Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. By now, many are aware of Team USA's 19-6 loss to Team Canada in the Heritage Cup Saturday night in Hamilton, Ontario. The U.S. had pulled to within 6-4 in the second quarter, but the hosts scored the next five goals to regain control and ultimate cruise to the win.
Given the next FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championship doesn't take place until 2019, Craig Rybczinski's analysis of Team USA following its defeat provides healthy doses of context and reality. Canada has ruled the box game. The U.S. roster included athletes playing in their first box game, ever.
A 13-goal thumping at the hands of your rival likely can't be easily forgotten despite the exhibition nature of the game, but there were reasons for optimism on Team USA going forward. Rob Pannell, one of the best field players in the game today, made his aforementioned first box appearance and acquitted himself well with a goal and two assists.
The game represented the middle of three days of box work for the U.S. team, which Sunday morning practiced at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena.
2. For Canada, its victory celebration did not last long. The Peterborough Examiner Sunday evening published a story on apparently years-long friction between players and managers of Team Canada and the Canadian Lacrosse Association.
Writer Mike Davies takes a fairly deep and balanced dive into the funding problems brought on by CLA decisions regarding donations and tax records and subsequent penalties assessed since. Good reporting.
3. Back on the home front, college fall ball wound down over the weekend perhaps with no greater ceremony than the Chris Sailer Trail dedication during the Princeton Invitational at US Lacrosse Headquarters in Sparks, Md. The walking path around the facility's Tierney Field now bears her name.
Sailer, surrounded by current and former players, beamed as she concluded her remarks with, "The Chris Sailer Trail at William Tierney Field has a nice Tiger ring to it!"
As part of a day-long event that included Fairfield, Villanova and the New York Athletic Club -- all of which have connections to Sailer -- the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association honored 11 trailblazers with plaques along the path. The IWLCA saluted the group for fighting to take collegiate women's lacrosse from physical education classes to varsity status, providing playing opportunities for women, from the 1960s through the '80s.
4. The Dallas Rattlers? Perhaps, someday. Major League Lacrosse filed for a trademark for the Dallas Rattlers and obtained web domains and social media accounts in preparation for possible move of the Rochester franchise.
Multiple outlets Friday reported various aspects of the story. The Rattlers were one of the MLL's original franchises in 2001. The franchise dissolved in 2008 but was reborn two years later when the Machine left Chicago.
According to league data, Rochester ranked seventh in the nine-team league in attendance, averaging 2,191 fans per game. Only Atlanta and Charlotte drew fewer.
Here is the trademark info for the Dallas Rattlers logo filed by @MLL_Lacrosse #Rattlers #ROC https://t.co/8Y8rAMj26I pic.twitter.com/GdO7pvEoIE
— Rich Donnelly (@whec_rdonnelly) October 20, 2017