Love Of The Game

LPG is proud to present the third installment of posts from the administrators of 90% of Lax Is In The Flow. With this piece, you will get an in depth view on a laxers love for the game.

I was driving into work today, taking time between lights to contemplate the future direction of my life and how I could loosen the vice the man has placed on me. As I thought back, I found myself fixating on two things, my passion for the sport of lacrosse, and my sincere ambition to contribute to the growth of the game. As many of you know, I am one of the bushy headed lax brah’s from 90% of Lax is in the Flow, a group that has grown over the years because of lax addicts like yourselves. We‘re fortunate to play such a fascinating and unique sport, but even more so, we’re fortunate to be a part of such a distinctive culture. Few athletes embrace their sport as we do, few people would so adamantly and publically radiate our indolent nature, and it’s a rarity to see adults and children interact with a sport as if it’s a close relative.

I used to think laxo’s were born out of prudence, nobody knew what lacrosse was so we had to throw it in their face like the last 20 seconds of doubleyourpleasure.wmv. It was just ten years ago that our sport was in relative obscurity, innately tied to the prep school privileged of the northeast, leaving the rest of us fighting for club team budgets, or worse, baseball gloves. However, with the emergence of mass media and the increasingly fast pace of play, lacrosse has broken the inertia holding it back for so long. I would certainly contend that there is much to be done and a lot of that effort could certainly center on the MLL, but at least we have the MLL, and the talent graduating from high schools will continue to flood an already outrageously deep pool of players.

So here we are, at the threshold of fame and glory, and we continue to parade the hallways in ¾’s, pocketed athletic shorts, and shooting T’s. Are we doing so to promote the sport? Maybe a little, but probably on a self-fish level. Are we doing it to in case a lax game breaks out in Algebra class? Not really, but I still keep a stick, gloves, and helmet in my trunk in case somebody wants to get frisky at a turnpike rest stop. So what is it? It’s love. Oh yeah, love, I usually don’t write about love unless it involves a prophylactic butt end on my personal Wonderboy, but here I am, telling you how much I love this game.

Lacrosse has fascinated us since the first time we saw her in motion. Whether you started out of the womb or in high school, lacrosse is a special sport, and even more so, it’s full of special people. Our early coaches were insurance agents and contractors, ditching work early to get some time on the pitch with the children, instilling us with the passion of a Viagra commercial, giving us a permanent hard-on for quick sticks and 1-2-3 fast break goals.

I recently started coaching a youth team outside Pittsburgh and I was surrounded with a diverse group of coaches and players. I was looking at a 10 year old boy, never played before in his life, smiling ear to ear. I let him use my Chicago Machine gloves, which made him look like a Rock Em Sock Em character, but I found sincere happiness in this moment. Here was this young man, taking his first hit out of the lax crack pipe, and undoubtedly beginning what will be a long association with the game. His sincere smile and jittery body language told me this boy’s metaphorical hymen was snapped, flooded, and disregarded; he was hooked. Does he know that hitting top cheese will bring the ladies to their knees? Not yet. That’s definitely a late middle school revelation, but he will grow to understand the correlation between applause and surrounding his power tower with beautiful women.

His purity was refreshing, it took me back to a time before I cared or knew about proper cleats, eye black, and everything flow. Certainly, I happily embrace those facets today as an integral part of my life, but those are important to the culture, not directly to the sport. Our sport is beautiful in its simplicity, the field is a blank canvas for creativity, but in the end, it breaks down to a few fundamentals. The culture surrounding lacrosse today has compounded lacrosse with lax bro’s, and its added tremendous depth to the lacrosse industry, but I as a lax bro myself, I hope we don’t forge ahead without the sport.

Websites are popping up, recent college grads are blogging left and right about flow (MEEEEE), and new companies are tailoring our equipment to our specific wants and needs. Our culture continues to evolve, it’s really expanded into a lifestyle, and it will continue to distinguish itself from all the other sports that don’t swag like ours. But, I hope the roots are preserved, I hope we don’t take this wonderful game for granted. Believe it or not, I hope flow doesn’t convolute the reason we play; it’s the most kick ass sport on this planet. Our culture and sport must remain hand in hand, each serving as a catalyst for the other, taking our style and performance to new heights. Nothing is as exciting as a competitive lacrosse game, and nothing ever will be. I love this game and I hope I find a place in it for years to come. Stick together boys; we’re going to take this bitch to the next level.

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