3 Counties Lacrosse Tournament!!

So, last Sunday was the first lacrosse tournament the 3 Counties Club has ever played in. It is my job to help develop the club - and have it become a permanent club in one of the different leagues.

We journeyed down to Cardiff early Sunday morning as we entered a mixed and women's team. The squads were comprised of MSJ girls, Americans, Worcester Uni boys - and other club members who attend training on Friday nights.

Although there was no actual "leaderboard" we are pretty sure our women's team killed it and won the tournament (which was exciting as it was our clubs first tournament) and our mixed team did really well considering it was the first time many of the boys had ever played in a lacrosse match!

Some LAX action shots taken by Mrs.VanPraag

Off the draw. Did not like this guy

SO stoked for WALLIS after her pizza shot (aka - behind the back goal)

buddies. live. love. lax

being a diva coach.

getting ready for draw again

step squat scoop

Forecast running the field

Boys eating some snacks in between games

Lottie on the draw
Shes AMAZING at lax and will play in the states. I look forward to following her career.

Waldo (note the guys face)

Ralphie running over a girl. She was fine - but wasted time off the clock. 

I LOVE LAX
2 Hands!!

AMERICA.

Sloppy running down the pitch

Nicky throwing the ball

Pure aggression

Prestfelde :)

Last Wednesday...we had a POP Lacrosse Development Day at Malvern St. James. Prestfelde came up for the day!! It was amazing to see my girls again as I still think they are mine :( . TO was there and it was really nice to catch up with her as well.g The girls (coco especially) dominated the day which made me happy. I miss Prestfelde all the time and am looking to go back soon as Paul and Stu (2 South African boy GAP students) are leaving soon. I can't believe how fast a year has gone....

Being Silly :)

Half Term!!

That time rolled around again...the kids had another break from school - which conveniently fell on a weekend where Ali's uncle happened to be playing a concert in Amsterdam. We took a break from our busy schedule to see D GUETTA in Amsterdam. We got the hook up and sat VIP at a booth next to Paris Hilton and even got to meet him and go onstage with him! It was a surreal experience. It was my first house/dj concert and it was absurd. He was an amazing DJ and we had the best time. (will add proof when Ali posts her pictures!!)

After Amsterdam, we came home for Monday as we both had some training sessions Monday/Tuesday. She met me down in Malvern on Tuesday night and the next day we left for Portugal. Yes, I was able to return to paradise, aka lagos just in time for Halloween and some sunshine. The weather was gorgeous and the water was great. Mama made us crepes (pancakes) and we meet some more nice Aussies. I love it there, and if I am ever lucky enough to return - I will be a happy person.

Construction workers meets LMFAO party rockers for Halloween

Birthday Party!!

First Abroad Birthday

Been a really long time since my last update! Yikes! Sorry for the delay in case anyone was stressing out about where I've been in my life.

So I celebrated my first english birthday abroad. As we all know I love birthdays, and paloozas- so it was a tough day because it was really hard being away from my family and friends.

I was lucky to have gibs though because she threw me a birthday party in Manchester at one of the people on her teams house. Although they were already having a party that night - she made it into a birthday party for me, and put signs up everywhere. She also bought me "my favourite things" which included bagels (with cream cheese of course) and some coca cola.

Al and I ready to celebrate in Manch

MSJ GALS

WOO our girls have been kicking some butt and taking some names. We entered the Welsh Rally back in September where we came in first, and entered a regional tournament at RGS where we came in first (beating out Stowe and Wycombe Abbey - 2 very prestigious and infamous lacrosse schools throughout the country). The girls are awesome, and they are only getting better every day.

Waldo and I are very proud of them :) We are trying to get some of them to play in the states. There are some really talented girls on the team.

Girls after Welsh Rally!!

Girls after RGS Tournament

#winning. numero uno

#allwedoiswin - Welsh Rally

Taking a break. Hard day on the job

Wall-E and Rig-B

This is it...its going to be my chance to become famous.  

Dave Abini, Midlands INTO Lacrosse Officer and my fabulous boss, is filming a segment for TDAS (The Dave Abini Show) which is basically going to follow around me and Wallis, documenting our jobs, and what we are doing for lax. 

Bio on Wallis, my housemate:
She's the SCO (school coaching officer) stationed at Malvern St. James, whereas i'm only here one or two days a week. On top of lacrosse, she has boarding duties and her own form room (homeroom). This is basically the job I did when I cam over in January. She went to UMW and is a center because she runs a lot, although claims she "doesnt like to work out" haha. Originally from the great state of Texas moved to NJ. Its been awesome being able to coach sessions with her so far. We get along great and its nice having another American around so we can gang up on our british roommate and are a force with the girls.

According to the girls Wallis is the "nice one" and im the "scary one" (but in a good way of course one of the girls said...). This makes me laugh...me, scary? Perfect.

Spellman would be proud- we had a fitness session last Saturday morning and I made them do perimeters screaming "YA GOTTA MOVE" followed by sidelines and an intense Plank Sesh. Ugh, dare I say I miss perimeters? Nah...

So follow TDAS on Facebook and i'll be posting more videos to come :)

Wallis and I

Bath Eights, 2011

Best. Weekend. Ever.
I'm sure i'll say that a few more times over the week, but really - it was something special.

supporting our friend Pat on timperley lax!

After the course ended up on Friday, and I had taught Leisel how to drive stick shift, we caught a ride down with Vince who plays for Brooklands. (Ali is the Brooklands Girls LDO) Vince is a great guy and so nice! Ali and I like to harass him for no particular reason.

The 3 hour roadtrip was filled with singing, "dougey-ing", and sleeping. "Woooo we're going to bath!" Getting lucky with the weather, we arrived in Bath refreshed and ready to explore the town. Bath is absolutely gorgeous and I encourage myself to go back and look around some more when I'm not completely consumed by lax.

We went out Friday night with the Brooklands guys LDOs (Fuzz and Andrew - Go Endicott!) and met up with everyone else. Needless to say it was a great night.

Saturday was the actual tournament. Unfortunately the Germans whose name I cant type/pronounce won the tournament. Looking forward to the first girls tournament and the start of the season! I want to start playing again!

Lax Life Shot
Notice the fist pound, thumbs up, giggle, stick stringing etc. etc. 

The following night I tagged along with the Brooklands guys for a team dinner.  We decided to thank Vince for driving us by giving him a proper "ice". The american lax bro tradition of sneaking someone a smirnoff ice without their knowledge. Then they have to take a knee and chug the whole thing. Its disgusting, but foreign lax bros seem to love it even more than american lax bros!

Vince Getting Iced

To Summarize:
It was a great weekend: I saw some long lost friends that I had met years ago at the English Lacrosse Tournament at Eton, met a lot of nice people, and watched a lot of good lax... :)

P.S.
Dan (american) who is the other timperley lacrosse writes a blog for inside lacrosse... check it out!
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/08/29/a-yank-king-arthurs-court-playing-and-teaching-lacrosse-england

P.S.S.

SideNote: Lax Bros are the same in every country :)

First Night Out in Manchvegas!!!

Near the end of the induction, everyone decided to go out into Manchester. On the way to meet everyone out, we thought we would stop for a nice "Welcome back to England dinner." We stopped at this off the beaten path Italian restaurant "Ciao Bella". And Ali having lived in Rome for a semester, and me just returning from the best food experience of my life in Rome+Florence, could vouch for how authentic this italian food was.

Ali at Sale Tram Stop
10 Minutes into Manchester Piccadilly 

At our new dinner spot!
Waiter was great and kept bringing us free food!!!

We met up with other LDOs at this club which I didn't get into at first because I was wearing flip-flops. One of the other LDOS had this same problem. Who could blame me???? I just came back from the Jersey Shore where flip-flops are a way off life. Gibbo ran inside and snuck me out Rebecca's heels (new Durham Uni coach- who will be a rival soon!!) and I was allowed into the club. The bouncer was skeptical and asked where I had come across heels, so I told them I horns-waggled some sucker for 10 quid. It seemed believable, so he let me in.

LDO INDUCTION

The LDO Induction was a week long course where we got an introduction to what exactly we would be doing this year. All of us "graduated" the course with our Level 2 Coaching Certificate.

Pat and I had to be cool with our shades on

Team Building...

So for anyone who is interested in my job...haha
I am going to be doing development in the West Midlands region which means I'll be traveling around teaching and coaching lacrosse to kids that may not have played before, or want to learn more about it. On top of that I am...
- Based at MSJ College where I work with SCO Katie Wallis and help with all of the MSJ Teams (Range from year 7-13)
- Work on developing 3 County Lacrosse Club
- Work with Birmingham Uni + other Uni's while helping to spread "Into Lacrosse"
- Playing with Oxton Wirral Lacrosse (League and now EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS!!!!) Way to go Wirral :)



Looking forward to an amazing year :)

Back TO ENGLAND, Back TO LAX

Arrived in England straight off of the most annoying and overrated Hurricane to hit the east coast. I got to Birmingham airport and had to get to Manchester for the LDO North Induction. I decided to do a slight detour and meet Leisel, aka Ali Gibbons at the airport.

Ali and my relationship being what it is, as my international bff, told me her flight got into manchester "around 2:30pm". Perfect, I figured I'd meet her there and we'd go together!

Upon getting to the airport, and realizing there was in fact more than 1 terminal at Manchester, I looked at all the flights getting in around 2:30. Took a wild guess and waited outside gate 1. After waiting about 30 min, I heard a women behind me on the phone saying "look for the lacrosse stick! Can't wait to meet you!" My ears perked up upon hearing the word LAX! I turned to ask the cute old women who she was waiting for and what she was doing at the airport. She said she was picking up an American Laxer named Ali Gibbons. A smile spread across my face as she walked out of the door on cue!

PUMPED TO BE BACK.

Sheila, her house mom decided to adopt me for the week while the induction course was going on in Manch. Although she had the scariest dog in the entire world, her family was so welcoming, and it was a  nice to get settled back into the swing of things :)

LAGOS

Not going to talk a lot about my summer trips (i.e. All of Spain and to finish off the month meeting my family in Italy) but I think Lagos, Portugal deserves a special shout out. Spence and I had only planned on spending 2 days there, but we got lost in Lagos and spent about 4 days there. 

Gorgeous

It was gorgeous. After getting off the bus and heading to our hostel, we b-lined it for the beach. We saw these wackos jumping of a 40ft clif. 

"Lets go. I'm doing it" - Spence.

So within 5 minutes spence had jumped off a clif and I obvi had to get in on the action. A good looking aussie (hey tim!) came up to chat with us and we decided that we wanted to go. After a little bit of encouragement we jumped off. It was an amazing feeling. 

Spence, Me, Time

The three of us spent the day on the beach, knowing we were in paradise. We made our way back to the Rising Cock Hostel (Cock is the symbol of Portgual) where we were greeted by Mama. Mama likes to take care of the hostel, and its guests by making them crepes for breakfast along with a magical detoxification drink. It was a great touch. 

We went back to our hostel which was invaded by Aussies- who again - are the craziest people you'll ever meet. We met Stephen and Brad, our roommates, who became our other buddies for the trip. 

We won quiznight together (GO DINGLEBERRIES!) and ate ALL of our meals at NAH NAH BAH- which have burgers that rival, yes rival, the cheddar of my beloved Barnacle Bills. 

The Americans Carried the Team
on Rising Cock Quiz Night

GO TO LAGOS. You'll never regret it. And if you do have the pleasure of staying at the Rising Cock Hostel, make sure you give mama a hug :)

Prestfelde School Ball

This weekend I attended my first English Ball at Prestfelde. While I wished I was home at Sands Beach Club this past weekend, it was lovely event and took my mind off fireworks temporarily. The tent was gorgeous, the music was great, and it was a nice way to go out.  I will miss Stu and Paul a lot!

Stu, Me, Katie (Sara [Matrons Daughter]), Paul

Stu and Pauly
Going to miss these guys :(

LAXIN IN VIENNA BABY

Missed Her. 

Ash and I flew over to Vienna on Thursday morning where we were greated by 2 cute Austria boys with Lacrosse sticks in the Airport who turned out to be our tour guides of the city. Good sign to a good start to what was to be an amazing weekend.

TOUR OF VIENNA

STAGLAX

All I had to say was this weekend was perfect. It was a weekend full of lacrosse, hot weather, stags, and a few cold beers after a long hard day of "friendly" international competition :)

Gotta get taped before gametime baby
Nice tude face Renee

It was so nice to play with Renee (a former Stag again). We guested for the Global Players which was comprised of Americans and some local players. It was really nice because I think they looked up to us for advice while we played, and were also really good!



It was exciting playing in a tournament at a global venue. The host of the tournament was the Vienna Monarchs which had us over to their club the first night for a welcome party. The British were crazy and played a game called "DangerCan" which I can only describe as ridiculous and stupid. I am posting a YouTube clip below to watch.  Link Below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic2oVH0Irmw

DangerCan. Involves
1. Shaking a Can
2. While Screaming "DangerCan"
3. Slamming against head til Explodes
4. Makes no Sense
5. You lose if can doesnt crack

The weekend was great and we (renee+I) got to meet so many great people playing the sport we loved. After our ankles were taped, it was great to give the go stags sign and go out there and play. We wound up coming second in the tournament (I sadly couldn't play in the finals on Sunday because I had to catch a flight) but our team did great. The GLOBAL PLAYERS was a great team and their mission was really cool. I urge anyone looking to play lacrosse abroad to look into the program.

Getting ready for Players Party

Ashley Doran Visits! 2 Little Croissants in Paris

Long time overdue. My little and cute ex-Stamvegas roomie flew out to visit me! We spent the week in Paris and ended the weekend in Vienna.

We had the greatest week and think we must have walked around the city of paris 5/6 times by foot. We stayed in this little hotel where there was no person at the front desk, and when there was - she spoke no english - which I of course found very frustrating.

The first night we went to the Latin Quarter for dinner and watched the Man U v Barca final. The Latin Quarter was hopping and looked like a really fun place where students went out. My favourite part of Paris I think was the Montemarte Area. The streets were bustling and it was gorgeous.

I think during the week we saw all of paris ... from shopping (Long Champs in Paris!!!) to eating at great restaurants, to sitting at little cafes for hours eating a typical french breakfast (cafe, croissant, orange juice) - it was an amazing week and it was so great to see Ashley. We went to the Louvre (i thought Mona Lisa was overrated but Ashley "got it), walked through Notre Dame, Sacre Coure, the Eiffel Tour, and topped it off with several crepes con nutella. I missed her so much and it was great to see her.

Paris is a gorgeous city despite the French :) ! One thing I must say though is when (if) you are ever at a  restaurant/cafe - learn the phrase (not spelled correctly) "jou voudre du pan si vous pley". Thats asking for FREE bread which they will not give to you unless you ask for it haha.

Boat Cruise on Seine River at Sunset! 

Arc de Triomphe at night after a walk on the Champs de Elysee

Eiffel Tower at Dusk from Boat Cruise

Dinner at Le Refuge de Fondues.
We had cheese + beef fondue. It was amazing.
They serve wine in baby bottles because it evades some taxation per "glass of wine"

Meal. 

With our purchases which took over an hour to choose between "tan, brown, or green"