GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for June 21, 2018.

College Crosse News

Bellarmine hires former Rutgers assistant Jim Mitchell as next men’s lacrosse head coach.

The Bellarmine Knights have hired former Rutgers Scarlet Knights offensive coordinator Jim Mitchell as their next head coach, the school announced in a press release. He replaces Kevin Burns, who was fired back in April.

Mitchell will begin his duties on July 2. Mitchell comes over after spending four seasons in Piscataway, three of them as the team’s offensive coordinator. His offenses were ranked in the top 25 in scoring while tutoring the offense. Prior to that, he spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Knights under Burns. His units were in the top 15 in goals against average, thanks to goaltender Dillon Ward and defenseman Bobby Schmitt.

Bellarmine Director of Athletics Scott Wiegandt is excited for the return of Mitchell to the program.

“Jim’s incredible passion, energy and enthusiasm for Bellarmine are clearly evident and make him an outstanding choice as the next Knights head coach,” said Bellarmine Director of Athletics Scott Wiegandt. “He is knowledgeable about the Bellarmine program and respectful of the program’s history and is confident he can take it to the next level.”

Penn State’s Panzer Field $3.5M upgrade is going swimmingly.

Penn State lacrosse is one step closer to its new home as Panzer Field continues to work towards completion after $3.55 million in gifts were announced last May.

Named after Ken Panzer, a 1982 Penn State graduate, he and his long-time business partner at Douglas Emmett, Jordan Kaplan, have committed a gift of $3.55 million to launch construction of the new facility. The stadium holds 1,300 seats in addition to what already exists across the field. It remains to be seen if any traditional hill seating will remain.

Coach Gorman’s Fortnite speech is starting to go viral. Here’s an article from NBC New York and another from USA Today. I get fired up from watching it and I don’t even know what Fortnite is.

Next up in our 2018 Year In Review series is the Hartford Hawks.

With the 2018 college lacrosse season complete, it’s time to start looking back at how all 71 teams did during the season, as well as what to expect from each squad for 2019.

We started looking ahead to 2019 with a few of our team recaps last week and continued things this past week with Marist and Siena.

So with that, let’s continue the recaps!

#64 Hartford Hawks

Conference: America East

2018 Record: 3-10 (0-6 in America East play)

Head coach: Ryan Martin (2nd Year)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Griffin Feiner (38)

Assists: Griffin Feiner and Rion Davison (19)

Points: Griffin Feiner (57)

Faceoffs: Dylan Protesto (173-of-275; 62.9%)

Ground balls: Dylan Protesto (94)

Caused turnovers: Brendan Gates (14)

Goals against average: Ryan Vanderford (12.24 GAA)

Save percentage: Ryan Vanderford (46.8%)

Nice article about Ian Mackay making the Canadian men’s lacrosse national team for the 2018 FIL.

Port Elgin’s Ian MacKay has cracked the final 23-man Team Canada roster that will defend the world championship title next month at the 2018 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship in Netanya, Israel.

The world championship will begin on July 12 and culminate in the gold medal game on July 21.

The midfielder is no stranger to representing his country on the world stage. MacKay played for Team Canada previously at the Would Under-19 Field Lacrosse Championships in Turku, Finland in 2012. Canada was runner-up to the U.S. in that tournament.

He graduated from the University of Vermont this year and was drafted 13th overall by the Chesapeake BayHawks of the Major Lacrosse League in April.

MacKay became the first Vermont player to earn the America East Conference Offensive Player of the Year award following his junior season. His 70 points lead the team in scoring with a team-leading 42 goals and 28 assists.

He finished his NCAA-career as the program’s all-time leader in goals.

Speaking of Team Canada, here is the full roster, courtesy of Teddy Jenner. Despite the fact it’s a 23-man roster, there’s 24 names.

Shout out to Jeff Teat.

109 players have been invited to try out for the 2019 U.S. Women’s U19 National Team.

US Lacrosse has announced that 109 players have been invited to try out for the 2019 U.S. Women’s U19 National Team. Tryouts will be held Aug. 10-12, 2018 at US Lacrosse headquarters in Sparks, Md.

A Player Identification Committee that included US Lacrosse Women’s High Performance Committee Chair Anne Phillips, U.S U19 head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller, U19 assistant coaches Ann Elliott, Brooke Matthews, Angela McMahon, U19 team assistant manager Meredith Frank McGinnis, U.S. senior team head coach Jenny Levy and eight regional recruiting coordinators determined the list of players invited to tryouts from a pool of more than 500 applicants.

The pool of 109 players has players from 16 states and includes six players that just finished their freshman season of college lacrosse, 48 high school seniors, 35 high school juniors and 20 high school sophomores from the 2017-18 academic year.

Skidmore officially named former UNC assistant coach Joe Martin as their new men’s lacrosse head coach.

Skidmore College has appointed Joe Martin head men’s lacrosse coach. Martin has been at the University of North Carolina since 2013.

“Joe Martin will be a terrific addition to our department as he leads the men’s lacrosse program with a high degree of passion, knowledge of the game, and commitment to developing the whole student,” said Gail Cummings-Danson, Skidmore athletics director. “Some of his core values for the program center around having courage, discipline and selflessness and with that, a dedication to a culture for the program that prioritizes family, academics and lacrosse.”

FINALLY, a Twitter thread for the People.

St. Bonaventure is ready to party!

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

We did it: SEPTA Unveils Spruced-Up Center City Concourse.

SEPTA leadership on Tuesday officially unveiled the first phase in the transit authority’s long-overdue renovation of Center City’s dingy and dilapidated underground concourse system. With ceiling leaks plugged and the smell of urine scrubbed away, SEPTA’s newly rechristened “Downtown Link” serves as a gateway to the public transportation mode of your choosing, as well as the various retail options and office building entrances located below street level. Fresh tile and concrete line 22,000 square feet of tunnels that all converge at a redesigned circular space that funnels pedestrians to their destinations.

SEPTA is paying for its ambitious $59.65 million “Center City Concourse Improvement Program” with state dollars disbursed through Act 89, Pennsylvania’s comprehensive transportation funding plan. After years of ignoring the blight of the concourse, the city of Philadelphia signed over operations to SEPTA in 2014. That year, construction began on the project’s first phase, which cost approximately $10 million to complete.

World/National News

Summer solstice is today

Thousands of people are expected to flock to Stonehenge to mark the longest day of the year - known as the summer solstice. Every year the neolithic Wiltshire monument becomes the centre of day-long celebrations to mark the official start of summer. Up to 25,000 people are expected to attend the 2018 summer solstice at the site, where sunrise is due to take place at 4.52am, on Thursday.

Onlookers will watch as the sun rises behind the Heel Stone, the ancient entrance to the Stone Circle, and rays of sunlight are channelled into the centre of the monument. It is believed that solstices have been celebrated at Stonehenge for thousands of years. The event has long been associated with the Pagan religion, with Druids expected to attend Stonhenge today.

Your GIF/Video for June 21, 2018

Creed II looks goooooood!

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