This was my first chance to participate in the US Lacrosse National Convention, an event held annually, and this year being the first of several  in Baltimore. In previous years Philadelphia was the host city and I am told a great venue.

Baltimore also served us well. The convention center is wonderfully located next to Camden Yards and all that downtown Baltimore has to offer. Though, I must confess I did not leave the quite new Hilton hotel or the convention hall that is conveniently attached. Little annoyances were more than overcome by the camaraderie and vibe of thousands of Lacrosse Aficionados (I am seeing a new magazine in my mind right now). I would not even mention any of this except that it had to do with my ability to get a cup of coffee early in the morning. Starbucks had a 45 minute line right up until PE Obama gave his afternoon speech. While I was desperate, that line would have kept me from any one of 12 presentations or demonstrations, That was not going to happen.

I came to Baltimore not knowing what to expect. Sure there would be a lot of talk about lacrosse and field demonstrations, but after that I did not have a clue.

Briefly as possible let me share with you my time at the convention.

First event...a wild (like you can tell she loves lacrosse to the point of mental instability) women from Skidmore vividly taught us all how to run a practice and make it fun....I am talking using swim noodles, lighted balls, dance dance revolution and a bunch of crazy (like a fox) games.

Last event... a guy (lets call him Mike) from Michigan who dangled the crazy ideas of recruiting kids, parents and the community into the sport, using events like parents night, newspaper articles, web site and blogs (check) logos (check), and sportswear (I think he was paid by Jungle). All this might sound over the top but his program went from zero to 300 players in the span of two years for a community similarly sized to Ipswich but with an economy devastated by the drifting US auto industry.

By the way, one theme Mike has used effectively holds true for Ipswich. It goes something like this:

Baseball...250 years old

Basketball 120 years old

Lacrosse 500 years old

No wonder its the fastest game on two feet. We have been playing it longer.

In between ... I received heaping doses of lacrosse drills, practice plans, offensive schemes, defensive strategies and live demonstrations. The latter which were heavily attend by a knowledge thirsty crowd. Honestly at about 2:30 on Saturday, I felt overwhelmed. What was I going to do with this information? How can Ipswich Girls Lacrosse  (never...IGL...cause we are proud of Ipswich) benefit if I am swimming...ehhh drowning in details? And then like the Hudson River commuter ferries rescuing the downed US Air Passengers on their air frame ice flow, the head coach of Rollins College Women's Lacrosse threw me a life ring. Dennis Short and his staff are the first for this institution, but you could not tell by the advice he provided, Basically he has taken all the skill development concepts and wrapped it into a 30 minute warm up that his team performs...wait for it...every day. He just solved my warm up dilema and did so in a way that I totally buy into...no shuttles...ever. No down time....ever. No questions about what is next in the warm up ....ever. Look on this website soon because the warm up will be posted and totally credited to Dennis and his staff.

Okay...what about defense and offense? I was still a little worried about how the rest of this might turn out. Well good things come in threes and I got a bonus on top of that. My next session was a live demonstration by the head of Georgetown's Women's program, Mr. Rickey Fried. He laid out a defensive development program that even I could understand, in which case we know the middle school girls will get it. Next on tap was the golden ring for I found another live demonstration from Wendy Kridel, AD and head coach at Bryn Mawr. Wendy laid out a completely straight forward method to develop a motion offense that brilliantly highlighted two elements. First...simplicity is the key. Second, ask your ball carrier to take enough time in order to let their teammates make something happen.  Not only was this brilliant, her kids executed the demonstration like professionals.

So the bonus was watching the US National Team play with warm ups and finally a 7v7. To see Amy Altig shut down a double fake shot taken from 3 feat away was magnificent.  Amy Appelt (UVA standout and Tewarraton Trophy winner) LIVE puts oooth in smooth. And then there was Michele DeJuliis. Funny thing about Michele. She gets two "est" awards. She is clearly the old"est" and may be the short"est" but neither seemed to get in her way when she cut across crease -front in a crowd and lept into the air received a pass, turned, shot and scored. She jumped so high I had to re-look at the name on her Jersey which may have read Dr. Julius not DeJuliis.

So that was it, warm up, offense, defense and dose of inspiration. I only wish Ipswich Girls Lacrosse players could have been there.