Saban Still Rules the Bayou

Contrary to popular belief, Saban has not left Louisiana for greener pastures...at least not yet. The Saban of which I speak is Saban Sellers of St. Thomas More High School of Lafayette, Louisiana and the pastures have nothing to do with a pigskin.

St. Thomas More's Saban Sellers

Saban Sellers is the reigning WSL Louisiana Player of the year. In lacrosse. Wait, there's lacrosse in Louisiana? Apparently, there is and Mr. Sellers is doing his best to remove the tarnish from the name Saban in the Bayou State. He's doing a fine job in my estimation.

Lacrosse might be the oldest team sport in North America, but it's still a relative newcomer to the Louisiana sports scene. Founded in 2005, and technically a club sport, the Louisiana High School Lacrosse League is comprised of a little over a dozen varsity squads. Saban Sellers is a relative newcomer to Louisiana too which has got to explain the develpment of his game. Where, you ask, did he groom his game; New York, Maryland, California maybe? How about Louisville, Kentucky? Wait, there's lacrosse in Kentucky? Evidently there is and that's where Saban fell in love with the game while in eighth grade. That's right, he's only been playing the game for a few years. Some friends in Louisville played in a city league there and introduced him to the game. He's never looked back.

From Bluegrass to the Bayou

Growing up in Kentucky, Saban played football, baseball, and basketball before picking up a lax stick. A natural athlete, he was good at all three sports, but he excelled in basketball. Those basketball skills have translated nicely on the lacrosse field. The basketball background is evident in his poise with the ball, dodging in traffic, and general field sense. Some people would argue that these qualities are among the intangibles that coaches always speak of. They're difficult skills to coach and they are what often separates the good from the elite.

After moving south to Lafayette, Saban decided, with the support of his parents, to concentrate solely on lacrosse in high school. In retrospect, it's a decision that he felt has accelerated the growth of his game. That's hard to argue given his success on the lax field. Saban describes his best attributes as his dodging ability and field vision. These skills are prominently on display on his youtube channel. The videos are chock full of Saban dodging entire defenses, quality feeding, and behind the back passes. At times, he more resembles a pinball than an attackman, but Saban attacks the cage with every ounce of his buck forty frame. I'm definitely dating myself now, but Saban reminds me of former Virginia lefty attackman Doug Knight. Not always the prettiest dodges, but like Doug Knight, Saban has a nose for getting to the goal.



Not one to rest on his laurels, Saban attended the Texas Top 99 and Tier 1 camp in Pennsylvania where he went toe to toe with D1 recruits of top 20 schools. He managed to hold his own, and then some, against some of the best poles he'd been exposed to. Saban also played for Team Quickstick, a group of elite Louisiana high school players from the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette area. Team Quickstick traveled to North Carolina for the Fall Classic Tournament where he tallied 14 goals and 12 assists against solid competition from lacrosse's more traditional hot spots. This exposure was important for a kid who is playing in an area off the beaten recruiting path. Despite his success in his junior year, camps, and fall ball, Saban has experienced what I might describe as a combination of northern bias as well as the unfortunate reality of recruiting in this day and age. That is, much of recruiting has been wrapped up by the time kids finish their junior year, with some kids giving verbal commitments after just one year of high school ball. As crazy as it sounds, that's where the sport is today, for better or for worse.

A marked man this year for sure, Saban and St. Thomas More are in the midst of another stellar season. With only a few years of lax under his belt, the upside for this kid is huge. Saban realizes that as far as he's come and as much as he's accomplished in a relatively short time frame, he still has room to improve and that's probably the most important attribute of a great player. Right hand, crease play, and shooting on the run are tops on his to-do list. He'll be an asset to whichever campus he decides to set up shop on.

Tigers, Blue Jays, Pink Gorillas, and Air Guitar

Johnny Unitas stadium on the campus of Towson University had it all today. Johns Hopkins kicked off the 2011 season by making the 15 minute drive north on Charles Street to Towson University. This was the season opener for both teams and they couldn't have asked for a much better day for the occasion. With the exception of the 30 MPH winds, Baltimore weather in February doesn't get a whole lot better.

IL Pink Gorilla

"Doc and the Kids"

The game played out much the way many expected, with the visiting Blue Jays edging out a less talented Towson team. Also as expected, the game lacked any kind of exciting transition. Both teams seemed content to play 6 on 6 in a methodical offense. This made for a pretty boring game to be honest. A facebook friend commented, tongue-in-cheek that this game was "the worst lacrosse game ever" and  "I've seen better grandmasters games..." There were a few surprises, however.

Wharton Ripping the First Goal of '11

Guida and Hodgson

A couple of freshmen were especially impressive. For JHU, Rob Guida (M) and Jack Reilly (D) looked smooth. Both got the start at their respective positions. For Towson, Andrew Hodgson looked super shifty and he ran on the first midfield for the Tigers. At time Hodgson looked like the only Tiger midfielder looking to dodge until late in the game when Pat Britton got into the act.

Another surprise was how quiet the Hopkins midfield was. The Blue Jays' attack carried the offense. The highly regarded duo of Ranagan and Greeley, both sophomores midfielders, showed flashes today, but neither appeared to force the issue a whole lot. With their size and skill, these guys should be killing it. Neither really looked to take it to Towson. I don't know if this is Petro's iron fist or if they're deferring to the attack. We'll see if this changes.

What's up with the numbers on the Hopkins side of the ball. At times they looked more the part of a hockey team.

It was a little surprising to see non-traditional lax numbers on the team that is lacrosse tradition. 77, 92, and 88 all made an appearance on the Hopkins side of the ball.

"The Shred"

The final surprise, or should I say treat, was the half-time festivities. The Guinness Book of World Records was on hand to see the record for largest air guitar ensemble fall courtesy of the lax faithful on-hand. Washington, DC Air Guitar Champion, Lance "The Shred" Kasten was on hand to lead the crowd, and lead the fans he did! As his nickname suggests, this guy can flat out shred. Mix one part 50 year-old rocker, a six pack of 5 Hour Energy, and some Pat Benatar and you got The Shred.



Like I said earlier, the game itself wasn't anything to get excited about unless you're a Hopkins fan, but the weather combined with the other sights and sounds (minus the Hopkins band....just awful) made for a good day at the ball game.

More pics to be posted on 24SevenLax.com on Facebook.

Sublimation Situation

Jump off lax shorts are all the rage. You see them at the tourneys, on-line, on kids at the mall, earlier posts in this blog, and everywhere in between, but have you ever wondered just where they come from? One place is from a company called Pro Athletics based in Agoura Hills, CA. That's somewhere between San Diego and Oregon for those of you who aren't as geographically inclined as I. Not exactly the center of the lacrosse universe, but we're talking fashion here and Pro Atletics doesn't let traditional lacrosse get in the way of fashion.

In recent years, lacrosse players in the Justin Bieber demographic have become increasingly concerned with transforming uniforms into something from Ed Hardy's collection. The proliferation of these outfits at all ages of club ball have made them a staple of tournaments from coast to coast. How though do the images of a monkey raping a tiger make it onto a shooting shirt? That's where Pro Athletics and their mastery of a design transfer called sublimation comes in.

Our club, Blarney Lacrosse, has worked with the Pro Athletics boys on a couple of occasions and they've always been easy to work with and competitively priced. The process for us varied from order to order, but each time it was painless.

Our most recent project started as just a couple of thoughts plopped into an image editing program. The result was a rough idea of what we were thinking for this year's shorts, and by rough idea, I mean could have very well been thrown together by a 6 year old. This little gem was forwarded to Chris at Pro Athletics with the instruction to give us something with the same basic idea and with a professional touch. We also let the reigns loose and asked for the "Pro" version of this idea. Here's what we got back in just a matter of hours. Fasten your draw strings people.

Fisher Price, My First Mock Up

Conservative look for the discerning palate.

Then there was this! Thankfully, it was attached to the disclaimer from Pro Athletics that it would "blow up the internet".

One too many clovers.

Situation Approved Sublimination

Being a masters team, we had to consider the health of our players before choosing a design such as this one. We opted to play it safe and avoid any potential seizures brought on by the second design.

Contact Pro Athletics yourself if you think you're ready for something this extreme.

Update....The real deal arrived. I've got all 40 pairs laid out on the floor of my office and I'm rolling around on them American Beauty style.

Screw T-shirt Time

Fan Fest is a Misnomer

I had the pleasure to attend the US Lacrosse Fan Fest a couple weeks back at the Baltimore Convention Center. In my opinion, Fan Fest was a lot of hoopla over nothing. Granted, Fan Fest accounts for only a trivial portion of the actual convention. My assessment of the event may have been a little different had I left my whining 7 year old at home. Somewhere along the line, he got it in his head that he was actually going to the Convention Center to lax it up. When his bubble burst upon arrival, he saw to it that I wasn't going to enjoy the event either.

Regardless of the situation (I can barely type that anymore without thinking of that Jersey Shore fool), there were some interesting items and vendor to be seen....not had. I guess my kid wasn't the only one surprised. I imagined being able to treat myself to a couple of lax items I didn't need at prices well above that of the local lax store. That wasn't the case though. Most vendors with the exception of the Jimalax's and Tribe 7's weren't selling their wares. Funny that I've been to numerous conventions for work and never paid attention that vendors weren't actually vending, but simply promoting.

Noticeably absent were all the big players; STX, Brine/Warrior, Maverick, Nike, etc.

I question Port Jeff's motives

Slick Lids was in the house though! I don't know if you've seen these things or not, but they are horrendous to look at. The concept is a solid one from the perspective of a parent's wallet, but come on. Just awful. I imagine that an affordable and disposable version of the Head Wrapz will put Slick Lids to bed. The ladies running the booth made up for the appearance of their product though, so win. Check out the embedded video. Wait! Don't actually press play. You're missing the point. OK, if you're intent on watching, check out the facial gyrations from the one on the right at the beginning of the video.

Slick Lids wasn't the only vendor peddling what this guy considers junk. There was this.

This was essentially slick lids for you shaft. I don't know how these stickers hold up in actual use, but I can't imagine that they last too long considering that actual metal has a limited shelf life when used in games. Then again, they weren't terribly expensive, so what the hell, wrap it up I guess.

Next year, I imagine I'll skip to the best part of the day which was a trip to the Hooters Inner Harbor and our lovely East Baltimore waitress, Destiny.

Fired Up!

Fear the Turtle, indeed.....

40 something degrees in suburban Baltimore and this is what I walk in to find when I pick up my 7 year old at school. The other parents must have thought I was out of my mind. Kid had this outfit on under his sweats.

Lax evaluations in just over two weeks. March 5th can't come soon enough for this first grader.

Post-Valentine's Day Treat

$19.99. Not bad. Not bad at all.

With Cupid's big day less than 24 hours in the rear view mirror, I strung up this Mikey Powell Voyce for a friend of mine in Chicago. The colors are subtle, but apropos of the day of love. This is one of those sticks that I string for someone else and don't really want to give up.

Speaking of love, where's the love for Mikey. I don't claim to be an expert, but this stick seems serviceable to me and not noticeably different than the regular Voyce. Great Atlantic has the Mikey Powell version of the Voyce on sale currently for $19.99 while the un-Mikey version of the head is going for $64.99. I guess Mikey's endorsement is now worth  -$45.

It's a mystery to me, but I might scoop up (pardon the pun) one or two for my kids. They're too young to know that Mikey is no longer relevant in the lax world, but sadly no longer young enough to believe that their old man ever was. Weird how fast that happened; the Mikey Powell thing. That guy was crazy athletic and as slick as they come.

It's a blog!

He reads this blog. So should you!

On the heels of Valentine's day 2011, 24sevenlax.com is born. Sure, it's a blogger powered blog, but hey, Rome wasn't build in a day. I'm going to do my best to bring you an alternative to the myriad of other lax sites out there. Why, you ask? Well, quite frankly, just because I feel like it. Stay tuned for interesting content and thoughtful commentary about the sport of lacrosse.

Check back often for a refreshing and candid look at the game, the gear, the people, and the lifestyle. Let me know what you want to read about and I'll take that into consideration. Game on my friends.