2019 summer lacrosse

The summer of 2019 and eventful year for me. I had been excelling at playing goalie in lacrosse for 7 years and I have acquired a great amount of skill; I was feeling good about how good my skills were and I was ready for summer ball. I had been playing for True for 4 years and I have come to love and annoy my coaches. I have been playing for this program for as long as it's been going; I even been practicing with the coach for 1 year longer than playing for him. Before I started the 2019 summer season I was coming off of Penfield varsity lacrosse program which is a inferior lacrosse team. It is a deteriorating program which 5 players carry the team but has “potential.” 

The first day of lacrosse practice was a shock for me because I felt that my goalie skills were where they need to be to be the top goalie at all the tournaments. My coach had me for the first 20 minutes of practice and we worked on hand speed and high shots. As coach Topper is shooting on me I talk to him and tell him about some Tea in my life. He always says something stupid but wise. One of my drills during my warm up is hell, it is where you get on your knees and work on saving off hip right shots and you have to work on popping your bottom hand out and punching your top hand under. This drill is ass because we practice on some hard ground that tears up your knees. After my warm-up we go into 2v1 build-ups. Its where you have two offenders and one defender and the attack or middies have to score and after every set you add another guy on offense and defense. The rest of the practice was going over defense and plays.

After practice I drive home and my dad tells me that I might make it to the state team and that they are still finding out if they are gonna allow me on the team. Two days later my dad called me and said it was up to me if I want to be on the team and that it is free. When I got the call I was at my girlfriend's house who was trying to do my makeup; I wasn't ready for a call from my dad at the time. I couldn't hang up because my dad told me to expect a call from him. So I manned up and answered; I asked a very important question. “Good or bad?” 

To my relief it was good; then I realized that this is a moment im gonna look back at and I'm sitting in a bathroom with eyeliner on. The irony of this was too much but I couldn't tell anybody because it would have been to embarsessing. So that night I sat there thinking about the positives about playing for the state team and the negatives and there were many more positives. The next morning I called my dad and told him “sign me up I'm ready.”

He told me “Okay i'm gonna call coach Ship right now.”

Day one of State practice was miserable. I got me and my brother ready to leave the house and we left to have breakfast at McDonalds and then left to go to Grand Rapids, Michigan. When I got to practice I saw a big group of kids just like me all of them looked like they were meant to be there. I noticed two of my friends from Kalamazoo regional team it was Jack and Ian; Jack has been a long time d pole for me in all of my years of playing; Ian had been a middie for Kalamazoo regional. When coach whistled for us to bring it we all ran to him and circled him like a hungry pack of dogs. As soon and coach Nick spoke I knew that this practice was going to be a high level. 

I was right, it was one of the hardest practice I have attended. I got 30 Minutes of shots by an MLL player. I was ready for every shot. Lack the MLL player said, “you ready for the heat”. And I said “neen ready”. When he invited his hips and twisted his core and let the shot off I threw my body with everything I had in my being. The ball hit my thumb and bounced up and i caught it. This shot was one of the most painful I have ever experienced in my lacrosse career. After this shot my thumb was throbbing and the pain was immense. After coach was done shooting on me I saw that my thumb was bleeding through my glove; I took my glove off to see a popped blood blister the with of a pencil that held an extraordinary amount of blood. The rest of practice went by fast as heck. On the way home I slept like a deer on the side of the road. 

After two weeks of seven practices Monday through Friday it was time to head out to the east coast for a tournament of a lifetime. We left early to get to our hotel so I could get some real sleep in. The next day I was game time; I had made it big. I had just bought an 80 dollar cup that made me feel like I could get hit by any ball and it wouldn't flinch at all. My cleats were so clean that I could look at them. My shorts were all rolled up and all of my undershirt and compressions made me look like a goat. I was ready for anything.

 My games went okay for my first tournament on the east coast. I didn't play the best of my ability but it was close. Whenever I made a save I had a dot of a clear. Every game I had a different scenario and every scenario needed a different solution and for about 70 percent of the time I had the answer. 

My team didn't place good at all we were in 3rd place in the losers bracket. This didn't hurt because I didn't expect to win or anything alls I wanted was to play my game and get some looks from colleges. I had One D1 college look at me and I had three D2 and some other colleges that got lost along the way. When I got in the car with my dad he said “man that was a tough day”. I sad “nope that was a great day”. That day was so great because it finally got to play against some teams that were top level and I got to improve my game and look at my position a little different.