On November 5th, the Frostburg Club Lacrosse team hosted the first annual Frostburg Freeze Lacrosse Tournament. So let’s break down the name a little bit. It’s the beginning of November, one week after much of the Northeast saw its first round of snow and we’re about to play lacrosse in an area that typically has snow on the ground from November through March. Frostburg is located in the Allegheny Mountains of Western Maryland. As you travel west from Baltimore or Frederick, your ears pop continuously as you go into higher and higher elevations.
As players started to arrive it was a brisk 40 degrees, with the sun slowly starting to peak out from the clouds. The tournament was to host 8 teams… Bucknell Club Lacrosse, UMBC Club Lacrosse, Loch Haven Club Lacrosse, Shippensburg Club Lacrosse, the Lazy Lizards from WVU, the Baltimore Lacrosse Club, my Frederick Lacrosse Club and the Dirty Birds (Frostburg Club Lacrosse). Format was simple, two brackets with 4 teams, playing 3 games each and then into a single elimination playoff. The first series of games were set to start at 12:00pm.
At least that was the hope. I’m not sure how many of you have ever actually organized a tournament before, but it’s not easy. I invested close to 400 hours for a tournament this past June and it still had kinks. I have to give credit to Colin Fagan of the Dirty Birds, the organizer, because although there were some bumps and learning moments along the way, but I think he did a good job for his first go round. So back to the play… Field 1 started on time, Field 2 had a little delay but it was made up in due time.Now the approach each team took to warming up was interesting. You had teams like Shippensburg and Bucknell who actually went through a series of line drills to warm up, and then you had others that just kinda had a quick toss to make sure that their pockets were loose and they knew which end of the stick to catch and throw with. The level of play throughout the tournament was pretty even. Very few games ended with significantly high scores… We were playing 20 min running halves after all.
So play continued, the weather really began to cooperate and by 4pm everyone was really enjoying the mid 50 degree day. Then the sun started to move down closer to the mountains… the temperature dropped 15 degrees in close to 30 minutes. At this point play moved from the upper grass fields to the turf stadium field that earlier in the day had hosted a Frostburg football game. The format at this point was supposed to have been a single elimination playoff, but due to some delays and the temperature dropping, some of the teams whittled themselves out. The last game finished close to 7pm and I imagine made its way in the F Bar for $1 Natty’s, wings and shots.
So overall it was a good day of lacrosse all around. Only one player had to take a ride in an ambulance, and we hope he is doing well.
He did get a little help as his ride got stuck in the mud. About Chris:
Chris has been playing for 27 years and recently celebrated his 32nd birthday. He is a player, a coach, an official, and a stick doctor. He and his beautiful wife call Frederick home and hope to raise their daughter into the next generation of lacrosse players.
Frederick Men’s Lacrosse Association was started in 2010 to give collegiate and post collegiate players an opportunity for organized lacrosse in the Western Maryland region. www.fredericklacrosse.com