Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Oh (yeah), Canada. The champs will indeed be back, at least according to the Canadian Lacrosse Association.
The Federation of International Lacrosse posted a press release on its website yesterday announcing that the CLA reached a tentative, confidential agreement with the National Lacrosse Team Players’ Association, the organization formed by Canadian national team players, Friday that will permit Team Canada to participate in the FIL World Championship July 12-21 in Netanya, Israel. The release, also distributed by the CLA on its own letterhead, included a quote from FIL President Sue Redfern, but curiously was absent remarks from CLA or NLTPA representatives.
According to the release, the CLA Board of Directors and the NLTPA leadership will meet separately this week to ratify the agreement. The mere issuance of the press release yesterday intimates such ratifications will occur, thus inferring that the 2014 world champions will return to defend their title. You can read the release and form your own opinion.
The announcement presumably brings to a close a tumultuous period of time for the CLA and its national team players, which included the former losing multiple certifications in Canada following involvement in an illegal tax-shelter plan and the latter forming its own association to secure better team funding and player insurance, among other conditions.
Team Canada is scheduled to open its title defense July 13 against England.
2. Meanwhile, Major League Lacrosse announced the roster for its All-Star Game against Team USA.
The league will field a 30-player squad against the U.S. men's team, which will number 29 for the June 28 game at Harvard Stadium thanks to the addition of six players from the training team. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.
3. Coaches set the tone for teams, and Graham Harden instilled a fight in the Mariemont (Ohio) girls that carried the aptly named Warriors to the state Division II championship.
Harden, diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), knows nothing else but to fight, as he has done against the terminal disease since August 2016.
4. The penultimate editions of the Nike/US Lacrosse High School National Top 25 rankings and regional reports featured significant shake-ups on the boys’ side and the girls’ side, thanks in part to surprising results in some state tournaments.
5. Congratulations to the Warrior/US Lacrosse High School Boys’ Players of the Week and their Brine/US Lacrosse counterparts on the girls’ side.
6. Volunteers’ efforts to introduce lacrosse to Sacramento-area students in physical education classes is paying dividends for local leagues, as published in the May/June edition of US Lacrosse Magazine.