GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for December 14, 2018.

College Crosse News

BEWARE OF BEARS! Check out Mercer’s 2019 calendar.

The Mercer Athletics Department and head coach Kyle Hannan released the 2019 men’s lacrosse schedule on Thursday afternoon. The 13-game schedule includes six home contests at Five Star Stadium, four of which are Southern Conference games. Mercer will play seven total SoCon games following six non-conference matchups. Mercer opens the regular season on February 2, facing ACC powerhouse, UNC, at a neutral site in Atlanta, Ga.

The Bears will then travel out West to compete at Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah (Feb. 9). Mercer will open their home schedule with two straight games against Canisius and Cleveland State. Mercer will then wrap up non-conference play with a road trip to Newark, Del. to take on the Delaware Blue Hens (March 6) followed by a game in Baltimore, Md. at Mount Saint Mary’s (March 8).

The Midshipmen released their 2019 schedule yesterday.

Eighth-year Navy men’s lacrosse coach Rick Sowell announced the Mids’ 2019 schedule on Thursday which features games against six programs who appear in the Inside Lacrosse Faceoff Yearbook top 25 preseason rankings, including five who will play the Mids at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium this spring.

A year ago, Navy played seven games on the road, including five of its first six contests. This season’s schedule features nine home games, the most regular-season home appearances by the Mids since 1971, including five nonconference matchups.

The first five games of the season will be played at home beginning with the Feb. 9 opener (12:00 pm) against Vermont. The Catamounts, who are ranked 24th in the preseason rankings, put together a 12-4 record a year ago that featured an appearance in the America East Championship Game against 2018 NCAA semifinalist Albany. Although it marks the inaugural meeting between the Mids and Catamounts, Sowell is no stranger to the Vermont program. He has coached against Vermont on 10 previous occasions as the head coach at Stony Brook (6-0) and Dartmouth (3-1).

BOSS Breschi released UNC’s 2019 calendar yesterday as well.

The University of North Carolina men’s lacrosse team will host eight regular season home games in Chapel Hill as well as playing host to three games in the 2019 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament as the squad’s 2019 season schedule was released by head coach Joe Breschi Thursday.

Sites for games on the Chapel Hill campus will be announced at a later date and television details for all games (home and away) will also be announced at a later date. Those details are still being finalized. The Tar Heels have seven games scheduled against teams which qualified for the 2018 NCAA Tournament, including five games against squads which were seeded in last year’s national tourney. Games against 2018 tournament teams include contests (seeds in last year’s tournament in parentheses) against Maryland (#1), Syracuse (#8), Johns Hopkins (#5), Duke (#4), Notre Dame (#7), Virginia and Denver.

CBS Sports Network to televise 12 Patriot League lacrosse games in 2019.

The steady trickle of college lacrosse schedule releases gave way Thursday to the first big TV announcement, as CBS Sports Network will televise 12 Patriot League games in 2019.

The slate includes conference championship games for both men’s and women’s lacrosse, as well as the men’s semifinals and an Army-Navy doubleheader. The men’s game will mark the 100th all-time meeting between the service academy rivals.

CBS Sports Network, the 24-hour home of CBS Sports, is widely available through all major cable, satellite and telco distributors as well as via OTT streaming service providers YouTube TV, fuboTV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV and Hulu. Additionally, a live CBS Sports Network stream is available through CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App by authenticating with select providers.

Let’s take a breakdown tour of Holy Cross’ 2019 schedule with The Kid Chris.

The Holy Cross Crusaders are the 50th team in our 2019 schedule preview series and the fifth team from the Patriot League. The Crusaders finished 8-6 in 2018 and 1-4 in Patriot League play. Holy Cross failed to qualify for the Patriot League Tournament.

Circle These Dates

2/9 (vs. Providence): Nick Hatzipetrakos nearly outscored the entire Holy Cross team in last year’s meeting. He had five goals, the Crusaders had six. But despite that, Holy Cross made things interesting midway through the fourth quarter trailing by one, but the Friars scored the final two goals to get the win.

2/26 (vs. Harvard): One of the first upsets of the season came from the Crusaders in a midweek game. Trailing 8-5 in the third, Holy Cross scored four straight to take the lead late in the fourth before Carney Mahon forced overtime. In the second extra session, Justin Lynskey put home the game-winner to give Holy Cross their first win of the season.

3/16 (vs. Army West Point): If last year’s game happens again, you might “x” this game off. A 5-3 Black Knights win had potential early on with Army leading 3-2 after the opening quarter. But each quarter saw only one goal scored, two of them coming from the Black Knights. Both goalies made over 10 saves in the game, but the Crusaders committed 21 turnovers

YouTube account DigitalLacrosse uploaded the 1988 Cornell vs. Syracuse game. The first meeting between the two after Syracuse lost the to Cornell in the 1987 Final Four.

Nice post on Kyle Harrison & Paul Rabil in US Lacrosse.

When Paul Rabil and Kyle Harrison first met in 2004, Harrison was three years into his decorated career as a Johns Hopkins midfielder. Ahead was his historic senior season, which ended with the Blue Jays finishing 16-0 and winning the school’s first NCAA championship since 1987.

Harrison finished his brilliant run at Homewood by winning the Tewarraton Award as a two-time first-team All-American. He began his professional lacrosse career as the top draft pick of Major League Lacrosse.

Back then, Rabil was a big, athletic, senior midfielder at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md., on an official visit to Johns Hopkins, where Harrison had been assigned to show Rabil around and make him the guest at Harrison’s off-campus residence.

Once Rabil chose Hopkins over North Carolina, lacrosse history awaited.

4 High Point lacrosse players help with Hurricane Harvey relief.

Honestly, this is a reasonable take: Parents, resist the madness of organized sports for children.

“Across the nation, kids of all skill levels, in virtually every team sport, are getting swept up by a youth-sports economy that increasingly resembles the pros at early ages,” Time magazine reported last year. This phenomenon presents a host of problems, including the sad fact that kids from lower income levels often get shut out of a beloved tradition that frequently no longer exists: the low-key, low-cost, “we won’t try to turn you into a harried and jaded athletic professional at the age of 8” children’s sports league.

Don’t get me wrong: I like sports! I like playing sports. I like watching sports, as long as they are not soccer. I think organized sports for kids are fine, at least in moderation — but moderation, it seems, is not the American way. One should not be attending 13 lacrosse practices a week.

BOSS Danowski gave a great, free coaching seminar last night.

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

Wawa’s opening up a huge new spot near Old City in Philly.

The location, which opens on Friday at 6th and Chestnut streets with a free coffee weekend, is unlike any other Wawa ever. That’s not just because of its size (which, at 11,500 square feet, makes it the biggest Wawa in the world). There are three other reasons this store is special.

The first is that it’s a beautifully designed space within a stunning historical building. When you walk inside, it almost feels like you stumbled into some sort of secret Wawa Heaven. It features tall, vaulted ceilings, touches of Art Deco design, and hip industrial furnishings. Think of La Colombe’s Fishtown flagship store, but less pretentious.

World/National News

A Russian robot named ‘Boris’ hailed as hi-tech on state TV has been unmasked as a man in a suit.

A robot hailed in Russia as the latest in cutting-edge technology has been unmasked – as a man in a suit. The android – known as Boris – had been lauded on the state-owned broadcaster Russia-24 as a technological breakthrough with the ability to walk, talk and dance. But photos later revealed there had been a person inside all along.

Your GIF/Video for December 14, 2018

Here’s a fun video of kids trying avocado toast.

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 McDonnell