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Vail Shootout Day 2 – 10:00 am – (5th Entry)
Good morning all. I’d like to once again shout out to my loyal readership. What are we at now, three? Four? Oh well. Today marks a busy day as 11 fields will be in use for everything from Chumash to Masters, Supermasters, Boys and Girls High School and Grandmasters. Yesterday’s name of the tournament easily goes to Nacho Mamas in the Grandmasters division. They have had a long time to come up with puns like that so I’d expect nothing less from our oldest competitors.
This is just a quick update since I’ll be out and about all day today. On the agenda are some Supermasters games as well as catching some of the Masters semifinals. Probably won’t make it down to the High School today since it is just Pool Play, but I’ll be sure to report on it tonight. I stayed away from Ford Field yesterday, so I’m going to go check it out and make sure that the Rock-it Pocket tent hasn’t burned down or anything. Talk to you all soon.
Vail Shootout Day 2 – 2:25 pm – (6th Entry)
Well I got a couple nice emails from one or two of my readers this morning and afternoon as the readership continues to multiply. Good to know people are staying tuned in to the tournament. I’ve been bouncing around a little bit today. As I’ve said before, we are a little short staffed, so people have needed help with everything from filling up water jugs to chasing balls to being Flip’s personal chauffeur. The highlight of the day has been my serious off-road adventure in the Gator that we take around from field to field. By serious, I mean one hill that wouldn’t register a 3 out of 10 on the difficulty scale but once I got up, I threw my hands in the air in celebration and looked around to celebrate with my audience. No one was watching of course, nor was it that impressive, but I got a kick out of it.
In the Masters Semifinals, Middlebury scored four or five goals in a row to close out a victory against Lacrossewear while Jagermeister defeated Lax Gear/Silver Oysters in the other semi. That sets up an interesting Championship game tomorrow between Middlebury and Jagermeister – one that could certainly go either way. It also gives us a consolation game between Lax Gear and Lacrossewear. So we’ve got that going for us.
The Outlaws are just about to face-off in Chicago for a Sunday afternoon tilt against the young but impressive Machine. I thought they were one of the best teams we played when they came to Denver last week, so hopefully we can keep it going on the road. We are a little undermanned with a couple of injuries, but we have lots of depth. Their goalie is very underrated in my mind and he got hot early against us last week so it will be important to get to him early on.
Our webmaster, Andy Sharp, is working on a new, fresh look for the tournament home page as we speak. If we can keep him sequestered in the “nerd tank,” i.e. our house, long enough, he might be able to crank it out by the end of the night. It definitely looks like a nice addition and is a little more colorful than our last edition.
The only negative to the tournament thus far has been the utter implosion of our vaunted stats program. This was all supposed to work very well and easy, but that has not been the case so far. I’m a little disappointed because it was me who helped sell this to our tournament organizers and now I feel like an idiot because everyone has ditched their computers and are slugging away on the antiquated folders again. The folders are a little more work, but no amount of technological idiocy can render them as unusable as our stats program is right now. I could be wrong, but Flip might be feeling a little vindicated right now.
More later as the afternoon games come to a close. I wasn’t able to get out to the High School pool play today, but I will poke my head in tomorrow in between the Masters Finals and the Supermasters Semis.
Vail Shootout Day 2 – 6:40 pm – (7th entry)
Today was a bit of a test for our staff as we were all pushed to the breaking point with hot weather and limited numbers. It was a hard day for everyone, but we got it done and finally will be breaking for the rest of the evening. I may head over to take a few shots from some of the guys, but at this point, everyone is pretty tired.
I got to watch the second half of the Outlaws game at Chicago this afternoon and that did nothing to help cheer me up. We fell behind 7-2 and ended up chasing them all game en route to a 16-13 loss – only our second of the season. We know that Chicago is a good team and even though I’m not with them, I know that our guys are probably pretty disappointed. We have a short week getting ready for our July 4th game against San Francisco at home next Friday, so there’s no time to mope.
Hopefully I’ll get back in here with a little more insight on the day’s events tonight, but to be honest, after compiling all the stats and scores today, it might be a bit of a stretch. Remember to email me at alex@rock-itpocket.com if there is anything you are curious about as the tournament rolls on. The daily news release should be up on the site soon.
Vail Shootout Day 2 – 11:40 pm – (8th entry)
Thanks to all who are writing in. We definitely appreciate the feedback and support. People are spreading the lacrosse love around, so I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the other staff who are working tirelessly behind the scenes at making this the best tournament in the world. Webmaster Andy Sharp’s work can be seen directly on the website as he has spruced everything up with a fresh look. Our table crews of veteran and rookies alike are holding everything together and the one and only Connie Streich is of course our rock back at home. Connie does a lot more than most people realize in coordinating nearly ALL of these teams and divisions and we certainly appreciate her.
Kale Nelson, Brian Carpenter, Mike Sutherland and Brian O’Farrell are the muscle around here. They’ve been appointed to many random duties, most recently tending tables and scoring games – often the lowest rung on the totem pole around here. Kelly O’Farrell and Tahlia Naumburg are great as table leaders and we have some new ladies that I don’t know too well yet working over at Ford too. Grace and crew are doing just fine. Let’s not forget the efforts of Michelle Secor and her stable of staffers over on the women’s side of things either. There are a lot of people with the same last name in the program from that side, so maybe I will go over and actually introduce myself before the tournament is over.
A lot goes into a tournament like this, so when the table is asking politely for you to kindly step out of the box so they can score the games, remember that most of them aren’t getting paid. And they’re not allowed to enjoy libations until long after the games over so they may be a little cranky. Cut them some slack.
One highlight (or lowlight) of the day was a player getting so upset during a game that he physically pushed one of the referees and threatened tournament staff and organizers! I missed the ordeal unfortunately, but there was lots of chatter about it afterwards. The player was subsequently kicked out of the tournament and maybe the Vail Valley. I don’t know how they do that exactly, but the words “Mexican Prison” came to mind for me. The kicker was that the guy was playing in the Grandmasters Division. You know, the one where they have to be over 50 to compete. I guess wisdom isn’t a necessary corollary with age, at least in this case.
Tomorrow should be fun as we crown champions in the Masters and Grandmasters Divisions. Boys High School enters its quarterfinals, but I don’t expect those games to be great until Tuesday for the semifinals. Team Delaware reportedly looked very good and the staff down in Avon says not to overlook the Colorado Favorites either. The Favorites are apparently a group of guys thrown together last week and they pushed the Baltimore Crabs to double overtime in pool play this afternoon. Ohio, Baltimore and the real Team Colorado will all be heavy favorites in their games.
I still haven’t seen much Supermasters play this year. I spent most of morning at Ford dodging balls behind the goal and taking in the scene. I’m not going to lie, it can be somewhat distracting to try and follow games unless you are in a tent all day. “Roaming” around makes it hard to concentrate. We’ll see tomorrow if I can narrow my focus.
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