't get me wrong, i still wanted my boys to win :) but i wish nothing for westlake but that they continue to get better and that they dont lose their spirit!!

 

i also have to say that i am proud of laplata....you know going in when you are playing a weaker team -sometimes its hard to rise to the occasion, and often young men have a tendency to gloat or rub it in when the score gets out of hand....but tonight i didnt see any of that....the kids recognized that westlake was hustling and trying.....and while i cant say it was a "good game", i can say it was well played, on both sides.  there was no showboating, or excessive celebration....there wasnt a mad quest to add to the point total....the starters didn't overdo it and everyone contributed....again to the best of their ability....they took good shots, not just ANY shot....and with an inexperienced goalie it could have been much worse....

 

and the very best part...NOT ONE PENALTY for hitting or cross checking....a couple of procedural penalties at most...it was the CLEANEST lacrosse game i have seen in forever.....and i hope that everyone out there that was watching understood just how far lacrosse has come in charles county.....because guess what?  our skills may not be the best, but we are no longer playing "football" with sticks.....and the rest will come!!

 

“Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.” ― John Wooden

 

the game ended with an apparent accident that took out a transformer....one minute we are playing lacrosse in a well lit field, and the next its pitch black.....and do you know what happened?  NOTHING.....the kids joked around a bit and eventually, when we realized the lights were not coming back on, they walked off the field together.....no drama, no craziness....just a group of young men with their love of this new sport in common....its games like this that show us the best in athletics.....and how sports can unify a community......what we are learning along with lacrosse is that sometimes playing a sport isnt about us and them...because we are all a part of the "us".....

 

 

sometimes i think we need to look for the things that make us the same, instead of the things that make us different...if we can manage to teach our kids THAT, then we are really doing something good.....