Crooked Arrows

Lacrosse has arrived!! - On the big screen that is. A Big Screen Lacrosse Movie starts officially in Canada and the U.S.A. in theatres on this Friday, June 1st. I for one am stoked.....really excited for it to come out.

 Lacrosse has been in my blood forever. It is my game. Every good thing I have in my life today, somehow leads back to lacrosse. Anybody reading this that plays the game knows exactly what I mean. It somehow gets into you....and stays forever!!

Non-lacrosse people don't get it. (well some do) - but a lot do not. I have made efforts to explain it to my non lacrosse acquaintances.....but alas, I have had trouble getting them to understand.


Well now I have another shot at it. For those of you that have not seen the trailer....check it out now!

Should be a lot of fun.....but here is my challenge for all you lacrosse people out there. I want you to convince 5 people that know nothing of lacrosse to go and see this movie. I really think this will continue to help raise the bar on lacrosse awareness. It is easy. It is Hollywood baby, so you know it will be a good movie....so bring some non believers...and lets get them "into our game"

Let me know your thoughts on the movie.....I would love to hear.

Lacrosse/Golf (lessons to be learned)

I had a great weekend - thanks for asking.....finished up in Scarborough on Sunday to watch some Women's Field Lacrosse.....great competition.....the highlight of the day.......we watched the Owen Sound Senior Girls lose to the Mississauga Trilliums 6 - 2...a tough game.....but the cool thing???? On the next field the U-15 Owen Sound Girls just defeated the Kawartha Girls.....both games ended roughly the same time.....the Owen Sound Senior girls after shaking hands in defeat, rushed over to high five the U15 girls in victory.....it was a fantastic "feel good" story....and one of the many things that makes this great game great. Hats off to Owen Sound Senior (and U15) girls. Classy bunch.

Ollie Golf
Now as for my Saturday. I have decided to step up my golf game. Never in all my (many) years have I ever bought a new set of golf clubs.....always hand me downs, and I always appreciated that. However, I decided to change that. I made a visit to my good friend Ollie Cavers who owns and operates a Discount Golf store called Ollie Golf. He has great deals on everything to do with golf, and on this day, assessed me, my game and my clubs....and at the end of the day, made me a new set of clubs. Custom made for Mike........think about it Nike.....sounds like Mike....could be on to something.

Ollie is very knowledgeable in not only how to make you your own custom set of clubs, but he really knows the game of golf itself, and can give you a lot of great tips on your game. I learned so much this day. It is so important to have a set of clubs that fit you....your strength, height, swing speed etc, is all so important.

With a few tests using his state of the art equipment, he can figure out the proper clubs to suit your game.....and at a very reasonable price.

After figuring out my correct club size and flex of the shaft, Ollie bent my clubs to fit ME, and me alone......and we put tape on the head of the club to see where I hit it on 5 consecutive shots.

I can hardly wait to pick up my new clubs and give them a try. I did video the whole experience and will give you a link to that when we have it ready to go. It is really interesting stuff.

To my friends and opponents in the upcoming OJ Detective agency Green Jacket Invitational Golf Tournament.....Beware. I am back!

Thanks Ollie for a great "lesson".

Ollie Golf is located at 465 Bayly St. W. (corner of Westney Rd off the 401) Ajax Ontario L1S 6M7 (905) 683-0087. Give Ollie a call, and tell him Mike from Passitonsports.ca sent you.

See you on the fairways.

DOVE Lacrosse

  The DOVE annual marathon lacrosse event is just weeks away - check out some of the great prizes available at the raffle....and please, if you are able, go to their website and make a donation to a great cause.

DOVE 2012 - Determined to Oppose Violence Everywhere!
Marathon Charity Lacrosse Game, Post-game BBQ & Raffle
http://www.laxdove.ca/
It is a sad but interesting fact that few Canadians know that our first national sport originated from an
aboriginal game played hundreds of years before Canada became a nation. Aurora Masters Lacrosse
is one of many groups promoting this sport and its virtues, with the added focus of reaching out to those
most in need in our community. A little over five years ago, we decided to capture the community’s
attention by promoting violence awareness and prevention through the paradox of the game of lacrosse.
As a result, we formed a campaign called DOVE, which stands for Determined to Oppose Violence
Everywhere. DOVE 2012 is our fifth full scale campaign which hopes to exceed both last year’s
amount of funds generated and awareness raised (spreading the message) for both the Canadian Centre
for Abuse Awareness (http://www.abusehurts.com/) and the Spirit of the Stick (http://www.spiritofthestick.com/)
organizations. Both non-profit community organizations attempt to rebuild, empower, and protect
individuals and their communities from the ravages of abuse, neglect, and violence. DOVE 2012 is our
commitment to ensure that these organizations will continue to work until there is no further need for
their services
The post-game activities on Saturday June 9 include a BBQ and raffle with the growing of items:
• Pair of 2013 Season Tickets for the Toronto Rock ($490)
• Free Weekend at a Cottage on Red Cedar Lake ($450)
• 32" LCD Samsung Television ($450)
• Pair of Greens Fees for Jordan Moxam Charity Golf Tournament ($325)
• Pair of Greens Fees for Jordan Moxam Charity Golf Tournament ($325)
• Ancient Lacrosse Stick & "Lacrosse the Ancient Game" Book ($260)
• Handmade Powless Wooden Lacrosse Stick ($230)
• Adidas Excel Lacrosse Stick, Pair of Warrior Hypno Gloves & Ontario Masters Shorts ($150)
The draw will be held midday Saturday June 9 during BBQ.

Good Luck to everybody!

Saturday Night Playoffs (and Mom's Day)

Sports on a Saturday night is like Mom's roast beef dinner on a Sunday night with apple pie and ice cream.

Just feels right!

And this Saturday is a good one.

NHL

Game 7 - Washington Capitals go into the Big Apple to take on the powerful New York Rangers. Nobody expected this to go to seven games, and the Rangers are definitely on their heels....as Washington was 7 seconds away from already winning this series. I find I am quite interested in this game, as the whole Alex Ovechkin story is a compelling one. Here is a superstar, who has not had a great season, has had his minutes/game cut back, but I feel he is somewhat buying into the"team" concept, and I for one, am loving it. If Washington wins this game, I personally shall tip my hat to Coach Dale Hunter....even if they lose, he has done a great job.

                  Coach Hunter - Big Game 7

NBA

Game 7 - Denver Nuggets vs Los Angeles Lakers (in Los Angeles)

A big game for LA. They lose, and I think the rebuild is officially on. Nobody gave the Nuggets much of a chance, but they have been tenacious, fighting back, and look really strong going into Saturdays game. I am not sure how many Laker fans are out there, but I am cheering for Denver for 2 reasons. 1/ I don't like the Lakers (shallow, but true) 2/ My sister and the rest of the Ross family live in Denver and are big fans (say no more) Go Nuggets!

Denver Nuggets - Big Game 7

NLL

And then there were four.

Saturday is Lacrosse Night.

All year the NLL has been the "poster child" for parity. The two best teams, Colorado and Calgary are gone. It is really anybody's game. Anyone can win.

In the west the Edmonton Rush are playing the Minnesota Swarm in one semi-final.....(i am cheering for the Rush for sure, love their tenacity) - but they are in tough against a talented Swarm team.

The big game in my area of course, is last years defending champs The Toronto Rock hosting the Knighthawks from Rochester. This is a long standing rivalry, and promises to be another tough battle down at the ACC in Toronto. I think the Toronto Rock will be really tough to beat, they have been here before, play tough under adversity, should be exciting.

Enjoy your Saturday everybody!!

As for Sunday.

Happy Mothers Day - This is a great chance to treat your Mom. Remember all the times she drove you to your games, your practices....and everything else? Be grateful and treat your Mom to something special.

As for my Mom, she is doing wonderfully.....Happy Mother's Day Mom - I love you!!

Midland Masters Lacrosse Tourney

I was in Midland this weekend, playing in the first Ontario Masters Lacrosse tournament of 2012.

Thanks to Bud Azzopardi and his crew from the Durham Seniors Masters Team who did a phenomenal job of hosting this years event. I thought it was a great tournament, well organized and a great time had by all.

For all scores and results go to ontariomasterslacrosse.com

The Lacrosse

I did not watch all the games, but some of the games I did see, the goaltending was really, really good. The Brampton Senior Team were almost impossible to score on, and they won the A Championship because of it. It is not only goaltending though, as they are very tough defensively, and if teams want to beat them, they will have to figure this out.

The Senior team from Six Nations impressed everybody again with their great stick skills and scored some fantastic goals. They went 4 and 0 for the weekend and won the "B" Championship. However they never played Brampton....so that is a bone of contention for some (for me anyway). In my eyes anyway, it should have been Six Nations vs Brampton in the "A" Final,  both 3 and 0, both played awesome, but alas, it was not to be. It would have been fun to watch too. Classic offense vs. defence.

Politics

As always, there was a lot of "discussion" this weekend about our Masters game. There is no shortage of opinion as to how things should operate, most of it behind the scenes, most of it is the same old news.

The referees are always a topic of conversation. I, for one, have reffed Masters. I don't like it. It is incredibly difficult. When I was doing it I found that by the time I figured out an infraction had happened, 6 or 7 seconds had gone by. Maybe that is me though, my reaction time might be a bit slower. My point is though, it is a hard job. If you are a complainer, and there is a lot of you, try it for a bit. The bottom line is, the Refs are all nice guys, and I think do a good job. They do make mistakes. So do we all.

B#%ch Session

I do have some thoughts though, no surprise....and here they are.

• for the teams that have not paid for their tourneys.....pay. It is only fair.
• for the guys that yell and scream at the refs over every single call....5 seconds, crease ball, faceoff, stick check....etc. etc. please stop, you sound ridiculous.
• for the guys that offer up cheap shots , pushing, shoving, grabbing, stick checking, (i even saw a spear in one game) - find another league to play in. We are playing Non Contact - Figure it out, or move on.
• for the refs...if there is a stick check and you see it - make the call. 2 mins. If there is a push and you see it. 2 min. Make the call. We don't need to change a thing. Enforce the rules as written.

I have said this before, and some of you are tired of it. We are playing Masters lacrosse. it is about playing the game that we love with friends and against friends. Respect yourself, your competitors, the officials and the families and young kids that attend the games.

Masters lacrosse is about family.

You can be competitive and respectful in the same game. It is possible.


My Team

Oakville Senior Masters. Really proud of the group we had. Our team has had a reputation of being (how shall i say) - a little bit on the complaining (whining) end over the years. We are trying to change this. This weekend we played short handed huge. It was tough, but we had great chemistry.

Goaltending was awesome. Carl Krebss (in his retirement tour year) played a spectacular game on Saturday night against the Nation. Our team was in tough....but in the third we were still in the game trailing 7 - 6...but the depth of Six Nations won out in the end. Carl faced a million shots, and a lot of them, take from me were hard shots. Well done Carl. Tippy  (Steve McMillan) played great and led us to the "C" Championship of the World, beating the Boys from the Beach 9-8 on Sunday. Our record for the weekend was 3 wins and 1 loss. Special thanks to a great bunch, Cort Sanderson (played great), Hozack was a force, the defensive specialist Campbell, faceoff man McMillan, speedster Kennedy, the ever impressive gutsy performances of Styx Walker and Simpson....sharpshooting Dimarco. A great effort boys.

See you all in Fergus!!