College Crosse Prospectus: Americans Flocking To The NLL

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for August 12, 2017.

What You Missed

Recap the week that was, including the first official game on the 2018 calendar.

Lacrosse The Nation

We officially know one fall ball set of scrimmages. The Stony Brook Seawolves will host the Maryland Terrapins and the Syracuse Orange in late October.

More Americans will be entering this year’s National Lacrosse League draft on September 18, and that includes some big name players, according to US Lacrosse Magazine.

Plenty of players that are notable that just finished playing college ball back in April or May. All of these guys were also drafted in the MLL Draft this past May, but many of them have not seen a ton of or any playing time in the pro field game.

With the league growing from their current nine team size very soon (waiting on you, NLL, to announce San Diego), there are many more opportunities for players to play lacrosse. The NLL’s rookie salary will be over $10,000 next season, which pays more than the current MLL base salary. Plus, most of the players on an NLL roster play nearly every week.

I see this as another blow to the MLL. The counterpoint is that more players are trying to go full-time in lacrosse, which is great. But they’re not playing in one league and most athletes will still need full-time jobs outside of playing.

As mentioned above, the NLL is preparing for expansion, and it could be a big one. It is also likely that the league will extend their schedule, which would start the season either in November or December. That could possibly mean the MLL might not have more of their future star players until possibly June if their team is in the Champions Cup. That was evident with Lyle Thompson, who didn’t make his debut with Chesapeake until July 2, and he played in only six out of the team’s 14 games.

It’s also a hit to the MLL in the fact that many of their younger players won’t be available. The last five Tewaaraton winners from the past four seasons (2014 had two winners) will likely play in the NLL this upcoming season. They’re Matt Rambo, Dylan Molloy, Lyle Thompson, and Miles Thompson. All three MLL Rookie of the Year candidates (Molloy and Canadians Zach Currier and Josh Byrne) will also probably play in the NLL this year.

The growth of box lacrosse has been evident for a few months now. From Mac O’Keefe and other Americans playing summer box lacrosse in Canada, to Denver assistant coach Matt Brown starting the CCBLL in Colorado. More and more Americans are improving their skills in box lacrosse, and it’s translated to the pro version. It also helps having Canadians on college teams. I know a couple of players from Syracuse that are considering entering the NLL Entry Draft as well. This list might add more Americans.

Speaking of one of the players on this list, Matt Rambo is now a part of the Epoch lacrosse family!

Lacrosse is growing in California! Make it the fastest growing high school sport in the state, from ABC 10 in Sacramento.

The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees all high school athletics throughout the state, announced Tuesday that lacrosse saw the largest percentage increase over the last year among both girls and boys.

Some Sacramento area coaches, parents and players attribute the increase in participation to more visibility of the sport and growing concern over concussions and major injuries in sports like football.

"My parents growing up always said I couldn't play football,” 17-year-old Sacramento Lacrosse player Trevor Thompson said. “I always wanted to play because all my friends played growing up and [my parents] just never let me. They're happy I found something that's close to it but not quite as severe as football is."

Cathy Reed started Sacramento Lacrosse in 2012 after the sport piqued the interest of her and her son Tyler. When Reed started the youth association there were only two teams for boys as old as 14. Five years later, Sacramento Lacrosse has teams up to the high school level for both boys and girls.

"When I saw lacrosse for the first time I didn't know anything about it,” Reed explained. “It's such an addictive sport I started a club and every year our club has grown by at least one team.”

Join the manager life.

Sacred Heart Pioneers head coach Jon Basti visited Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Indianapolis Colts, yesterday.

Give me Sacred Heart vs. Notre Dame.

The CAA and LSN have extended their streaming deal until 2020. So that means if you want to watch your favorite CAA team, you’ll have to pay for it.

An interesting snippet of Megyn Kelly covering the infamous Duke Blue Devils lacrosse case 11 years ago with Fox News, from Brooke Cain of The News & Observer.

“It was the most memorable experience of my young journalism career,” she said. “That case erupted ... it had every element of a good story. It had mystery, it had crime, it had intrigue, it had race, it had class, it had politics.”

In that case, a dancer from Durham named Crystal Mangum accused members of the Duke University lacrosse team of sexually assaulting her at a party. The case was ultimately dropped.

Kelly was assigned the story by her boss Britt Hume, who gave her one great piece of advice: “Keep an open mind,” Kelly recalled. “And that is all it took to cover that case fairly.”

Kelly was one of the first national journalists to entertain the notion that perhaps Mangum wasn’t being truthful. “I took a lot of flak for that,” Kelly said. “Because people thought I was being sexist, or anti-victim, I guess; racist, because the accused were white and the accuser was black. People were saying all sorts of horrible things about me, and that was my first taste of that as a young reporter ... it was jarring and alarming.”

Kelly said she and her photographer and producer worked all day and then, well, worked a little more each night.

“We used to go out for barbecue, virtually every night – and we went to a lot of strip clubs.” Looking for people who knew Mangum, of course. One club bouncer gave her a memorable nickname: Sugar. “I said, ‘like confectionery sugar?’ Because I’m super pasty.”

Kelly, who married a Duke grad in 2008, also has fond memories of the people of Durham. “Very kind people,” Kelly said. “The town was amazing.”

Some more incoming freshmen previews:

Women’s lacrosse news: Louisville Cardinals head coach Kellie Young confirms the schools has granted releases to nine (!) players.

The MLL has their semifinals today: Rochester takes on Denver, while Florida is at Ohio. These games will be streamed for free on Twitter.

Philly Jawns

A surprise trade from the Philadelphia Eagles: They traded wide receiver Jordan Matthews and a third round pick in exchange for cornerback Ronald Darby.

World News

A winning $393 million Mega Millions ticket was sold in Illinois. I can confirm that it wasn’t my ticket.

Video of the Day

Like we’ll ever need to know what will happen if an elephant is thrown from a skyscraper.

That’s it for today!! I’ll see you out there!! Make sure you follow us on social media!

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Managing Editors: Safe Fekadu, Chris Jastrzembski, Ryan McDonnel