Well I made the cut, and I’m back for week 2 of the inside scoop for the Johns Hopkins Men’s Lacrosse Team. So last week we were able to get our second win of the year heading into Johnny Unitas Stadium and beating a tough Towson team. This week we were taking on a surging Michigan team, and at the same time making history, not to mention helping to build the sport of Lacrosse. As many already know, Michigan is a Big Ten school with a lot of history in all of their sports programs, in particular hockey, basketball and football. Last season, their club lacrosse team was bumped up to the D1 level which was huge for the sport to get a school like this involved.
We entertained this Michigan team at historic Homewood Field. It was a team in Michigan that only had one win as a D1 lacrosse team against a Johns Hopkins program that owns the right to 44 National Titles. On paper it seemed to be a bit of a mismatch, a powerhouse lacrosse program vs. a brand new second year program. But as we were all aware of, these games are often “trap” games, and we couldn’t take this Michigan team lightly.
So, I’ll start off by talking about our Monday practice, and it lived up to everything we were expecting after a win. It was an up-tempo practice with a lot transition drills and conditioning, and overall a great way to start off the week. After the tough practice, I thought I would take a“me” night and rest my body. I grabbed some Chipotle to get the calories back in me, and watched my favorite show at the moment “Tanked”. It’s a great show, I would recommend everyone check it out.
Tuesday rolled around and the game plan for Michigan was put into place during the practice, along with a little more conditioning. Got to give a shout out for the scout guys for everyone who doesn’t know what these guys go through. They play as opposing players of the team we are playing during that week and give our team a great look at what we are going to see on the field. They take a beating from our defense and it’s not a lot of fun to play against our offense, but without the whole team contributing in some way, we would not be anywhere near as successful as we have been.
On Wednesday, we once again received our scouting reports, which were as detailed as ever, and the film watching and studying continued. My Wednesday night was spent doing a little homework for school, as well as homework on Michigan.
On Friday, I decided to arrive a little bit early to the Cordish Lacrosse Center to throw the ball around with Will Ryan and Tucker Durkin. It was a little wet and cold out at this point, and the worst thing possible for any offensive player happened to me. On one of the last passes of the throw around, the head of my lacrosse stick snapped in half, the day before a game and just a half hour before practice. It was a terrible feeling, but I somehow managed to take the mesh out of the broken stick and put it into a new STX stick in about 15 minutes flat. My stick didn’t miss a beat, and I was good for practice.
We went to the usual Sammi’s after practice for our team dinner and back home with the roommates. We played some Call of Duty, and then it was to bed early. My lacrosse stick always has a nice spot in my room to sleep before a game, and was much needed after breaking it earlier.
Next thing I knew, it was 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, and a few hours later we were on the field. Another big win for the Jays over the Wolverines on Homewood Field. Looking for number 4 this week. Bring on the Tigers! #greatdaytobeajay
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