Outbound to Alicante!

It’s been some time since last I’ve logged in and updated, lot’s have happened—from now on I pledge to update as often as possible no matter how short the content, for history’s sake. The men & the women teams this year are both fielding teams into the national league. In fact for the men’s first ever game for Barcelona & Catalunya is this Saturday in Alicante. We will play 2 games in a modified pitch with 5 vs 5 set-up. The number is in fact weird for lacrosse as it is usually 6 vs 6 or 8 vs 8 if not the normal official 10 vs 10. It’s a matter of balance on the field to set up key points and positioning. The league is growing and the rationale is to make it car-friendly for teams traveling far—you can fit 5 passengers into a single car as 6 would be an issue.

Last saturday we had a scrimmage and it was indeed fun. The complexion of the play was definitely different to the ones of the past, the helmets & full contact does bring that factor of competitiveness. I absolutely loved it and was glad to see that the smiling faces validated it also as a team. Alas, we’re getting there! In the warm-ups, we walked through some set plays to run ( keeping it just 3 was intentional), I would dedicate a whole blog post one day celebrating if we actually run it during our games rather than a drill, that would be a huge milestone. Daniel, captain from the Argentian national team, managed to make it down and played with us, such great timing that was, even scored a few goals himself as an attackman. Late in the final seconds I had a scare where trying to do a roll-dodge, had hit a funny divot and almost turned my ankle in a bad way. I did fall but no harm done—had I ‘d injured and missed the first ever game with the Bandits…that would’ve just crushed me. The lacrosse spirits overlooking us were kind to this journeyman middie–at least for that day. Thanks a million!