GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for June 13, 2018.

College Crosse News

The Wings unveiled their new jerseys!

The Philadelphia Wings lacrosse team — playing in its inaugural season, under a name used by the city’s former franchise — unveiled its home jerseys for the coming season on Tuesday. Black with dark gray “wings” on the shoulders, the jerseys feature the Wings’ beige, gray and red logo on the front and black numbers with beige piping and beige letters on the back.

The Wings play in the National Lacrosse League, an indoor lacrosse (also known as box lacrosse) league with nine teams scattered across the United States and Canada, and two — Philly and San Diego — set to begin play this winter.

The NCAA released a substance use study in men’s & women’s sports and while athletes in general post lower usage rates than non-athletes, men & women lacrosse players put up some troubling numbers among their peers. Chris wrote a post about the news here.

The NCAA does plenty of research studies every year. You probably see their studies on sport participation every Spring, with positive results for lacrosse for both men’s and women’s versions.

A new study came out on substance use, using data from 2017. According to the NCAA, the study shows that college athletes continue to make healthier decisions compared to the general student body.

A little more about the study:

The Student-Athlete Substance Use Survey has been conducted every four years since 1985 to assess the health and well-being trends among student-athletes. The report helps inform NCAA policy-makers with both current and historical information concerning levels of student-athlete drug and alcohol use. The study also analyzes why student-athletes do or do not use specific substances, when they started to use drugs, and their attitudes regarding drug use and drug testing.

The latest survey, based on the responses of approximately 23,000 student-athletes in all three divisions, indicates college athletes are using marijuana and amphetamines at a lower rate than the nonathlete college population. The percentage of student-athletes who reported drinking alcohol in the last year also showed a slight decrease from the previous survey in 2013, continuing a trend of a reduction in binge drinking since 2009. The most recent study also shows a significant decrease in the use of narcotic pain medication use with a prescription.

Alright, so that’s really good! Marijuana and amphetamines are lower than non-athletes, and drinking is down.

But compared to athletes from other sports, lacrosse still tops most drug and alcohol use.

Chris also continued our Year in Review series with the NJIT Highlanders!

Grow the game.

Substitution change proposed in women’s lacrosse.

In a continuation of the free movement rules it recommended last year, the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Rules Committee proposed another change that will allow substitutions when the game clock is stopped, unless otherwise specified in the rules. The committee, which met last week in Indianapolis, recommended removing a rule that prohibits players from entering the field as a substitute while the clock is stopped.

After sweeping changes were made last year to allow more free movement in the sport, committee members felt this rule unintendedly slowed the game down. The 2018 season was the first time players in the sport could keep moving after a foul or violation while the player possessing the ball restarts play. A 2-meter nonengagement area was established around the player awarded possession of the ball. All other players on the field were free to move outside the nonengagement area, too.

Here’s a great video about Yale’s title run. #BoneByBone

Parents & players demand coaches ouster in Holt, MI. Accuse coach of “having no experience in the game and belittling players.”

Dozens of parents and students crowded a Holt High School board meeting on Monday night. They were accusing a Varsity Lacrosse Head Coach having no experience in the game and belittling players. Parents told FOX 47’s Cryss Walker that Coach Stan Granger is bringing down the morale of the varsity team. Parents said their kids are being verbally abused by the coach as well. Parents also said that their kids have lost their passion for the sport and expressed their hate of going to games and practices. Nine players took to the podium asking the school board to step in and remove Granger from his position. Parents and players are saying that enough is enough.

Here’s a great Q&A with Wesleyan head coach, John Raba.

On May 27, 2018, Wesleyan lacrosse won its first National College Athletic Association Championship, defeating Salisbury University, 8–6 at Gillette Stadium for the Division III title.

When Lacrosse Head Coach John Raba, a graduate of the University of New Haven, began at Wesleyan in 1997, he was 25 and an assistant coach with the football team. Lacrosse—now his sole focus as head coach—was something additional that first year.

“If someone had told me back then that Wesleyan would win a national championship, I would’ve said, ‘Oh, great. What sport?’ Twenty-one years later, here we are. Congratulations, team!”

In a Q&A, Raba describes the growth of Wesleyan lacrosse—and what was special about the 2018 team.

Q: What words describe the Wesleyan lacrosse program?

A: Wesleyan lacrosse is an extremely disciplined team, focused on progressing each and every day. If we are disciplined and focused on getting better each and every day we feel we can compete with anyone in the country.

Q: And how have you built this team in the years since you started?

A: Piece by piece. The great thing about coaching at Wesleyan is that we attract student athletes who are certainly very focused, very driven, and self-motivated. These guys really want direct involvement in the process. They want to make sure that we have a plan in place. We make sure we define our roles to everyone involved in our program, and we know how to achieve our goals. Then, with the leadership of our captains and seniors each year, we’re able to get ourselves in the right mindset to achieve our goals.

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

The Re-Re-Re-Re-Rebirth of Atlantic City When the casinos closed, everybody wrote it off. What if everybody was wrong?

John Longacre and I aren’t the only believers in Atlantic City. There are some surprising signs of life these days, not to mention some serious investment — from small ventures, like Longacre’s projects, to big bets like Stockton University’s new beachfront campus and this month’s opening of the $550 million Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the old Trump Taj Mahal. And it certainly can’t hurt that in mid-May the U.S. Supreme Court allowed sports betting in A.C.

“There’s more money pouring into A.C. right now than in all of Philadelphia,” boasts development mogul Bart Blatstein. That’s likely an exaggeration, but it shows how much Blatstein — who’s scooped up a number of Atlantic City properties in recent years — is also all in.

“Atlantic City has risen and fallen innumerable times,” says Temple professor Bryant Simon, author of 2004’s Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America. “This is the story that has been told for a hundred years.”

The irony, of course, is that this new resurgence is happening just a few short years after nearly half the city’s casinos went under, thousands of jobs disappeared, and Atlantic City itself seemed to be left for dead. Then again, maybe there’s no irony here at all. Maybe this more organic, up-from-the-ground rebirth of Atlantic City is exactly the kind of action that could mean sustained success for the city by the sea.

World/National News

They just announced that North America won the 2026 World Cup bid. WE DID IT!!

A combined bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada won the hosting rights for soccer’s 2026 World Cup on Wednesday, bringing the tournament to North America for the first time since the 1994 event on a pledge of record crowds, record revenues and, perhaps crucially, a record $11 billion in profits for FIFA, world soccer’s governing body.
The North American bid defeated its only challenger, Morocco, by a vote of 134-65.
It will be the first time the World Cup is hosted by three countries, but a vast majority of the tournament will be on United States soil. Of the 80 matches, 10 will be held in Canada, 10 in Mexico and 60 in the United States — including the final, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The last time the men’s World Cup was in North America was when the United States hosted in 1994. It was held in Mexico in 1970 and 1986, and Canada has never hosted.
Wednesday’s vote was the first in which each FIFA member association was given a say on where the World Cup would be held, and the North Americans rode to victory on a wave of support from the Americas, Europe and Asia, plus a few votes poached from Africa.

Your GIF/Video for June 13, 2018

You’re gonna need the volume up for this Dunder Woofin video.

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