College Crosse Prospectus: More Lacrosse-Olympics Talk

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for January 2, 2018.

What You Missed

The Monmouth Hawks look to repeat as MAAC champions, and they have a pretty good nonconference schedule as well.

2 Chainz made an appearance at a Georgia Swarm game on Saturday.

Lacrosse The Nation

Jim Scherr writes about the possibility of lacrosse in the Olympics for Inside Lacrosse:

The process [of sports being included in the Olympic program] has changed and evolved at the IOC and will probably continue to evolve over the foreseeable future, and certainly over the next couple of years. They previously had a concept where they had core sports and then they had a bullpen of provisional sports, and the IOC itself would decide which sports would come on the program and which would go off. They’ve since changed that to the concept of 310 events, 10,500 athletes — not just limited to core sports.

Given that concept, they’ve allowed the organizing committee to conduct the process and select sports that are relevant to youth and popular in that country, and make sense for sport legacy and staging those sports in that city for the Olympic games. Tokyo was the first city that conducted that process and they selected ve sports for inclusion in 2020 and they started in 2015, culminated in 2016. If you’re looking at that timeline for 2024, the games that’ll be held in Paris, then that’s 2020 — and that’s pretty quick given where we’re at today, but not ruling it out by any means. But L.A. in 2028 would be a much more realistic possibility. We’ll see that process evolve over time. But I’d think given the availability venues in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, the popularity of sport, collegiate and youth in L.A. and across young people in the U.S., gives the sport a strong argument in the U.S. market and I think makes it an ideal sport for inclusion in the 2028 program. But there are certainly a lot of steps between then and now.

The U.S. and Canada will certainly benefit from [lacrosse’s Olympic inclusion], but for the rest of the world, it’ll be a sea-level change. It turns three spigots on for national federations around the world. The first is from their national Olympic committees, which a lot of times is governmental funded and sometimes has their own funding sources as well that augments that. The second is development funds that are for elite athlete support through their national governments, whether it’s a sport ministry or governmental agency — lacrosse athletes would then have increased eligibility for those funds. And then third, whenever you come into the Olympic realm, and you’re looking to put together a team and gather funds — either commercially or through private donations — generally much more traction is gained when there’s an Olympic opportunity at the end of the run.

Mark McGuire of The Daily Gazette is putting his money on Albany to win it all in 2018:

There will be an NCAA national champion crowned from the Capital Region.

And that team is UAlbany men’s lacrosse. If you are not a lacrosse fan, if you have never seen a game — if you don’t know what lacrosse is — make it a point to see the Great Danes this season. At times on the field what you will see is where sport and art intersects.

If coach broke that clipboard with his head, I would’ve given him my Coach of the Year vote right now:

The Chesapeake Chapter of US Lacrosse announced their Hall of Fame Class of 2018, as Bill Wagner of the Capital Gazette explains:

Craig Bubier, Brian Burlace and Crista Samaras reached the pinnacle of lacrosse as players, earning some of the highest accolades available.

Clint Gosnell was the epitome of what a high school coach should be during a three decade tenure at Arundel. Sue Chittim also achieved excellence as a prep coach while also growing the game on the grassroots level.

Nancy Murphy was very much a pioneer, organizing girls lacrosse on the recreation level at a time when no one else was doing so. Jim Shuck was a passionate advocate for the stick sport while serving as a coach, official and supportive parent.

Those seven individuals will be inducted into the Chesapeake Chapter of US Lacrosse Hall of Fame during a banquet scheduled for later this month. Bubier, Burlace, Chittim, Gosnell, Murphy, Shuck and Samaras will be formally feted on Jan. 25 at the Annapolis Elks Lodge.

Former Penn State Nittany Lions midfielder Dan Craig had a nice NLL debut:

Speaking of the NLL, they announced a partnership with Facebook Watch to air their new weekly show, ReLax. It stars Tyson Geick, Ashley Docking, and IL Indoor contributor and good pal Pat Gregoire.

Utah gets another one!

Matt DaSilva of US Lacrosse Magazine previews Saturday’s Team USA Spring Premiere in Florida.

Philly Jawns

The Mummers Parade was yesterday!

There was also this story of a 12-year-old leading one string band after his father passed away in October, which I highly recommend you read.

World News

Alabama shut down Clemson’s offense in the Sugar Bowl, but the game of the night and maybe the year was Georgia edging out Oklahoma in double overtime in the Rose Bowl. It’s an all-SEC National Championship game next Monday in Atlanta, and it’s also the Kirby Smart revenge game:

Oklahoma lacrosse also let people know they didn’t lose to Georgia in 2OT in lacrosse:

Video of the Day

Remembering 2017.

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

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