The NLL All-Star Series, set to hit HiSense Areana october 23-24 have got their website back online.  Check it out at www.nllallstarseries.com 

On Sunday 1st of March, the 8 Super League coaches met to finalise the 2009 Draft.
16 Players were chosen for each team.  Round 1 kicks off on March 14 at Burnside Lacrose Club (Miller Reserve), with Team FTM vs Team Velocity @ 2pm, and Hansen Yuncken vs Laxscene Lizards @ 4pm.

The Super League Opening Night will be held at the Hackney Hotel @ 6:30pm on Friday, March 13 to acknowledge sponsors, announce teams, present uniforms and to celebrate the start of Super League 2009.  RSVP on facebook if your coming along.

A massive mention goes out to Anthony Munro was has been spending every last minute to make the Super League happen this year, and has done everything he can to make sure its done right.  See you all at the Hackney on the 13th.

For Schedules and General Information on the Super League, click here.

Team Velocity	Laxscene Lizards
HC: Mark Mangan	HC: Peter Brown AC: Trevor Poland
1. Ryan Simpson (WT) 2. Will Pickett (Bri) 3. Taylor Falloon (Stu) 4. Ross Hamilton (Bri) 5. Nick Brown (ETP) 6. Anthony Munro (Bur) 7. Brett Langstreth (ETP) 8. Dylan Nangle (Gln) 9. Clinton Barker (NA) 10. Scott Connelly (Bur) 11. Costello Eddie (WT) 12. Oliver Lovatt (Uni) 13. Nigel Morton (Gln) 14. Luke Little (WT) 15. Jesse Whinnen (Wdv) 16. Nick Muxlow (Bur)	1. Tom Freeman (Bri) 2. Ryan Gaspari (NA) 3. Jarrad Pangrazio (Wdv)   4. Randall Pearce (ETP) 5. Jason McKinnon (Bri) 6. Ben Muxlow (Bur) 7. Brendan Twiggs (Bri) 8. Tom Vickery (ETP) 9. Shane Gilbert (Bri) 10. Ruebin Hooper (WT) 11. Scott Gill (ETP) 12. Tom Coker (Uni) 13. Glenn Steele (ETP) 14. James Harley (WT) 15. Stephan Guerin (Wdv)   16. Matt Brown (ETP)
Hansen Yuncken	Team FTM
HC: Tony Hill AC: Lynton Arscott	HC: Adam Hamilton AC: Lee Vickery
1. Peter Greenhalgh (Gln)   2. Craig Tucker (NA)   3. Trevor Poland (ETP) 4. Nigel Wapper (Stu)   5. Scott Vickery (ETP) 6. Brad Sheldon (NA) 7. Andy Stone (Stu)   8. Michael Smith (Wdv)  9. Nathan Bolton (Gln)   10. Sam Kilford (NA)   11. Jack woodford (Bri)   12. Thoran Pringle (ETP) 13. Lee Perham (Bri)   14. Kieren Sandow (Bur)   15. Scott Petersen (ETP) 16. Stephen Mortimer (Gln)	1. Paul Marshall (Bur) 2. Scott Dawson (Bur)  3. Chris Dindler (Bur) 4. Justin Casegrande (WT)  5. Chris de Mello (Stu)  6. Craig Schicker (Wdv) 7. Matt Falloon (Stu)  8. Joel Edwards (Wdv)  9. Matt Sinclair-Ross (Bur)  10. Simon Gill (ETP) 11. Jerome Kirkwood (Stu)  12. Tom Philp (Wdv)  13. Adam Young (Wdv)  14. Anson Carter (Bri)  15. Matt Smith (ETP) 16. Ryan Stone (Stu)

Every January U.S. Lacrosse, the chief administrative body of lacrosse in the United States, holds a conference to showcase lacrosse from every possible perspective. Coach development, player development, administration, tournament promotion, manufacturing, fundraising and officiating.  The 2009 conference achieved a record attendance, the largest to date, even in the shadow of the inauguration of a new President.

Australia has never been officially represented at this conference. This year a contingent of Australians, ex-pat and resident, attended the conference. In attendance  were Aaron Stubbs, Matt Schomberg, John Hiron, Allen Frederick, Shelly Maher, Sue Sofarnos, Ray Trevaskis, Rick Tillotson, Gordon Purdie, Kevin Sheehan and Mark Haddad. All were very impressed with the venue and what U.S. Lacrosse had to offer the world in promoting and educating present and future coaches and officials in lacrosse. 

One of the main reasons for the massive growth at the lacrosse conference and lacrosse in the US in general is the number of youth programs and school programs that have developed inside the last ten years. Most of the coaches and officials who were at the conference coach at the youth level and are directly responsible for creating some of the best lacrosse players in the world.  Some high school lacrosse programs are every bit as competitive as some college programs.

The convention also had the largest vendor exhibit to date. The new NCAA commissioned dimensions of ‘crosse’ size and specification were on display. Scores of vendors displayed their wares and new product ranges for 2009.  This year there were two fields for live field demonstrations of both men’s and women’s lacrosse. The US women’s team conducted a live on field demonstration

The Aussie contingent at the convention was impressed by the size and complexity of it. We quickly realised that the task ahead for Australian lacrosse to make up some ground on the US and indeed the rest of the world up is enormous but achievable.

We discussed the state of grass roots lacrosse in Australia and how to jump start it. One suggestion that everyone loved and said was very doable was to have our National Championships played at private high schools and colleges during an active school week. The idea is that essentially that we target several well resourced high schools to host WA, SA, VIC and President’s teams during the week of the National Championships.  Each team would have a host high school where they would be able to practice morning and afternoon breaks. And play a round robin game at lunch time or after school. These time frames would maximize the attendance availability of school kids and athletic instructors who would see lacrosse at its highest standard in Australia.  After a week of round robin and practice sessions thousands of kids would have been exposed to lacrosse, many for the first time. We would have a captive audience so to speak.

We thought the championship game would be held at one of the high schools offering free admittance to other schools and charge a small fee for non school attendees.  Or, at a venue that would give free admittance to all high school students and be able to hold a quality event.

The most appropriate time frame would be September or October for the Nationals so the high schools participating would have their best athletes able to attend a game or a beginner’s clinic.  Sue said many hockey players would love to play lacrosse but season’s conflict. On the boys side we agreed that the footballers wanting to play lacrosse couldn’t because of season conflict. Footballers play lacrosse in the US because there are no conflicting seasons.

We also thought that our Australian high school season would have to be in October, November, December, for the very reason to attract our best athlete’s boys and girls. There is so much we can take from the US that has already been proven to work; we talked about copying the American model on high school lacrosse. We agreed that it is working and it is producing quality athletes for the sport.

Grass roots lacrosse is suffering at the moment because of a multitude of factors. Something radical needs to occur and, in my opinion, targeting high schools outside of the seasons of the predominant sports in Australia is the way forward.

Mark Haddad played lacrosse in Victoria and also represented Australia. He lived in Baltimore for 17 years and in 2006 moved to Los Angeles to become the head coach of the Harvard-Westlake High School lacrosse program.