Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The Premier Lacrosse League gathered headlines outside of the lacrosse world, announcing it will hold its 2020 season as a fully-quarantined, fanless tournament from July 25-August 9 with games covered on the NBC family of networks. The announcement came on the Today show.
.@PaulRabil Co-founder, Premier Lacrosse League announces a quarantined championship tournament that will air on @NBCSports.
— 3rd Hour of TODAY (@3rdHourTODAY) May 6, 2020
"We have a solution that's both medically safe for our players and all who are involved. That's a 3-week fully quarantined and fan-less event," he says. pic.twitter.com/usY8xtCEqu
Some of the other mainstream outlets covering the announcement:
In place of its second season, the @PremierLacrosse League will host the PLL Championship Series, a two-week tournament without fans this summer: https://t.co/aQNLPmKAX1
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) May 6, 2020
@PremierLacrosse's biggest revenue stream is sponsorships. They've grown 2.5x this year and the league's solution for a 2020 season -- a 15-day quarantine event in July -- allows it to fully satisfy those sponsorship contracts #SportsBizhttps://t.co/GAs4zhGgSK
— Eben Novy-Williams (@novy_williams) May 6, 2020
Instead of following last year’s approach of a 14-weekend touring model in major markets, the Premier Lacrosse League will launch the PLL Championship Series, a two-week quarantined and fanless tournament. pic.twitter.com/S27KQ77QiW
— Front Office Sports (@frntofficesport) May 6, 2020
2. A youth movement that began with Florida’s women’s lacrosse team this season has the Gators excited for 2021.
3. Matt DaSilva breaks down the 2020 Major League Lacrosse Draft and gives high praise to the Denver Outlaws.
4. Takeaways from Paul Carcaterra’s “Overtime” podcast with Team USA, NLL and PLL star Tom Schreiber.
5. Today is the deadline to send a letter to your representatives to support the PLAY Sports initiative.
US Lacrosse is proud to join more than 1,500 youth sports organizations to support the PLAY Sports coalition.
— US Lacrosse (@USLacrosse) May 6, 2020
Please consider signing an online form urging Congress to support this initiative. There are less than 48 hours to #Unite2PLAY.
LEARN MORE: https://t.co/BR6mAeMZJL pic.twitter.com/X1Iw7VkG46
6. In player transfer news, Ohio State's women's lacrosse team announced that JMU captain Kelsey Reed will join the Buckeyes for 2021 and Inside Lacrosse's Ty Xanders reported that Yale's Lucas Cotler will join teammate Jackson Morrill at Denver for his fifth season.
7. The most amazing thing about this Tweet is trying to imagine John Grant Jr. as 5-foot-5, 130 pounds.
In 1990, when carpet was still rare, @HockeyBroph asked some of the @PtboMinorLax Midget Lakers if they liked playing on it.@PtboLakersLax & @NLL legends @Traceykelusky17 & @JohnGrantJr24 had varying opinions.
— Scott Arnold (@ScottArnold12) May 6, 2020
...and Junior was right, pro lacrosse did get off the ground ;) pic.twitter.com/Jt9eLtU53L
WHAT WE’RE READING
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Kathleen Mirgon, a graduate assistant at Bloomsburg, shares her thoughts on creating a positive relationship with your athletes in the IWLCA's "Behind the Whistle" blog.
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A recent USA Today article highlighted tips to reduce anxiety during these troubling times.
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US Lacrosse's Lauren Davenport shows the value of free play to help youth develop.
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The Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association voted in March to indefinitely postpone plans to sanction lacrosse as a high school sport in the state in March. The Tennessee Girls Lacrosse Association has asked the group to reconsider and bring girls’ lacrosse on in 2022.
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On the one-year anniversary of the launch of World Lacrosse, the organization looks back at the last 12 months.
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Team USA gold medalist and former North Carolina star Amber Falcone McKenzie on her role as the WPLL Futures program director.
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On National Nurses Day, Vanderbilt profiled senior Gwyn Devin, who will enter the nursing program at Vandy next year.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees endeared himself to the lacrosse world, sharing his love of the sport.
Lacrosse fans, @drewbrees is one of us. pic.twitter.com/UHzZaFbwGH
— US Lacrosse Magazine (@USLacrosseMag) May 7, 2020
#GivingTuesdayNow was a huge success for US Lacrosse with the national lacrosse community contributing over $146,000 to help support the sport. We truly appreciate the support during an incredibly challenging financial crisis for our nonprofit organization.
A message from @uslacrosseceo Steve Stenersen in response to the overwhelming generosity of #GivingTuesdayNow. pic.twitter.com/aVhQE4MWSk
— US Lacrosse (@USLacrosse) May 6, 2020
WHAT’S ON TAP
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T.J. Buchanan, director of sport development for World Lacrosse, is the guest on a #LaxAtHome webinar today at 12 p.m. (Eastern). Buchanan discusses how using small-sided games can help increase your players lacrosse IQ and turn them into better decision makers.
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Alex Frank, an assistant coach for the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s U19 team last summer and the head coach at Dartmouth, will be featured on this week’s Coaches on Call segment tonight on Lax Sports Network at 9 p.m. (Eastern).