Lacrosse

I am taking a few days off. Not from the gym (hell no!) but from writing.

My son Cooper is playing in the California Junior Lacrosse Association State Championships this weekend.

We will take off on Friday afternoon and drive to Santa Rosa, just north of San Francisco. Most of the team arrives Friday night and will be going to see a movie that opens that day nationwide, called Crooked Arrows.  Keep in mind that many of these players live and breathe lacrosse; some have been playing since they were very young and some, like my son,  will continue on in college. I am trying to arrange some group tickets to see the movie now, so none of the boys will miss this opportunity, here is a short trailer (email subscribers will need to navigate to the blog to view this):

A bit of history that many are not aware of:

Lacrosse, a relatively popular team sport in the Americas, may have developed as early as AD 1100. By the seventeenth century it was well-established and had been documented by Jesuit priests, although the game has undergone many modifications since that time. 

In the traditional Native Canadian version, each team consisted of about 100 to 1,000 men on a field that stretched from about 500 meters to 3 kilometers long. These lacrosse games lasted from sunup to sundown for two to three days straight. These games were played as part of ceremonial ritual to give thanks to the master. Lacrosse played a significant role in the community and religious life of tribes across the continent for many years. Early lacrosse was characterized by deep spiritual involvement, befitting the spirit of combat in which it was undertaken. Those who took part did so in the role of warriors, with the goal of bringing glory and honor to themselves and their tribes. The game was said to be played "for the Creator" or was referred to as "The Creator's Game".

David and I will go to dinner at Willie’s Wine Bar instead; we can watch the movie at home later.

Willie’s is a great small restaurant, with a fantastic wine list and stunning food. We went there last summer when we drove up to purchase some grape vines. David has fresh sardines, he will always order these if they are on the menu, I won’t. Although they are good, they are basically skinny little oily fish to me! I always opt for the beef….

I have a very nice room for the weekend at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa. I know, a little pricey but we are making a vacation of it all and if I have to be there all weekend, I want a nice place to stay.

I already know where the Gold’s Gym is, I won’t miss a beat, believe me.  I will quietly crawl out of bed and train, Roy said to continue with GVT Squats, at 125 pounds. We de-loaded Wednesday, so I only did four sets instead of the usual ten, and when I had finished, I did several sets of walking lunges with a 65 pound e-z curl bar held in front like a front squat. Then I pushed the sled, but the weight was lower than usual. He asked if I could have finished all ten sets and I told him I didn't know. With my head "thinking" I only had three or four, that's what I did. It's all in my head. Weight training is a mind game, at least for me. He understood, and he said it looked like I could have done all ten, so he thought I could have.


If the boys wake up before I return from the gym they can wander down to the buffet and have their fill. I might be able to lounge by the pool, or spend some time in the spa, I suspect we may do some wine tasting too, after all, we are in wine country! After the game, we are free to roam, at least for a short while.

We have a big team dinner planned Saturday evening; you cannot imagine the energy and excitement that everyone is feeling right now. There are 37 players, each is coming with at least one family member, most with more. The group is large, over 100 of us. 

The top four boys Varsity teams in the state of California will be playing, we (the #1 Varsity team in Northern California) will play the #2 Varsity team from Southern California at 2:00 on Saturday, and, if we win, Sunday afternoon is the actual championship game against the winner of the other game from Saturday afternoon, (the #1 Varsity team from Southern California against the #2 Varsity team from Northern California). 


Otherwise it’s a consolation game on Sunday morning. Even if we do not win, the fact that our team has been undefeated and come this far is fantastic. But to go out your senior year, as the State Champions, would be something that not one of the nine senior “boys” would ever forget. Although they are referred to as “boys” they are mostly grown men now, here they are with their Nor Cal champs medals.

Wish us luck, you can be sure I will keep you posted as to the results. Or better yet, check back at the link here to find out the standings as the weekend progresses, they might just keep it updated!

Sports

Sports are very important for the development of the whole person. Team sports and individual sports, each has it's own pluses. People ask me all the time if I was athletic when I was growing up, and the answer really was no. I didn't do much at all...I danced quite a bit in high school, but although that is physical, it isn't really a sport. and looking back, I wish I had. 


There are many things that I wish I had done earlier in life, especially my passion of weight training, but I didn't so all I can do is go forward and enjoy every moment I have left!


This is the philosophy that I have held onto for most of my adult life, I only have this one life on earth, and I never know when it may end, so I don't plan to play anything "safe" or be "proper" or make sure I am "wearing clean underwear in case I get into an accident"...ha ha! What if I just happen to have NO underwear on and I get into an accident huh? LOL!


My mother gave me my zest for life, for enjoying every single experience, (some better than others), that I can.


Some things I still want to do are take a hot air balloon ride; go back to Italy for longer than a couple hours (yes, I took a train there from France once just for pizza and gelato); scuba dive in the Caribbean (I am a certified NAUI diver); oh my, I am off track...


The picture above was taken on Saturday, May 12. These are the seniors on my son's lacrosse team. My son, Cooper is the red head crouching down in front, with the blackened out mouth guard to look menacing. 


I am the team mom, and have been for two years. I make sure all the players and their families know where to be and when. I assign people to bring food and water, make sure we have scorekeepers, timers, equipment set up and tear down, and transportation home. I really don't need the extra work, I am busy enough, but it ensures I am involved in my son's passion.

Above you can see the entire team running to the goalie. If you notice the score on the board, it is 11 (home) to 10 (guest). We were the home team and had just won the game at the very last moment.


We are near the end of the season, this game determined if we would go to Treasure Island the following weekend to play for the #1 or #2 spot in Northern California, the NorCal champs.


The guest team scored 7 goals the first quarter, in fact we were down 5 goals when only 10 minutes were left in the game. We thought we lost, there was no way to recover.

The parents around me were holding their breath. Some very very sad. This looked like it would be the last game they ever watched their son's play, we would end the season right there that very day, in only ten minutes. I heard one mother saying she would never see her son play lacrosse again. Another said she would never see these guys together again, and was already planning to get them together in the summer, when they all came home from college. I had tears in my eyes, but it could have been my allergies.


My son is going off to college in the fall, and will be on the Chico team, but it will be different, I cannot go to every game, or even many of the games. Actually, I haven't gone to every game he has played at this level, my training and competitions got in the way many times, but David went. To all of them, he never missed one in 5 years.

Somehow, we won this game, scored 6 goals in under 10 minutes, it was unheard of. I got a headache from jumping up and down and screaming so much in the hot sun, parents lost their voices, the noise of the crowd was amazing. The entire team and all the family membres lingered on the field for a long, long time dumbfounded. It was a game that none of us will ever forget.


We go to Treasure Island Saturday, May 19. I have already planned my training to get my German Volume Training in, then zoom home to get to the game on time, I will not miss this one. Then in two weeks we play for the State Championships, against the best of the best from Southern California. I have our hotel reservations already, we will be there two nights and I will have to find a gym there, I can manage.


Below is a 30 second video of the winning gaol, scored by Cooper! The fast pace of the video showcases the excitement of the entire game.




I will miss organizing my guys, and how the parents depend on me for all the information, but there will be another team mom, who can take my place when my son moves on, on to college and me on to my own hobbies.

If you have kids, be sure you support their sports and encourage their physical passions, it creates a confident and healthy soul. Get them involved and pay attention! Show them how important it is. It will develop their self esteem, their physical being and also help them stay focused on more productive things in life and not get sidetracked the way they can at this age.


Wish us luck on Saturday! You can find us in the Gaelic bar between games....

Memorial day

What a handsome son I have huh? And oh so happy! Thats because he just got an injection of morphine in his rear end!

Memorial Day weekend, we had the annual Bay Area Super Series, a three day long lacrosse tournament. 40 teams playing, some from Canada and Los Angeles. I organized the varsity team last year and they won the gold! I organized another team this year too. 

It's a lot cheaper for the players if someone does the "organizing", I pay the one entrance fee, then each player pays me, divided equally by number of players. It came out to less than half of the cost per player!

We started with a huge team and it grew. Every few days I would get an email "Yo Mrs. Wilce- Can I be on your team?" cute huh?

Saturday was two field lacrosse games outdoors in Morgan Hill, David and I did a little wine tasting in between games. 

Sunday was three indoor games at the Silvercreek Sportplex, we won all five! Monday would be the championship playoffs.

The game started at 11:00, and at 11:10 I see Cooper running off the field, hand held high, something was wrong. David went to see, I stayed behind and when I saw their faces coming toward me I could tell. 

As Cooper came close I could see the bone of his right index finger protruding from the skin, and thick, red blood everywhere. There was no trainer, we got in the cars and drove to the hospital as fast as possible. David and Cooper arrived before me even though I was driving 90 miles an hour, and I saw the car by the ER entrance as I pulled in. He was already admitted and in a bed.

Cooper was laying there, his whole body shaking in pain, I started getting a bit angry at the staff- he needs pain medication. Only a mother will know what I went through watching this. The pain and frustration start to turn to a smoldering volcano that cannot and will not be contained. 

It took a half hour before they gave him morphine, they had to get a plastic surgeon who specializes in hands to see if there was nerve damage first.

The doctor was very funny, gave him numbing injections and told jokes, he also told us he had been in a refugee camp for three years when he was a child, so he graduated from high school late.

The bone had pushed the nail out of the skin at the top, it was still attached near the tip. He said it was not shattered, that was good. David was showing signs of becoming a second patient, so he suggested that he leave. I stayed and watched the procedure.

He cleaned it all up, and put everything back where it goes, it was starting to look somewhat normal. He explained he would stitch the nail onto the skin, it would protect the sensitive nail bed as it healed.

He started stitching and stitching. He says "Looks like Mom lifts a lot of weights!". 

Mom "yes I do"

Doc "Do you compete? Are you a bodybuilder?"

Mom "Yes I compete in Figure, not Bodybuilding"

We discuss the differences as he continues stitching, 25 or so stitches later, he has sewed dark thread all around the perimeter of the nail. Looks kind of like Frankenstein's hands must look.

Funny- no matter where I go people ask me about my muscles. And I never think I have enough muscles- even now I think I look kind of "puny", so you can see how easy it is to get a skewed self image when you are into this type of thing. It seems odd when I think about it, yet it is a normal re-occurring conversation in my day to day life. I guess I should be proud- not on a diet and not competing and yet people still comment about my physique. 

I left the room a few times to give David an update. Cooper then had an x-ray. I told him we could take his protective cup off, but he wouldn't have anyone helping him with it! 

A couple buddies form the team came in, they brought him his championship t-shirt, they won the gold again! (They brought a flower too.)

Cooper won't be able to use his hand for 6 weeks, his Canada tour playing lacrosse is now out of the picture. I have worked to find another family to buy our airline seats on the charter flight.

His tournament in July? Might be impossible, we need to wait and see.

Injuries are a part of sport, a part of life. If you stayed home and watched TV, you might never break anything, but you would probably be fat and end up with heart disease or diabetes.

I made him what he requested, spaghetti and meat balls. David got him apple pie and some sharp cheddar cheese to go on top.

Just before dinner the pain kicked in, I gave him 2 vicodin. He ate and asked how long until he could lift weights. His plan this summer was to get big, lift and get strong. It will be delayed a bit.

He texted his kickboxing coach, no more training for a couple months. I told Cooper I could take his spot in the private lessons, I can train and learn from Jerome while Cooper heals. I am not sure he likes the idea, I will have to wait and see.

I know how he feels, having the rug pulled out from under you, your dreams shattered, the disappointment overwhelming, the feeling of despair.  "It's not fair" you think, "why me?" rolls over and over in your head. You think you can heal faster than most others, you plan how quickly you will beat it.

The doctor said a new nail will grow over where the old one is, and it should take 4 to 6 months to come out halfway. If that doesn't happen, he will need to have a skin graft to protect the sensitive nail bed, but he thinks he should be fine.

I know it will be. But its gonna be a long month ahead of us.

Football and Kids

 

I LOVE this picture! Why? It is 6 teenage guys sleeping on the ground, they look like puppies don't they? You can only count how many there are after I told you!  

These are not football players, they are lacrosse players, but the picture is the closest I have to football! These guys were attending a weekend jamboree, and were just plain exhausted and tried to sleep in between games (I headed to to the one and only pub open on Treasure Island).

I read the sports page everyday, and today I read an article about the health issues former NFL football players are encountering. No, it's not new, but it is so absolutely sad.

The article I read is called "The impact of hard knocks" by Ron Kroichick, and it was in the San Francisco  Chronicle (I get two newspapers at home, San Jose and San Francisco).

It hits home because I have  a 16 year old (17 next month) and he plays lacrosse. Lacrosse isn't the contact sport like football though.

He has never been allowed to play football, it was never open for discussion in our home, it was a non-negotiable from day one.

We live across the street from his high school. At every single football game, without fail a player is injured and needs to be transported via ambulance. Why would a parent allow their child to be placed in a position such as that?

Think about it. You love your child more than anything or anyone in the world, yet you are allowing them to participate in a sport that is known for head injuries and lack of enforcement and knowledge to prevent and treat them properly.

Here are the players in their glory afterward (more than 6)

Mine is front, center with white t-shirt and mouth guard that has blackened front teeth...

I would never send him out on a football field to play the game. What will you do with your child? I suggest you get them involved in another sport, anything except football, before it's too late.

Cooper

 

Meet my son, Cooper. He certainly isn't a little boy any longer! We are having fun together on the beach in Mexico just last week.

Cooper is very active, he plays lacrosse year round and also kick boxes.   I encourage him to be active and engaged in sports, I believe it not only keeps youth out of trouble, but develops a well rounded and healthy individual.

Several weeks ago I started to train in an "undulating periodiaztion" format, where I may lift heavy weights, low reps, long rest periods one day, and the next time working the same muscles, I will switch to lower weights, higher reps, shorter rest periods. I have really enjoyed this and I saw results quickly, so I wanted to read more about it.

On the plane ride over I started reading "The Poliquin Principles" by Charles Poliquin, he is credited with introducing this style of training to the world. Hailed as one of the world's premier strength coaches, Coach Poliquin has successfully trained professional athletes and Olympians worldwide.

I loved the book, I am already set to incorporate additional ideas into my training. But the real treat?

Because I was so charged up about this book and the principles, and because Cooper has seen my fast results, he has agreed to let me write up a few weight training programs for him, and wants me to train him at the gym as soon as his spring lacrosse season has ended!

A 16 year old male allowing his mother to train him? Pretty unusual, and pretty darn exciting!

We are going for as much solid mass as we can pack on! I am already doing that myself, in fact, with the training methods Coach Poliquin describes, my shoulders and back have grown to be massive! At least that's what SC said when I sent him a picture last week.

You know what's even more fun about training a 16 year old?   They have so much testosterone surging through their bodies and the need for so many calories,  they can eat stuff like this:

This is a plate of Venezuelan Hot Dogs. Steamed regular white buns, Caspars hot dogs (the best), topped with finely chopped red onion, cabbage, and crushed potato chips. Then a small amount of mayo, ketchup and mustard squeezed along inside.

Have I even had one? You bet! About four years ago...once and it was GREAT! David made this plate up for Cooper and his two buddies who spent the night last night, they devoured them.

Adults forget that our young males need a lot of calories right now, to add muscle mass they need to eat and they need to eat all the time!


Back to serious stuff though. Sunday when i got back into the gym, I incorporated some additional training aspects, I am jazzed, so excited at what the future holds!

Which Wolf are you Feeding?

 

How do we keep our young people on track? How do we keep them off drugs and out of trouble? 

I think sports are an incredibly valuable tool, not only to keep them physically fit, but team sports build a lot of camaraderie and support groups and teach  self esteem.

This is my son (front, center red head with the mouth guard that makes it appear as though his front teeth are missing) and his lacrosse team this summer. He was invited to join this team, he only knew one player but after the weekend, he had made several great friends. We had spent the weekend at Treasure Island, I have not seen such a large outdoor lacrosse tournament ever!

My son pays lacrosse year round, and lives for the sport. We find ourselves shuttling all over the state, writing checks for equipment and tournaments all the time. He went to Canada this summer and he and David are heading to Huntington Beach on the Labor Day weekend for yet another tournament.

We spend a lot of time in the lacrosse world, but that's OK. 


I am very happy my son has found a passion, something he is willing to work hard for. A day doesn't go by that he is not out in the backyard shooting at the net, or out with friends playing lacrosse. You see, if we were not so supportive, he might be doing other things. He might be laying around watching TV all afternoon; he may be cruising around in cars, bored and finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time; he may be disenchanted with life in general, and have nothing to work for at all. 


I have heard from some parents that they cannot believe how much time and effort we put into this lacrosse business, but I can, because I can think of all the time and effort I might have to put into other, less pleasant things he could be involved in.


I think lacrosse is teaching him the difference between right and wrong, how you can succeed if you put your heart and soul into something, how you need to stay focused and set your sights high. 


He is planning on going to a Division III lacrosse school, he says they don't have football, so they really support their lacrosse players. He has it all figured out, he is focused.

There is an old Indian folktale about how a Chief of a small village was giving a talk to all the adolescent boys.  The Chief said, "Every one of us has two wolves in our lives.  One wolf lives on your left shoulder and this is the black wolf.  The black wolf is constantly telling us to procrastinate, put off the hard work until later and go out and have fun now.  The wolf that lives on our right shoulder is the white wolf.  This is the one that is always telling us to work tirelessly towards our goals.  The white wolf tells us to make time for visualizing and goal mapping.  The white wolf is the one that keeps us up late at night and wakes us up even earlier when all others are sleeping.  Others call the people that listen to the white wolf crazy, obsessed and fanatical.  The strange thing is that people call the people that listen to the black wolf normal." Some of the boys asked which one wins out, which one will we ultimately listen to?  The Chief replied, "The one that we feed the most."

Which wolf are you feeding?