Tampa, Florida-
What a cool trip and a even better experience to make it down south during spring break for some awesome lacrosse!
The Sport:
- Lacrosse is taking off on the west coast of Florida! One of the challenges with the sport of lacrosse is the year round beautiful weather; coaches are fighting over players who also play soccer, football, baseball (yikes – who plays baseball?!?!), and ice hockey (a lot of Tampa Bay hats down south). Still, the sport is growing at the grass roots level. The athletes consist of mostly soccer and football players; physically talented, but just lacked the hand-eye coordination that the boys benefit from from being up north. What was cool to see is how big time coaches from the North East are moving down south to give back to the sport and help coach from the youth all the way up to the college level.
Environment:
- Stepping off the plane the Florida air/heat hits your body and lungs fairly rapidly. After about 20 minutes your body starts to adapt to the environment and your sinuses clear up quickly due to the salt in the air.
- The heat! Don’t forget the sunscreen! Pale northern men will look like a red lobstaaaaa
- Make the investment and by a nice hat to cover the pale skin!
- The heat! Don’t forget the sunscreen! Pale northern men will look like a red lobstaaaaa
Fields/Facilities
- This was awesome to see! Because the sport is still very grass roots and new alot of teams still play on city fields. One of the fields, David Martin Soccer Field, is still owned/operated by the state of Florida (grass field picture below). The field sat right next to a city skate park and city playground; surrounding the field were small houses which overlooked the grass/sand covered field. Could you imagine growing up in one of the houses, jumping the city fence and playing some lacrosse? That all being said, some of the fields we’re well funded. Many of the professional soccer teams practice down in the Tampa area year round and fund the facilities accrodingly.
Schools
- Tampa Jesuit Highschool
- The HS was founded in 1899! Walking around the school you could see the history and religious ties right away. No hallways in this school, bring your rain jacket when walking from class to class! The turf field was gorgeous and reminded us of something from Friday nights lights. The views were spectacular and you couldn’t put a price on the sunset!
- University of Tampa
- Unreal barn/stadium down at UT; The Naimoli family made a large donation to the school to put UT on the map for west Florida. Vince Naimoli, an American Business man, is one of the first owners of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who donated the field! Can you imagine that? A baseball guy, donating a lacrosse field complex back to the school…unreal. Not only was the turf facilities state of the art, but the lacrosse lockerrooms were top notch. Every player had a sliding cubby to keep everyone’s gear neat, clean, and organized.
- From talking to some of the players the girls aren’t to shabby down there too #barstoolsmokes
- Unreal barn/stadium down at UT; The Naimoli family made a large donation to the school to put UT on the map for west Florida. Vince Naimoli, an American Business man, is one of the first owners of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays who donated the field! Can you imagine that? A baseball guy, donating a lacrosse field complex back to the school…unreal. Not only was the turf facilities state of the art, but the lacrosse lockerrooms were top notch. Every player had a sliding cubby to keep everyone’s gear neat, clean, and organized.
Did we forget something? Have a question or comment about our trip? Comment down below and we’ll get back to you shortly.
~Pop
