The Lehigh Men's Lacrosse Team traveled this past weekend to California to play in the San Francisco Classic Presented by Levi's. The Fall is considered our "off-season" compared to official competitions in the Spring. This event was created to promote the sport of lacrosse in the West coast and the event brought a great number of spectators. Prior to the game which took place on Sunday, we arrived in California Friday night and we took the day to travel and get to the hotel where a little gift bag was waiting for each of us which included a t-shirt and magazine as a thank you from Levi's. Additionally, our coach had pizzas delivered to each of our rooms. Saturday we had a walk-through practice just getting prepared for our game the next day, and then we went to the pier to travel to Alcatraz. It was a tremendous experience and although I been to San Francisco before, I never made it to the island of Alcatraz. It was truly fascinating and I learned a lot about the history of the infamous jail. Also, our competitor Ohio State was also on the island and it was a great experience. We got to see that we are out here to promote lacrosse, that this game is a "friendly" game although very competitive and we want to win, we are here to help with the growth of the game. That night we had a combined dinner with our teams and it was a very friendly environment. My friend is on Ohio State and it was great catching up with him and seeing his parents. The following day, Sunday, we went to Kezar Stadium which is the old San Francisco 49'ers Stadium. We began with a clinic for the children, which was great to see the kids smile and sign autographs. Of course, I was chosen to shoot in front of the kids for the shooting demonstration, where the little kids were in goal and I shot on them. I tried to shoot slowly so the kids can save the ball and be happy, but of course everyone wanted me to shoot fast and impress Ohio State who was behind me and watching my shooting demonstration. A lot of the kids came up to me and asked for my autograph which really made me feel good about myself and happy to be out here in California promoting the sport and making these kids happy. But ultimately we were out there for a mission, and that was to beat Ohio State. After a slow start, we did end up beating Ohio State by a score of 15-13. I had 2 assists on the evening. Lacrosse is a brotherhood and even the Ohio State coach said that we are all part of a fraternity, and although we were competing against the other team, we are both on the same team and want to see our sport of lacrosse grow and reach new levels. We took the red-eye back and after a long journey, I was happy to back at Lehigh and able to blog about my trip.
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