Alma mater so renowned |
They say you can never go home again. I never understood that phrase until I passed my old high school and slowed all 3 cylinders of my '98 C-Roll to take a long look. The school looked smaller, dirtier, and less appealing then I had remembered. They also say the more things change, the more they stay the same. A lesson I was soon to experience first hand
Arundel dominated the face-off X all afternoon |
The Gophers were getting a steady diet of this all game |
Now to be fair, back when I played we weren't much better. I believe we had 2 wins my senior year, even though we fielded five All-County players, but we never got blown out. We had seasoned players but there just weren't many of us. Like I mentioned before, we were able to find at least 15 decent players. Prior to my sophomore year we played for the A.A. County Championship. That was just before head Coach Joe Rotellini left us and went on to coach D3 powerhouse Salisbury. Thanks for ruining my career Rotellini!
Yeah, at this point I had seen enough |
1. No Feeder System. The city of Glen Burnie actually contains four high schools. North County, Glen Burnie, Old Mill and Northeast (although technically in Pasadena). There is no existing little league that feeds players into Glen Burnie High School. All of the youth programs in the area feed the other schools. In contrast, there are roughly 26 little league baseball teams in the area.
2. No Junior Varsity. No feeder system equals very little interest amongst the freshmen class in getting drubbed twice a week by kids with metal sticks. I don't believe the Gophers have had a JV for at least four years now. I know for a fact they do not have a JV this year. JV is strictly for developing skills, learning the program and preparing kids for varsity. This means that the Gophers have first year lacrosse players on their varsity squad that are probably getting playing time. At least the varsity letter will help them get chicks!
3. It's an older town. Established in 1931, it's one of the oldest towns in the county. Most of the land is developed. There are few new communities being built to attract young families to the area. Also, the median age of residents in Glen Burnie is higher than the rest of the county, meaning fewer young families are raising kids in the area. That equates to fewer youth lacrosse players. The result is no need for a local youth program.
4. Urban Flight. As citizens race to leave the steady crime rates and deterioration of the inner city, towns in the rural surroundings of Baltimore such as Glen Burnie are affected. Lets face it, outside of the MIAA Schools in Baltimore City, few inner city kids are playing lacrosse. New students transferring from the inner city schools to Glen Burnie are not playing lacrosse and not bringing in a new crop of talent to the school.
5. Income. The a median annual household income for Glen Burnie residents is almost $10,000 lower then the rest of the county. Anyone that has purchased lacrosse equipment these days knows how expensive lax can be. Clinics, camps and driving your kid 30 minutes to play for a youth league can all add up. This is also why Glen Burnie sucks at Ice Hockey. Okay, that's a really bad joke.
And this was an away game! No sign like this anywhere for GBHS |
This is all theory of course. My day job, children and my own lax career impede me from researching this topic further. I doubt there is much interest in this as well outside of the Alumni and myself, but I felt the need to write about it. Plus, Tom is nagging me for new content. I'm not trying to make excuses for the school's lack of success, I'm merely attempting to shed some light on why they struggle and why I should probably give the players a break and cut the coaches some slack. They've been dealt a tough hand and the rest of the county programs are passing aces and kings to each other under the card table.
24sevenlax.com would like to send a shout out to Arundel Wildcats "Team Mom" Lisa E. for the excellent game photos that she provided. Thank you again!