Sideline Chatter: January 2010 Responses

Lax is _____. (fill in the blank)

We're keeping it simple this month. No gimmicks, no boundaries and no strings attached. What does lacrosse mean to you?

THIS MONTH'S WINNER

Patrick Mack
Circle Pines, Minn.

To me, lax is the way I express who I am. It’s something I’ve found that can relax me when the day has been rough, or hype me up when the day has been slow. The best things in my life have come from lacrosse. With lacrosse I always have something to look forward to. It’s one of the best reasons in my opinion to be alive. Some people might think I’m too into lacrosse, but isn’t that what you do when you love something? When I meet new people, I always introduce myself as a lacrosse player. It literally defines who I am, and it feels good to have that definition. Lacrosse has been a big part of my life ever since I started playing it. I just couldn’t imagine how life would be, or who I would be, without it. Lacrosse has always been there for me and I’ll always be there for it. Really, to me, lax is life.

Patrick will receive Grant Gloves, which features ClimaCool technology that provides ventilation and wicks moisture away, from adidas.

Ilyssa Meyer
Marlboro, N.J.
Lacrosse is my everything. It’s my game, my team, my sport, my drive. It’s that thunder, that pulse, that undeniable feeling of will and want. It’s that never-fleeting force behind my motivation, aspiration and stimulation. That’s lacrosse at its best. And I wouldn’t like it served any other way.

Dan Bernstein
Germantown, Tenn.
The thing that keeps me sane when everything else is chaos.

Brian Ayers
Austin, Texas
Lacrosse is stupendous. It’s utterly surprising every time you watch, every time you watch yourself throw the ball, motion for motion. It’s an outlet that helps restless kids get out their energy in the best way possible: the flow. If anything, lacrosse is saving our country, since its rapid growth is creating jobs within itself. Lacrosse is the future.

Jake Merrill
Mapleton, Utah
Way too awesome to sum up on one word.

Brandon Delauney
Clarksville, Md.
Lax is a getaway from all the bad things in life.

Jenny Wirth
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Life. I and any true lax player would die without it in their life.

Jesse Lax
Pennington, N.J.
Is this a serious question? The best thing since the wheel of course.

Jesse Knott III
Worcester, Mass.
Lax is the opportunity to develop men to be agents of change, bringing leadership, intelligence, strength and thoughtfulness to our communities, nation and the world.

John Troyer
Knoxville, Tenn.
As the “Creator’s Game,” lacrosse is the best game in the natural world — as life was designed.

Kaitlyn Scales
Apex, N.C.
Amazing! End of story.

Brian Feeney
Elmhurst, Ill.
Why you take every breath.

Adam Eddinger
Bally, Pa.
Revolutionary

Alex Gorman
Burke, Va.
Love. Life. Therapy. Your alone time. Family!

Alex Sabo
Homewood, Ill.
Lax is true. Then you can fill it in with things like strength, teamwork, sport, agony, victory, determination, etc. I think it’s a very good ad idea, and you could match these phrases with pictures/clips of such values and things taking place: like an OT goal for victory, players celebrating a goal for teamwork, etc. Just think about it, it works.

Andrew Skundrich
Irwin, Pa.
The Creator’s game, the quickest, most physical combination of all sports.

Andrew Hopkins
Coon Rapids, Minn.
Polo on steroids.

Auggie Buerkle
Austin, Texas
Beast. Is there any more to it?

Ben Doster
Brentwood, Tenn.
Lax is indescribable. You can’t put the words together to describe the greatest sport in the world that we all know and love so well. The Indians loved lax so much, they used it a game to prepare for war, because they believed it toughened you up. Lax is undoubtedly, unquestionably, undeniably the greatest sport that was ever created by God.

Samuel Riggs
Evansville, Ind.
More than men with sticks in their hands.

Spencer Lee
Alpine, Utah
Completely chill.

Bryce Mullins
Jacksonville, Fla.
A fast-paced, incredible, Olympic-worthy sport.

Chase Mantini
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Not just a sport, it’s a way of life.

Conor Breeden
Worcester, Mass
God’s gift to man and woman alike.

Randy Polito
Orlando, Fla.
Everything that soccer isn’t.

Fred Plaisted
Richmond, Va.
Pure pain.

Jack Foersterling
Barrington, Ill.
A way to get away from everyday life.

Karl Shiffler
Kirtland, Ohio
Always on my mind. It’s my addiction.

Kyla Lambert
Golden, Colo.
Exorbitant reverie.

Liz Eiseman
Newtown, Conn.
Life. Everyone should have the opportunity to play at least once in their life. If not, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Max Keeley
Eureka, Mo.
Lax is hangin’ with your buds after school in the park playin’ pickup. It’s doing everything and making it look like nothing. Lax is picking up your stick, a ball, and just letting your creativity loose.

Mitchell Dooley
Wilmington, Ohio
Lax is the bomb. It’s more than a sport, it’s a passion. This game builds character, determination and warriors. Worthy of a lifetime of devotion, lacrosse can define a person. What do you do? I play lacrosse.

Philip Goldslager
New Albany, Ohio
Lax is America’s first sport.

Adam Edington
Des Moines, Iowa
My purpose, my rebirth, and my soul; picking up lax at 30 was the best decision of my life.

Aidan Comins
Cornwall, Ont.
Lax is one of the greatest sports on two feet and that's the bottom line.

Andrew Hopkins
Coon Rapids, Minn.
Lax is a feeling like no other. There's no better feeling than to make a quick-stick right past the goalie's head into a corner as a d-pole. The feeling when you hear the little "oomph" when you drive your stick into the guys chest with a poke check. The feeling when you make that first-ever succesfull wrap check and prove to the coach that you are worth something. The same feeling that keeps the lacrosse stick in your hands, while watching lacrosse on ESPN, while checking scores online. The feeling of playing lax in the backyard with a buddy when you accidently hit him in the face on a ding-dong check, and he says, "It's alright; it just hurts really bad," with a smile on his face, while he plots to get back at you by checking down on your thumb. Yeah, thats a good feeling.

Ashley Taylor
Wallingford, Conn.
Lax is being fearless. Going into the game to give it your all and playing for the love of it.

Brett Hodgins
St. Louis, Mo.
Lax is peace. It gives me a chance to focus on one thing alone, not trying to pick out every detail of every moment of every day. I would say lax is life but I'd be lying. Lax can be my life when I'm in the MLL.

Bryce Mullins
Jacksonville, Fla.
The most amazing, best, impressive sport on the planet! Crazy awesome.

Ciara McKeon
Westhampton, N.Y.
How you get the hotties, the secrets in the pinnies and half calfs all day.

Colin Siracus
Millborn, N.J.
The only spring sport.

Connor Gibbs
Sterling, Va.
Lax is Beast.

Cory Myer
Lancaster, Pa.
The best sport in the world. It's such a perfect mix between different sports. It has the roughness of football, the movement of basketball, and just a small mix of pretty much every sport. If any kid can't decide between sports, pick lax.

David Johnson
Daphne, Ala.
Lacrosse is still pure even after all these years. Unlike most every other sport in the world, lacrosse players don't negotiate multi-million dollar contracts, you don't read about them using performance enhancing drugs everytime you open the paper, and the Native American origins of the sport have not been forgotten.

Dayton Rosenberg
Houston, Texas
Lax is proof of God.

Devin Sides
Gainseville, Fla.
Raw.

Elson Lopez
Hialeah Gardens, Fla.
Life!

Emily Harrigan
West Hartford, Conn.
Lax is everything. Lax is pain, lax is love, lax is sacrifice, lax is reward, lax is faceoffs, lax is goals, lax is defending your cage, lax is defending your title, lax is earning, lax is sprinting, lax is shooting, lax is scoring, lax is fearlessness, lax is teamwork, lax is intensity. Lax is what you make it.

Gered Lockwood
Milford, Ohio
Lax is the best sport there is. It's a lifestyle. Lacrosse let's it's players get good at things that others would find impossible. (Give a baseball player a stick. It's hopeless.)

Graham Voss
Portland, Ore.
Lacrosse is the sport that men play during the boys baseball season.

Ian Carmichael
Cleveland, Ohio
Like breathing, natural and necessary.

Jack Doyle
Camarillo, Calif.
Lax is high scoring, fast-paced and intense. With lacrosse, I always have something new to learn and something hard to work on. When I first started playing, my brother teased me that the only reason I liked lacrossse was to get new equipment. He was sort of right. I loved looking at new heads, new strings, and new gloves. But now, it's all about the game. Don't get me wrong, I still love the stuff, but I love playing the game even more.

Jack Mariani
Cincinnati, Ohio
The greatest game on the planet. Period.

Jenny Wirth
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Life. That's my motto. Although, I haven't been around lacrosse long compared to some it has become a way of life for me. I (like all true laxers) eat, breathe, sleep, bleed, love, and live lacrosse. And I couldn't live without it!

John Francis
Philadelphia
Life. I just started playing at the end of the summer and I can't stop talking about it to all of my friends who play in school. I'm playing for my school this year and i'm so pumped for it! Can't wait until spring season... just 3 more months!

Jonathan Sigler
Covington, La.
Best sport in the world!

Jonathan Carr
Edgewater, Md.
Unifying. Because all across the world people are picking up a lacrosse stick and becoming a part of the lacrosse community. At the same time those same people are being "unified" with other parts of the world that the have never had contact with. An example could be the ambassador (in a previous article) playing lacrosse in IRAQ and making friends.

Jordan Gross
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
A way of life.

Justin Hodges
St. Louis, Mo.
A lifestyle. Many lax players think that when you play lax, your instantly a bro. Unfortunately for them, that's not how it works. If you play lacrosse, you're a lax player. But once you make lax your lifestyle, then you become initiated into being a lax bro. All too often I see lax players who think they have achieved broness, when they clearly haven't. As a result, you must grow into being a bro. You simply aren't one. Lax is Life. Life is Lax.

Kayla Myers
San Diego, Calif.
A way of life. I live for that stuff!

Lexus Renner
Auburn Townsihp, Ohio
My life, my love, my game.

Matt Read
Aliso Viejo, Calif.
Lacrosse is a fast-paced sport always filled with action. No matter if you’re losing or winning, you will always have a blast! Lacrosse is also the fastest-growing sport over the last six years at the NCAA level. Lax is amazing.

Matt LaCroix
Westfield, Mass.
Lax is undescribable. There's no way to express the feeling as you step onto the field for a big game, pound fists and look into your opponent's eye knowing, "I got this." There is no way to explain the feeling of greatness as you level a player in the open field, juke someone so bad they drop, or snipe that game-winning goal. If you don't play lacrosse it's impossible to understand our love of the game. Lax is fun. Lax is exciting. Lax is life. Enough said.

Max Hovey
Waukegan, Ill.
The center of my universe. My thoughts, diet, conditioning, friends, girls and life revolve around a game that is hardly known here in Illinois. Most importantly it's a way to escape. My team is THE lacrosse team. We play together, train together and walk the halls together. Nobody knows what we do, but they know how we roll.

Max Hoffman
East Meadow, N.Y.
A game invented by the Native Americans in which the objective is to get a small ruber ball into a 6 x 6 goal. Losing is not an option!!

Megan Mikolajek
Hamburg, N.Y.
Control.

Mike Mullaney
East Greenwich, R.I.
Lax is a way for me to compete with my brothers and friends. It helps me to understand teamwork and helps to build stamina. It is a sport that I always enjoy. It is fast and something I can take and utilize in my everyday life.

Nick Plaisted
Spartansburg, S.C.
Life!

Olivia DiCarlantonio
Wellington, Fla.
God's gift to the world.

Preston Hill
Newbury Park, Calif.
Awesome, sexy, amazing, cool, tight, beastly, fabulous, astounding, wonderful.

Raisa Ebner
Portland, Ore.
Meeting up with your friends in a downpour just to throw a ball around.

Rhylan Rivera
Dallas, Texas
Not something to be taken lightly.

Rob Stukenborg
Memphis, Tenn.
Totally sick nasty!

Ryan O'Neill
Salem, N.H.
The one sport that combines everything that I like about playing organized sports. I play baseball, football, hockey and lacrosse, and lacrosse is by far the most enjoyable to play. The game involves one-on-one play, team play, hitting, defense, shooting and speed. Long live lax!!!

Spencer Lee
Alpine, Utah
Like the sun in my life. (Prize for cheesiness?)

Stephen Stimmler
Short Hills, N.J.
Life.

Web Burrier
Glen Rock, Pa.
Amazing!!!! Without lacrosse, baseball would be the dominant spring sport, and nobody wants to see that happen.

Zach Chew
Dayton, Ohio
A sport that mixes all of the sports I like and makes the ultimate sport. I especially like the part when you get to hit people.

VIA FACEBOOK

Jack Thacher
The most amazing, awesome, super-fantastic, crazy, mind-blowing, challenging easy fun sport in the world.

Lizzy Jones
Why I’ll fail two tests tomorrow.

Nick Burnap
Best invention since sliced bread.

Tyler Kemp
Is what men do when boys’ baseball season starts.

Connor Trout
> other sports.

Rob Carpenter
Only one correct answer to this… Sick!!!

Logan McGee
The true pastime of America.

Mike Meehan
Legit.

Bryson Tibbitts
An epic win.

Noah Atkinson
The best sport in the world

Adam Eddinger
A revolution for the revolutionary.

Brad Bochesa
The catalyst of humanity.

Kristie Atkinson
Life-changing!

Jack Elliott
Awesomeness.

Jackson Ross
Legitment.

Mike Spain
Legitimately epic.

Zach Arlia
Simply the best.

Reid Stamps
Like a boss.

Chris West
Buff.

John Harden
The fastest sport on two feet.

Ty Mackey
The sh*t. Hands down, no questions asked.

Tim Kigongo
Me!

Mike Keegan
Life

Matthew Mottern
The best sport ever to be played by man!

Adam Browning
Life.

Connor Bishop
The best sport in the world.

Andrew Heidenthal
Lacrosse Magazine.

Kyle Robert
America’s first sport.

Jakob Hoogerhyde
Totally amazing!

Alan Bacani Miranda
Usually an eight-letter word signifying a brilliant sport ever evolving.

Andrew Wetzel
The best, fast-growing sport there is, of course!

Kyle Oberholtzer
The best. Period.

Aidan Walsh
Way better than baseball.

Matt Lalli
Eventful and filled with happiness.

Goody Caleb
One of the reasons I’ve gone to the emergency room!

Jake Marrapese
Why I’m broke!

Sean Burris
The fastest, most tough sport in the world… and it’s better than baseball.

Brian R. Jones
Life! Through the fastest and slowest times, it’s always there for you!

Dylan Curth
Amazingly awesome.

Joe Murphy
Beast.

Nick Garofano
Xal backwards.

Grayson Huber
What I live for.

Morgan Goddard
The awesomest sport in the history of the universe!

Walter Jones
Lax? Lax is purely, easily the best sport in history. I mean, is there any other sport that can even come close to it? It is the fastest game on two feet. It is a game that allowed normal people like us to be living extreme. Lax is the bomb. Lax can change your life just with one game, and you WILL get hooked. Lax. It just doesn’t have enough words to describe it.

Spencer Madden
An airport in Calif, haha.

Nori Rinaldo
Life.

Craig Modern
A family.

Mikey McGraw
So bomb.

Grant Pierce.
Clutch

Alec Balzer
The best sport ever.

Sarah Bromberger
God.

Mitche Bearden
Sick!

Nick Cornell
A chick magnet.

Quinn O’Grady
Life.

Mitchell Abel
Amazing

Matt Walton
Very affluent.

Justin Kestler
Only for people with flow.

Stephen M. Lynch
Why I breathe.

Trexler Hirn
What I live for.

Gaby Anselmo
Better than baseball in every way.

Michael McCue
Life.

Richard Dale Doback Baumrind
Lax>Baseball. Lax=hockey.

Emily Alpaugh
Why I didn’t finish my homework.

Travis Bond
The only reason to go to school.

Derek Helmick
Life.

Dan Marut
Life.

Austin G.
Lax is respect.