News – Page 3 – Absolute Lacrosse

November 9, 2012

Warrior in Hot Seat Over Racially Charged Hashtag

Warrior Lacrosse seems to have gotten itself in a bit of trouble over a hashtag they created for marketing their Warrior Dojo shoes. The hashtag, #NinjaPlease, has been used by Warrior to help create interest among Twitter users for their shoes as of late. The hashtag was then re-tweeted by Major League Lacrosse, and many other lacrosse fans as well.

Jovan Miller, who currently plays for the Charlotte Hounds, took offense to the hashtag when he noticed his Twitter followers using it. “It kind of alarmed me at first,” Miller said. “The actual meaning behind ‘Ninja Please’ is the ‘N-word Please.’ They put ninja in it to kind of disguise it.”

A quick search on UrbanDictionary.com for the term backs up Jovan’s claims. It only took some internet searching for Jovan to find out where the hashtag came from. Unfortunately, Warrior is one of the primary MLL sponsors, and manufacturer of plenty of his equipment and gear – including the Hounds jerseys.

Because of the inappropriate hashtag, Miller will be boycotting Warrior until they speak to him about the situation. “If I won’t wear the uniform, obviously I can’t play,” said Miller, which means his career in the MLL could be in jeopardy. “Honestly, it was offensive. I didn’t feel like there was necessarily malice behind it, but I felt like they knew they could get away with it. Warrior is a company that prides itself on being ‘edgy’ but this is too far,” Miller added.

While Miller believes Warrior has done plenty of wrong in approving of such marketing tactics, he carries no negative feelings towards the MLL. “As far as Major League Lacrosse is concerned, I do believe they were just ignorant to what the phrase was. But in those [Warrior] offices, when someone came up with that phrase, I believe they knew exactly what they were talking about,” Miller said.

Jovan Miller is one of only three African-American players in the league, and has taken a stand not only for himself, but for anyone who might be affected by Warrior’s poor judgement. “This doesn’t just affect me. I’m not just speaking for myself. I’m speaking for every black man or black girl who has ever picked up a lacrosse stick,” he said.

Miller has reached out to Warrior in hopes to talk to the marketing team, or anyone who OK’d those tactics, but has yet to receive a response. The boycott of Warrior will continue until he receives some sort of apology or response. In the meantime, Jovan has given away all of his Warrior gear via Twitter. He will not be seen in a Hounds Warrior jersey until this issue is resolved.

Oddly enough, since Jovan raised an eyebrow to the situation, all references of the hashtag have been removed from the Warrior site and social media accounts. Major League Lacrosse also removed all removed any references to the hashtag, once they became aware of the meaning.

November 7, 2012

University of Michigan Releases 2013 Schedule

As we get closer to the start of the 2013 lacrosse season for many universities in the U.S., the full schedules for those teams begin to come out. Such was the case yesterday where the University of Michigan announced their 2013 lacrosse schedule.

Michigan, who won three consecutive national championships at the Division I club level from 2008 to 2010, had a rough start in their inaugural NCAA Division I campaign. In their 2012 season, the Wolverines only claimed one victory, a 14-4 triumph over Mercer. They finished the season with a dismal 1-13 record, but managed to grow as a team in their first season in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Lacrosse League.

Fortunately for the Wolverines, their first season in the ECAC was as an affiliate. This means that all games played last season did not count towards the ECAC standings for Michigan or their opponent. Michigan was also ineligible for the ECAC tournament last season as an affiliate.

Beginning with the 2013 season, the University of Michigan will no longer be an affiliate in the ECAC. Their games will count, and the squad should be prepared to compete better than last season. See below for a full look at their 2013 schedule.

Sat. Feb. 2 vs. Marquette (Exh.) Oosterbaan Field House 1:00 p.m. ET
vs. Denison (Exh.) Oosterbaan Field House 4:30 p.m. ET
Sat. Feb. 9 vs. Penn State Oosterbaan Field House 1:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Feb. 16 at Bellarmine Louisville, Ky. 1:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Feb. 23 at Johns Hopkins Baltimore, Md. 1:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Mar. 2 vs. Army Miami, Fla. (Sun Life Stadium) Time TBA
Wed. Mar. 6 at High Point High Point, N.C. 7:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Mar. 9 at Hobart * Geneva, N.Y. 1:00 p.m. ET
Thu. Mar. 14 at Fairfield * Fairfield, Conn. 7:00 p.m. ET
Sun. Mar. 17 vs. Colgate Flushing, N.Y. (Citi Field) Time TBA
Sat. Mar. 23 vs. Loyola Maryland * Michigan Stadium 3:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Mar. 30 vs. Air Force * Michigan Stadium 3:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Apr. 6 at Delaware Newark, Del. 12:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Apr. 13 vs. Ohio State * Michigan Stadium Time TBA
Wed. Apr. 17 vs. Detroit Michigan Stadium 7:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Apr. 20 vs. Saint Joseph’s Michigan Stadium 1:00 p.m. ET
Sat. Apr. 27 at Denver * Denver, Colo. 1:00 p.m. MT

* = ECAC Games

November 6, 2012November 6, 2012

McGill University Wins CUFLA Championship

McGill University, located in Montreal, has won the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association championship after defeating Western University 7-6 in double overtime on Sunday.

Jishan Sharples, a co-captain from Vancouver, scored the game winning goal for McGill with only twelve seconds remaining in double overtime. The goal, which came on a wraparound, gave McGill their first Baggataway Cup win.

While the 7-6 victory for McGill came in double overtime, there were some hot and cold moments for scoring during the game. After the first quarter, Western lead 2-1 on goals from Ryan McCrory. In the second quarter, Scott Watson scored to add to the Western lead, 3-1. McGill picked up a goal each from Ryan Besse and Leland De Langley to tie the game 3-3, but Western’s Kyle Childerhorse scored to give his squad the lead again 4-3 heading into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter opened strong for McGill, as they picked up three straight goals to take a 6-4 lead. Scott Watson would add a goal to bring Western within one, and Sam Neeb added the equalizer with only six seconds left to play, sending the game to overtime.

Overtime between McGill and Western was held scoreless. It wasn’t until close to the end of the second overtime that Jishan Sharple’s heroics would give McGill the Bagattaway Cup victory.

“It’s really difficult to put what this means into words,” said tournament MVP Brandon McLean, who helped send McGill to the gold medal game after scoring the winner with four seconds left in Saturday’s 9-8 semifinal victory over Guelph. “It was really a team effort. We worked so hard to get here and it’s paid off. I think it will take a while to sink in what we accomplished.”

McGill’s victory marks the sixth time, in as many seasons, that the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association championship has gone to a different team.

November 4, 2012

Towson University to Host 2014 Women’s Lacrosse Championships

Unitas Stadium - Towson University — Unitas Stadium – Towson University

The NCAA announced on Thursday that Towson University will host the Women’s Lacrosse National Championships in 2014.

Towson University, located in Towson, Maryland, will be the host university for the fourth time in a seven year time span. They first hosted the event 2008 and followed it up with two additional years in 2009 and 2010.

Proving to be a tremendous host for the event, the National Championships at Towson set new attendance records in the three consecutive years hosting the event. In fact, the most recent record set in 2010 saw nearly 10,000 fans in attendance for the championship game between Maryland and Northwestern at Unitas Stadium.

“Towson University is excited to bring an outstanding event like the women’s lacrosse national championship back to Baltimore,” said Mike Waddell, Towson’s director of athletics. “Our campus has hosted this event three of the last five years. Once again, we will roll out the red carpet for the NCAA and many fans that will help us sell out Johnny Unitas Stadium as we create and outstanding environment for the championship weekend.”

The 2013 Women’s National Championships will take place at Villanova University on May 26th.

October 19, 2012

Nick Galasso Transferring to Syracuse

On October 9th, The University of North Carolina granted junior Nick Galasso a release so he could pursue a transfer to a new program. His search didn’t take long as Galasso has announced that he will be headed to Syracuse to play lacrosse for the Orangemen.

Galasso made a visit to the Syracuse campus yesterday, and didn’t wait long to commit. “When we were getting ready to leave, Coach Desko asked me if there was anything else we should talk about. Right then I told him I wanted to make my verbal commitment,” Galasso said.

In Galasso, Syracuse will be getting a stellar and complete attackman who can feed and dodge with the best of them. He has 8 multi-goal games in his career, to go along with 10 multi-assist games and 16 multi-point games.

Nick expects to complete his current semester of education at North Carolina and then transfer to Syracuse for the Spring semester. His expectation is to be eligible to compete in the 2013 lacrosse season, although he doesn’t quite know where he’ll play yet. “I haven’t played with these guys yet, so I don’t know where I’ll play,” Galasso said of his new team. “I have to go in there and play well. Most likely it will be on attack, but maybe some midfield. There are no guarantees.”

In 2010, Nick Galasso was the number one lacrosse player on the West Islip team. Additionally, Galasso was the top overall recruit coming out of the state of New York and ranked second in the nation according to MaxPreps.com. He is Long Island’s all time leading point scorer with 500 career points.