Navy Lacrosse (NAVYLAX)

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08/01/2009

Eight games in 4 days - Big Wins for all !!

Vail 2009 - Great friends getting together to vacation and play a little lacrosse.

Maybe it should have read 8 games at 8,000 ft. That would describe it. =:-)

The tradition begun by Mike Gottleib '70 almost 20 years ago and carried on by Mike and many other today - known as the Navy Old Goats - is alive and well.

Not only did we field competitive teams at the Supermasters level (40+) and the Grandmasters level (50+), but we also welcomed in new players, renewed friendships, mourned losses, discussed opportunities, vacationed in the mountains and shared the stories of our children and grandchildren.

Navy Lacrosse has it. it is magic. If you haven't been, then you owe it to your family to go. Your family will remember for the rest of your lives. it is great.

On a lacrosse note, we did finish 6th - a great showing considering that we were not a youthful team. Our goalie, Dave "the Wall" Miller, now a successful Program Manager at the Office of Naval Intelligence was selected as the All-Tournament goalie.

The on-field highlight was clearly in Supermasters game 4 of 5.

Using a very deliberate offense and a stifling defense, we were winning 3-2 at the end of 3 quarters against a very good team including last year's All-Tournament goalie.

Well, I'm not sure what their coach said at the break, but they came out fired up, scoring 2 goals in a minute to take the lead and scoring 4 unanswered to put us down 6-3.

And so it stayed until Tommy Coyne '87 stroked a sweet left-handed EMO goal to make the score 6-4 with 4 minutes to go. Then with under a minute to go, Sean Logan '85 scored on a great individual effort to close the gap to one at 6-5.

Sean won the face-off (which is sort of like saying the ball is round) and moved the ball to the attack.

Well, by this point everyone was gassed and our primary "dodging - passing" attackman was dodging from behind looking for one last chance.

it seems that nobody had enough juice left to put their sticks up to score, so some guy who writes a lot of Navy Lacrosse e-mails continued around from behind, dodged from the midfield and scored with 14 seconds to go to tie the game at 6.

the other team was deflated and the Old Goats were looking to OT.

All except one Old Goat, who wanted to end it in regulation.

Sean Logan '85 wins the face-off - pushes the ball ahead to Tim McElligatt '89 who finds Butts McIlhenny '80 on the crease for the game winner with 8 secs on the clock.

We stunned everybody - and everybody was watching, because the biggest game of the tournament was following our game, so we pulled off the biggest come-from-behind win on the big stage. Much fun.

Go Navy !!

Buddy Garland '84