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.

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.

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!

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

I will be riding the bus up with the team tomorrow as they head to take on Johns Hopkins for a Saturday match-up.  My hope is to post some photos Friday night (if I have Internet access) after our trip up there.

Mostly likely I will post on the blogs on Inside Lacrosse.

“Forget the Big Ten, we share the same dry cleaners… There is no other area like this. It produces things, situations, feelings that you can’t talk to other people about. Because they have no understanding of it.” — Duke Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski

With their proximity, and the high-caliber athletics program found at both schools, the rivalry between the schools is so intense, that those who did not graduate from either school, or is a fan of either school, will never be able to understand

exactly what the rivalry is about, just as Coach Krzyzewski said. Fans love to hate schools that are good. But when two schools are next door to each other, and both are so good, the hate comes easy. Just how good are the schools athletically? The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Cup (formerly the “Sears Cup”) ranks schools based on athletic performance, specifically national rankings in the individual sports. In 2006-2007, North Carolina was ranked #3 and Duke #11 nationally in those rankings. Recently, Stack Magazine created their “Elite 50” rankings that ranked schools on a formula based on athletic and academic performance. In that ranking, UNC was #1 and Duke #5. Obviously, these are two high-quality schools sharing the same dry cleaners. Read the rest of this entry »

The Heels had another one of those close games, running up the score in the first half, then keeping the crowd (and a photographer) on the edge of their seats in the second half. Those on the edge of their seat risked being blown off in the gale-filled game. The temperature was in the 50’s, but felt much colder with the wind howling the entire game. But the Heels held on to win 8-6, on the back of 5 goal performance from junior Ben Hunt.

Here are photos of UNC lacrosse v. Notre Dame.

I have finally posted photos from North Carolina Lacrosse vs. Cornell from last Saturday. My week has been packed with work and I had not had time to post these.This win was a huge win for the program. First, Cornell was in the quarterfinals, loosing by one to Duke. Second, the Tar Heels shaked a hex that had been on the team. Many times before, the Heels built a large lead quickly, only to fall in the end. Saturday, the Heels built a huge lead quickly, only to see it get etched away by the Big Red. This game however, the Heels kept their heads about them and won in a convincing 13-8 game. (Had the Heels not had 3 defense guys out in the final seconds, it could have been 13-7).

I’ve been truly overwhelmed by my workload and have not yet had a chance to post the photos from the games I photographed recently.  The following are on the way:

• Duke W Lacrosse vs. Maryland (not posting unless special request)
• Duke M Lacrosse vs. Maryland
• North Carolina M Lacrosse v. Cornell
• UNC M Basketball v. Wake Forest
• UNC M Basketball v. FSU