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Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:

1. Three National Lacrosse League teams played an exhibition series over the weekend at the A’nowara’ko:wa Arena, a 1,500-seat facility in the Mohawk community of Akwesasne.

Officials from the Strong Roots Charitable Foundation hosted the tournament, with proceeds going to further the careers of Indigenous players in NLL cities and surrounding areas.

San Diego defeated Las Vegas 18-9 and beat Halifax 18-14 on Saturday. Halifax salvaged a split with a 15-12 win over Vegas on Sunday.

Elsewhere in NLL preseason play, Calgary defeated Rochester 11-9 on Saturday and lost to Albany 16-9 on Sunday, Toronto beat Colorado 16-12 and Saskatchewan defeated Buffalo 15-6.

The NLL returns to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy on Nov. 26, when Philadelphia and Georgia play a preseason game at Onondaga Nation. The regular season starts Dec. 2.

Lyle Thompson approves.

2. USA Lacrosse hosted nearly 30 clinics nationwide over the weekend to put an exclamation point on National Celebrate Lacrosse Week.

The week-long campaign started Nov. 5 and included 62 Pick Up & Play clinics designed for children ages 6-14. Here are the sights and sounds of kids falling in love with lacrosse.

3. The lacrosse community continues to rally around the family of Holy Cross men’s lacrosse coach J.L. Reppert. 

Reppert’s wife, Jill, died Nov. 6 after a two-year battle with cancer. The couple has a 10-year-old son, Liam.

As of Sunday, nearly $130,000 had been raised through a GoFundMe page to help the family manage the day-to-day logistics and care for Liam while helping to provide for his future education.

4. And the Chris Hogan “He Played Lacrosse” Post of the Week award goes to Varsity Club Lacrosse (@VarsityLacrosse).

The MCLA fan account reminded us that Johnny Hodges, a junior linebacker who led No. 4-ranked TCU with 11 tackles in a 17-10 win at Texas that guaranteed the Horned Frogs a spot in the Big 12 championship game, originally played lacrosse at Navy. He was, to no one’s surprise, a defensive midfielder as a freshman during the abbreviated 2020 spring season.

For the season, Hodges, who was a three-sport star at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, leads unbeaten TCU with 66 tackles in 10 games.

WHAT WE’RE READING

  • From NLL.com, why Zed Williams wants Indigenous kids to fall in love with lacrosse.

  • From the Hub (and former USA Lacrosse Magazine deputy editor Corey McLaughlin), a story about the new Veterans Memorial Wall at Johns Hopkins’ Cordish Lacrosse Center and behind the tradition of the gold star flag.

  • From our November edition, “The Gold,” a poem inspired by a teammate’s kindness.

  • From Inside Lacrosse, noteworthy takeaways from the 2023 schedule announcements for Queens (N.C.), Navy, VMI, Utah and Marist.

  • From the NCAA, its announcement of nine finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, including Middlebury women’s lacrosse player Erin Nicholas. The Division III Honda Athlete of the Year, Nicholas was a three-time national player of the year in field hockey and two-time first-team All-American in women’s lacrosse who won six national championships between the two sports.

  • From GoHeels.com, a feature on North Carolina lacrosse and soccer star Julia Dorsey, who’s looking to become the first UNC student-athlete to win an NCAA title in multiple team sports.

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING

A lacrosse stick in the batter’s box? Blasphemous! (And brilliant.)

WHAT’S ON TAP

A fall-ball check-in with the Virginia men’s lacrosse team.

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