Wow, things have been busy.  I’ve been taking more photos than I’ve had time to post them.  There are a lot of things that I still need to post.   Stay tuned for the following to eventually be posted:

• UNC Lax vs. Hoftstra
• UNC Lax vs. Duke @ ACCs
• Duke Lax vs. St. Johns

Here is a link to my latest post on the Inside Lacrosse blogs.  It covers all of last week: From practice to game day against Hofstra.  I omitted things that I learned, because all of these are pretty much inside jokes that only the guys will get.  That, and I only learned two things.  So here goes, drum roll please:

Things I learned:

• Milton Lyles needs to use two hands.
• Shane Walterhoefer and Sean Burke are messing up my creativity and photography.

Shane Walterhoefer was masterful at faceoff.

Photos are now posted from when UNC played Ohio State at Boy’s Latin in Baltimore. Note that I only put around 15 photos in the gallery, but there are actually hunderd’s from the game. If you want to see everything, I put up a link that will probably expire in a month where you can view all the photos.

BTW, you are probably wondering why the heck make a gallery with only 15 photos when I have almost 300 to show? Well, it is standard industry practice. Making a gallery of every single photo is overkill. If you want to find a photo of a certain athlete, the best way is to go to the search page of my site, and search for the athletes last name. Or to see everything of UNC lacrosse you can search for “UNC Lacrosse” or “Duke Lacrosse” for the boys in Durham. (note, don’t use quotes.)

Coach Olmert gives Mike B. Burns a pep talk before heading out to the field.

Like cheetahs, they sat waiting, drooling.  The hunger gnawed at their senses, making them only more acutely aware of the next potential meal that could come their way. Then, finally, in the distance, they spot their prey.   They stare it down with a icy gaze, ready to pounce, looking away only to see if the others spot the same prey.  This is survival of the fittest.  Actually, its the support staff waiting for chicken to come out of the kitchen after the first batch was devoured by the players.

Coach Haus treated the players and staff to a great meal at a restaurant.  The food was great, but by the time the support staff (that includes me) got up to get our food, the chicken had been picked clean.  So we sat staring at the kitchen waiting for the waiter to bring out the latest batch of chicken.  When we saw him come out finally with the chicken, we pounced on him like cheetahs in the Sahara.

To serious matters, we lost a tough game to Ohio State 11-14 that was played at Boys Latin High School in Baltimore, Maryland, and which incidentally is the alma mater of faceoff man Shane Walterhoefer.  The Heels were up by one at halftime, but a strong 3rd quarter helped seal the win for the Buckeyes. Walterhoefer was able to conjure up good sprits from his old home field, winning 23 of 26 faceoffs.

Things I learned this weekend:

• The freshmen have bad tastes in movies (”Goonies” seriously?).  Chun-Man Fong (aka “C”) saved the day on the bus with “Transformers”.
• Mike Chires has “thunder thighs” (his words).
• Coach Lattimore has amazing balance and can make his way down the bus without touching the floor.
• The bathrooms is some buses are better ventilated in some than others.
• Milton needs an alarm clock.
• Sean Burke will walk half an hour for Chili’s.
• C is a tape-tearing master.
• Sean Delaney values his bubble baths.
• Kevin Piegare can’t match shoes.
• Coach Olmert shouldn’t be trusted with lemonade around electronics.  People with mustard shouldn’t be trusted around Coach Olmert
• Some security guards at apartment building in Maryland can be um, unfriendly (I can think of an anatomical term to describe them, but I’m trying to censor myself).
• I am the master at finding the light switches on our charter buses.  Like Emmit Kellar said, a career in bus driving may be in my future.
• Ryan Flanagan’s dad makes awesome brownies. (visit his bakery here)
• Most importantly, I learned to NOT TOUCH THE GATORADE’S that are under the bus.

Shamel Bratton

I forgot to link to the photos from UNC vs. UVA lacrosse.  Here they are for inquisitive minds.

North Carolina Lacrosse v. Virginia photos

Matt Davie watches Matthias McCall try on his new elbow pads.

Wow, three days in a row I’ve been to practice. Much of this is because my basketball duties are effectively over which leaves me with much more time (Sadly, I don’t have enough seniority to go to San Antonio with the men’s basketball team.) Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing basketball, but it keeps you busy when its going on.

The team takes on UVA tomorrow, and typically before a game, the practices are a little lighter. However, before heading out for practice, “Santa Haus” payed a visit to the team in the form of new elbow pads for the short sticks.

I didn’t learn a whole lot today, except that the freshmen like to talk about their hair. Ha, only they will get that one. Speaking of the freshmen, I went to Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta with them after practice. Had a great time with them and I finally got some pics of them away from the field.

Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala upset for an offsides not being called.

The North Carolina Tar Heels beat Johns Hopkins on Hops’ home field, only after generations of Tar Heel teams have been dispatched by the Blue Jays with an “L” since 1994. The win was an important one to help the team build some confidence, and to break the Homewood hex that has vexed the Heels for so long.

Homewood Field is turf, and I have to say that for photography, it stinks. The field emits radiant heat, even when ambient temperature is relatively cool. These heat waves made so many of my photos look soft. I had to delete countless photos that were afflicted with this softness. I feel bad for my photography brethren who constantly work at that field. That said, being a lacrosse fan, I have always wanted to go to Johns Hopkins for a lacrosse game, so this was a great treat. I also wanted to get some photos of the man, the legend Paul Rabil before he graduates.

I guess you came here to see the photos right? Well, here they are: Johns Hopkins Lacrosse v. North Carolina photos.

Michael Munnelly shows off the new sticks.

When UVA is on the docket, neither wind, sleet or snow will stop the Heels from preparation. OK, so I’m being a little over dramatic as I write this before I go to bed. But, after a sunny practice yesterday, today was a cold rainy mess.

For the first time this semester, I went back in the weight room with the team. They have typically been lifting in the morning, so I’ve been missing their lift sessions. I have to say, after being sick of them last semester, I was happy to be in there for something a little different.

When the team came back to the locker room from the weight room, they found new sticks waiting for them. The sticks are Carolina Blue and I think that they are from the Mikey Powell line (Grant Zimmerman thought so too - they only had a logo and no writing to confirm this). The sticks will be welcome when the team takes the field to take on UVA Saturday on a nationally televised game.

What I learned today:

• I learned from Michael B. Burns more about the reasoning of putting long poles with shorts on the wings before faceoff, or vice versa, or having the same size sticks match-up.
• I learned from team manager Yu Katoku that in Japan, ties are settled by playing rock, paper, scissors, instead of overtime due to the lack of fields and playing time. (those crazy kids)
• I learned that Kevin Piegare seems to think he can keep the duplex clean when he moves in there as a sophomore. Time will tell.
• I learned from Matthias McCall that the grass that collects around the spikes of your cleats when the ground is wet is called “scrom dog”.
• I learned that Sean Jackson doesn’t always get his appetizer.
• I learned that Cryder DiPietro and Michael Jarvis couldn’t touch their toes when stretching if their life depended on it. The downside of being tall I guess.
• I learned that even when talking about lacrosse sticks, if Bobby McAuley asks if you want his shaft, say ‘no’.

The team began practice with a film session before heading out to the field. Assistant coach Paradine manned a Mac Book Pro (Mac snob alert! — I was happy to see a Windows computer was eschewed in lieu of the better computer. Alert over) and showed some clips of UVA to the team while coaches Haus and Lattimore made commentary as necessary. Afterwards, we headed out to practice on what was a beautiful North Carolina day. There is not much that I can say about practice, but I did learn some new things about the nuances of lacrosse:

• Chris Cortina taught me how extra-man offense, and man-down defense team members are picked. It was something I’ve always wondered.
• I learned from Jamie Locke and Andrew Moss that goal keepers are susceptible to getting their thumbs jammed, and it is common for goal keepers to have messed-up thumbs.
• I learned that Nina Walker reads my blogs! Huzzah!

Jamie Locke's thumb is tended to.

This weekend I posted a couple blog posts to Inside Lacrosse about UNC’s trip to Johns Hopkins. Here are links to those two posts:

Day 1: Road trip up to Baltimore

Day 2: Game day at Johns Hopkins