Back during spring break me and a bunch of dudes from the UWM lacrosse team decided we were going to order tickets for the 2007 NCAA Lacrosse Championships in Baltimore, MD. I went ahead and got a hotel reservation for Saturday and Sunday nights at the Ramada Inn at Towson University, and ordered four tickets for the five game weekend of lacrosse. After waiting about a month, our ticket sets came. (See Picture, I’ll explain the autographs later.)
I was immediately stoked about the tickets coming and started researching stuff to do the weekend of the tournament (which, by the way, is pronounced ‘tore-nuh-ment’ while in Baltimore). I learned about cool stuff such as the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, the inner harbor, the ESPN Zone, Hard Rock Café, Camden Yards and other historical things like the holocaust museum. We planned to get to as much of this stuff as possible while out in B-More,.
As some of you know, last week I went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with some buddies and went to the beach all day, saw some sights, etc. The day I got back from MBSC, me and my teammates (Andy Nelson-Middleton, Clay Tibbetts-Lafollette and Andrew Showers-Lafollette) left at 6 am for Maryland. Granted, it was pretty early, we were all so excited for that much lacrosse that we really couldn’t sleep on the way there. The talk of the car ride was pretty much all lacrosse based.
Knowing we didn’t have anywhere to stay Friday night we decided to take our time getting out to Baltimore and see some sights on the way. We stopped at Comiskey Park (Where the White Sox play) and checked out what it was all about. Once we got into Indiana we knew we’d be pretty bored, so we stopped at Notre Dame and saw all the cool stuff there was to see (Football stadium, Big Statue, Golden Dome, Touchdown Jesus, random other stuff) That was a pretty amazing experience, and when we first got there we saw a campus tour going on, which was led by a man playing the bagpipes in true Irish garb, kilt and all. As we walked around the campus we could hear the bagpipes ringing through all the buildings, which put goose bumps on our arms as we stared at the Giant Jesus Painting
After leaving ND, we made our way all the way through Ohio, through Pennsylvania, and into Maryland. When we were about 20 minutes outside of Baltimore we gave Ex-Boys Latin and Current Middleton player Nick Hummel a call, and asked if his brother was around Towson so we can hang out. Nick’s brother then gave us a call and told us how to get over to his place, because he was having some sort of party. I’ll mention this first now, because it was a great experience for me, but the hospitality expressed from the people of Baltimore was such a moving example of what people should really be like. We had never met Nick’s brother, and he just let us stay at his house that night, so we didn’t sleep in the car. We proceeded to wake up the next morning and drive down to M&T Bank Stadium. On the way there he took us by such famous lacrosse schools as Boys Latin and Gilman (Pictures). Being near such historic schools was pretty amazing. We even got some souvenirs from Boys Latin. Upon getting to the inner harbor area, and Camden Yards, we arrived at the Lacrosse festivities outside. Not wanting to spend any money, we used our set of tickets for autographs, and met such all-stars as Brent Bucktooth and (yes) Ryan Powell, who by the way, was the nicest person I’ve ever met, he loved the fact that we were from Milwaukee, loved the fact that I was number 22, was eager to ask about the car ride, eager to talk to us. Again, the hospitality on this trip was really moving. After meeting Ryan, we walked over to the mini lax field they had set up inside an inflatable soccer stadium, and the Powell’s did some goalie confusion with some little kids, and they called it ‘Pros vs. Joes’. When that ended, we met the other two Powell’s, and walked into the stadium.
Saturday’s games were Duke vs. Cornell, and Hopkins vs. Delaware. The actual games weren't even the most memorable part of the trip for us, as there was so much to take in, so I wont make it a focal point of this story. In the first game Duke was up by 7 goals at about halftime, and Cornell gave it a pretty good comeback run, tied it up with 9 seconds left and then Zach Greer put one home for Duke with 3 seconds left to win it. Everyone in the stadium was on there feet cheering, which was cool to see. Hopkins later beat Delaware in a somewhat unexciting game.
While exiting the stadium we met probably 10 different people who wanted to talk to us for being form Milwaukee, and they were amazed at the dedication we had to the sport for driving 14 hours in the car to watch lacrosse, a sport that they take for granted, but we are in love with. They, as with everyone else we met, were so nice, and excited to talk to us.
That night we went with Nick’s brother to his friend’s birthday party at his parent’s house. The parents bought this guy 3 kegs, about 50 cases, about 300 dollars worth of crabs, burgers, brats, chips, soda etc etc etc… The guys who were friends with the birthday boy, sat all us Wisconsin guys down at the table and took about 20 minutes each to teach us how to eat crabs. (Hospitality). There was 2 beer pong tables set up and when we got to the back yard, this guy was happy to meet us, and invited us right in to his 21st birthday party with his family, and lifelong friends. Being treated like best friends by a guy I just met was a really memorable experience. He had a lacrosse goal set up in his back yard, so we went and grabbed our sticks and started shooting around. Within ten minutes, there were 20 dudes back there playing a big lacrosse game in the backyard while barefoot. We were at a party, with people we didn’t know, playing lacrosse casually with people from all walks of life, who all played lacrosse. They really take the game for granted out there. When its so prominent, I probably would too, but the best part of the trip was the night we hung out at a cookout, playing lacrosse with firefighters, soldiers, journalists, and all the other professions that were represented. It was the most relaxing and fun thing I have honestly done in my entire life. That night we went back to Towson and cancelled our hotel reservations because Nate Hummel let us sleep at his house again. (Hospitality).
We woke up the next morning and went back down to the stadium to see the Salisbury vs. Cortland State game and the LeMoyne vs. Mercyhurst game. Salisbury killed Cortland, and LeMoyne Mercyhurst ended with a last second goal by the Dolphins. Again, the games weren't even the most memorable part of the wholet rip.
That night, we kept our car in the parking where we left it, and checked out the inner harbor. We walked down to ‘LaxFest’, but it was closed, so we just checked out all the cool boats in the harbor, and tried to get into ESPNZone. The wait was 3 hours so we walked next door to Hard Rock and saw a bunch of the players from Cortland. The food was awesome, and the waitress was eager to tell us about the cool sights in Baltimore, and tell us where the coolest views are. (Hospitality). We then got a hotel about a block from the stadium and posted up in the holiday inn for the night and just chilled in the A/C (it was like 95 all weekend).
After our first good night of sleep in big nice warm beds, we walked down to the lacrosse festivities and saw the Powell’s again, and talked with Ryan again, saw them playing with some little kids again etc etc. We then walked down to the speed shot booth and tested our shots. I threw 70 (yeah tell me about it, but whatever, I was second on our team in points this year, and second in goals so GET OFF ME), Andy threw 81, Showers through 75, and clay threw 86. We went back down to the Brine tent and got some goodies from the Brine Pro’s. (Pics). (Hospitality).
Championship game came and went, Duke lost, we didn’t really mind, because of how amazing the weekend was. I ended up with 6 different tournament t-shirts (3 of them I got from a homeless man for a total of 10 dollars), about 15 posters, one signed by Bucktooth, one signed by Salisbury’s whole team, and a bunch of others, a blue brine wristband, a bunch of neck lanyards with those little plastic ticket holders connected, a pair of brand new Duke King Gloves, a pair of Cornell King’s, a brand new scandium swizzle, a ticket stub set signed by some of the best players ever to play, and a bunch of the best memories I’ve had in my 19 years. If anyone reading this is even REMOTELY thinking about making the trip to the national championships next year, or any year, I DEMAND THAT YOU DO IT. I PROMISE YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT, and me and my friends are definitely going next year, if anyone’s interested in coming. Thanks for reading this guys, I just really wanted to share my experience with you. The best time of my life, without a doubt, and I promise it will be the same for you.
Golden Dome as you enter campus at Notre Dame.
Campus tour for prospective students, led by a bagpiper.
Showers and Clay looking at the Notre Dame Football Stadium.
Showers, Andy and Clay with Touchdown Jesus. I know its sideways, but i've been trying to post this thread for a few days and it keeps closing, so im not gonna change it.
Hangin out at Nate Hummel's house.
Me and Clay with a guy who we thought looked like a mix of Nicolas Cage and a guy from our UWM team.
Me and Clay with a guy who we thought looked like a mix of Nicolas Cage and a guy from our UWM team.
Me at Boys Latin
Sign at Gilman's Lax field
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, same block as M&T Bank Stadium
3 story high ESPN U sign that was assembled in New Berlin, WI and covered in lacrosse gear
me with Ryan Powell
my tickets signed by all the players
on the way to the stadium for the first 2 games
Delaware vs Hopkins
Duke vs Cornell (Great game)
Mike Powell's band, they were pretty good, they kinda reminded me of something like Phish.
Powell's doing some goalie confusion... kid is looking the wrong way, casey (or ryan, i cant tell from the small pic) still has the ball
us at the d3 championship
LEMOYNE WINS!
after the 2nd day, at come crazy fountain thing on the inner harbor
on chesapeake bay
ESPN Zone
Game i played with showers, he beat me by 2 freakin points
trying to see the powell stuff?
us with neal goldman, who gave us our gear for free
showers pumped about his brand new cornell gloves
score with 40 secs left in championship game
Hopkins wins
Duke leaving the field
Greer leaving
Danowski leaving
tell me thats not a funny name for a town... i like to imagine an exclamation mark inbetween the first o and the c
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