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Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills Normans, California Interscholastic Federation, CIF Southern Section, Girls Lacrosse, High School Lacrosse, High School Sports, Lacrosse, Samohi, Samohi Vikings, Santa Monica, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica Vikings
The 2018 Santa Monica High School Girls Varsity Lacrosse team, this photo taken after their last game of the 2018 season at Beverly Hills High School on April 27th.
SPENDING AN AFTERNOON WATCHING HIGH SCHOOL LACROSSE, FEATURING MY ALMA MATER IN A RIVALRY GAME
A few weeks ago I received a message on Facebook from someone who I went to high school with.
We were in the marching band together, and I had run into her at a mutual friend’s birthday party a few months before.
She informed me that her daughter was on our alma mater’s – Santa Monica High School – lacrosse team, and that I ought to come check out one of her games and write about it on this blog.
As there was nothing on lacrosse, and as a prominent mission of this site is to do stories on various sports and sporting events that are not covered in the larger sites like MSN, Yahoo, and Bleacher Report, I thought seeing a high school lacrosse game was a great idea!
Especially since…
- I had never seen a lacrosse game before, and…
- I had yet to do a high school sports article this spring, having done football and girls volleyball this previous fall.
So this past Friday afternoon I went to Beverly Hills High School – the real one, not the fictional one depicted on “Beverly Hills, 90210”; no Brandon, Brenda, Dylan or Kelly here, folks – to watch a battle between the high school that gave me my diploma in 1985, Samohi’s Vikings (the first two letters of Santa, Monica, and High for those who don’t know) and Beverly Hills’ Normans, where there has been quite the rivalry between those schools in sports the past few years.
As I did a little research on Max Preps beforehand, the one thing that stood out was that the two teams had exactly one win between them going into what was Samohi’s last game of the season, the Vikings sporting a perfect 0-13 record with Beverly having the one win – which came against Samo earlier this year.
Unlike others who would poo-pooh watching two high school teams with bad won-loss records just finishing out the season unless they had to for a news assignment or whatever, I was looking forward to seeing those young lady Vikings and Normans get it on as I arrived at Nickoll Field on Beverly Hills’ campus.
The reason? Because speaking from my experience as a coach and watching so many sporting events over the years, games between teams having a bad season are often exciting, with such teams being dangerous and should never be underestimated due to one predominant factor…
They have nothing to lose.
Santa Monica’s and Beverly Hills’ girls lacrosse teams in action earlier this season. Photo courtesy of thesamohi.com
There wasn’t even a winning record at stake, let alone a league championship or a berth in the CIF playoffs; teams in that situation can just let it all out and go play.
Which not only makes them dangerous, it also makes for some exciting contests.
In other words, there was nothing on the line but plain old pride.
I got to the field right after the game started and stood on the sideline watching the action and asking a Beverly Hills parent and a couple of students attending the game a few questions regarding the basics of lacrosse, a game which, being that it’s largely an east coast pastime and in the process of growing in this part of the country, with a few colleges, including USC, having NCAA programs, I was unfamiliar with.
It was a 2-2 tie when I arrived, with what I found out were two 25-minute halves.
As the game unfolded and my old band mate showed up with her husband a little later on, I not only learned quite a bit about a sport that, rather than being referred to as “Hockey On Grass”, should be called the true America’s game due to the fact that it was invented by Native Americans – particularly the Iroquois Nation – around 1,000 years ago,
I also noticed a lot of things about this team of my alma mater’s and its coaches, Brian Patenade, the head coach, and Howard Alperin, the assistant/goalie coach with a background in the sport, having played it at the University of Maryland, that I liked a lot and, as an old coach and PE teacher, was very impressed with, such as…
- With nine girls on the team having never played lacrosse before – and two of them being starters, no less – an emphasis was put on teaching skills as during halftime (with Samohi only down 6-4) I saw Brian working with Samo’s goalie on stopping shots.
- I saw that the players, with so many of them being newbies to lacrosse, were not only having fun and learning the game, there were doing something very important – playing hard, which I feel is one of the most important things one can teach a youngster, to always give their utmost best effort no matter what; which was precisely what those young lady Vikings were doing despite the Normans pulling away in the second half, eventually beating Samohi 13-6.
- There were a couple of girls on Samo’s team that were injured during the match; I liked how everyone on both sides took a knee in a show of sportsmanship.
A shot of Samohi’s Viking lacrosse team from a few years ago. Photo courtesy of twitter.com
And despite the referees calling the game way too tight in my opinion, calling fouls and giving yellow cards and red cards (a warning and ejection, respectively, just like soccer) at seemingly every little thing rather than just letting them play, as it was the end of the season – the last game in Santa Monica’s case – and nothing was at stake,
I felt a bit of Samo alumni pride watching those young ladies in blue and gold playing their hearts out.
I also felt a bit of pride after the game was over and my old band mate took me to meet the team and the coaches, as I was very impressed with them and had a great time conversing with Brian, Howard, and some of the players.
Simply put, they were great people and a great bunch of kids – friendly, outgoing – that I frankly see as having a great future with that lacrosse program, as they are losing only two seniors.
I told them that if I were coaching baseball, softball, or any team in that situation, regardless of the winless record (they finished 0-14) I would be excited at the potential growth.
Considering that roughly half of the Vikings’ roster had never played lacrosse before, I strongly feel that Brian and Howard did a job well done and can definitely build on what was essentially setting the groundwork for 2019, 2020, and beyond.
Kudos to the parents as well, as they clearly showed support, right down to the post game snacks that I’m sure were enjoyed.
The Bottom Line:
I had fun watching my very first lacrosse game.
So much so that I’m very much looking forward to seeing how these young ladies from my high school alma mater progress going forward.
And if I’m able to, I’ll check them out next season when they visit Culver City to play that school’s team; as I live there, it would be an easy trip.
It goes without saying that I wish everyone in that lacrosse program all the best.
Another shot of Samohi’s girls lacrosse team from a few years back. Photo courtesy of twitter.com