Happy Laxmas everyone. The holidays are here, and however you celebrate this time of year, if you’re anything like me, your wish list has plenty of lacrosse centric items. Here’s what I’m hoping lacrosse Santa delivers for me in 2025.
Goal music for PLL Players
I am perpetually in search of ways for PLL players to show more of themselves and their personality to fans. It’s tough to do. For the most part, lacrosse players go back to their day jobs during the week, so the exposure to them from fans, in real time, is limited to just game days on weekends. There aren’t midweek practices and media sessions, which are additional opportunities to hear from players. The sandbox we have to play in, for now, is strictly during games or on the weekends for games.
Goal music for players is an easy win. If you’ve been to a PLL game, you are assuredly very familiar with DJ Ralphey Ralph. He handles the music for the entire day. Warm ups, during the game, the in arena games and entertainment that happens during TV breaks, it’s all Ralphey, and he’s damn good at it.
There’s an opportunity here for players to share a bit more about themselves. Some indoor pro teams do it, some colleges do it. Each player on the team, down to the goalie, has their own goal song that they choose. They score, their song gets played. Josh Byrne gets Jay-Z’s “Public Service Announcement” when he scores for the Bandits. At Syracuse, Tucker Dordevic had “Shout” played following goals. At High Point, Asher Nolting’s goals were followed by “Teach Me How to Dougie”.
I’d love for these players to get the opportunity to bring this to the PLL. A well chosen song isn’t just a fun way to show fans something about yourself, it’s a way for them to join your celebration. Some songs can have a very strong audience participation component, making the fans' time at the game more fun and allowing them to feel like they’re part of the team goal celebration. It’s personality, it’s fun, it brings the fan closer to the player. I am certain Ralphey can handle this.
NLL/PLL Broadcaster Swap
It’s the holidays. In the spirit of being less adversarial, more welcoming, and more tolerant, let’s say enough of the pro league leagues needling each other with little jabs (although lately, that seems to be a one way street). As a goodwill gesture that I genuinely think would be incredibly fun, I offer the broadcaster swap.
Anish Shroff, Ryan Boyle, Quint Kessenich, Paul Carcaterra, and Dana Boyle; the top booth for outdoor men’s lacrosse at the pro level. Fans may have varying tastes and opinions about their broadcast style, but the fact of the matter is, they are the best in the business when it comes to the outdoor game. I’d throw Drew Carter in there too, but for what I’m proposing he’d be busy with the Celtics. Look no further than the Brennan O’Neill game this year, when he led a monumental comeback and looked like lacrosse Galactus, for evidence of Shroff and Boyle in particular being excellent at letting the game tell the story itself while taking the viewer along for the ride.
Indoors, the voices I hear and enjoy are Teddy Jenner, Pat Gregoire, and Mitch Belisle. I personally really love John Gurtler’s calls for the Buffalo Bandits, Matt Caruk for the OJLL, Cooper Perkins in San Diego, and Cody Janzen for the Saskatchewan Rush. Jake Elliott is great on Lax Classified and behind the mic for games. Jon Donville of course also does a nice job on the mic, but I’m assuming he’s going to actually be playing in the games for a while longer. Maki Jenner is great on the sideline and did some nice work in the booth at World Box Lacrosse Championships.
For Christmas, I want these crews to switch jobs. I want the Shroff/Boyle/Carc/Quint crew to head indoors and call an NLL game together. I want Jenner/Greggy/Mitch/Maki outdoors to call a PLL game together. Does this have any grand sort of “grow the game” energy? Not at all. But it would be very fun. ESPN has both properties, it seems to me this could be worked out.
Pick a low stakes game if you don’t want to do a big rivalry, and let these crews take it inside or outside. Quint and Carc breaking down incredible plays indoors, Jenner and Greggy adding their flair to the outdoor game, what’s not to love about this?
A Food Show
This is strictly a personal wish, but the heart of it is related to better connection between PLL clubs and their home markets. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is eat. The PLL has teams in places with fun and interesting food scenes. Most of them have their sort of signature food which, touristy or not, is delicious and fun to eat. What I really want for Lacrosse-mas is the opportunity to take the food scene in a PLL market, share it with a player, and then show that to PLL fans.
I want to go get cheesesteaks in Philadelphia with Waterdogs attackman Michael Sowers and do an interview during it. I want to go get BBQ in Carolina with Chaos players and brothers Jack and Nick Rowlett. I want to get some SoCal tacos or other Mexican food with Romar Dennis and Nakeie Montgomery. Maybe some clam chowder in Boston with Jeff Trainor. You get the idea. I’d also love to do Hot Ones style interviews (eating progressively hotter and spicier wings/food as the interview goes on) with players like Trevor Baptiste, Mike Sisselberger, Ian MacKay, the list goes on.
I have no idea how I would do this, and making it happen would be a true Christmas miracle. But if I had unlimited time and resources this is the first thing I’d try and do. It connects players, home markets, fans, communities, it can be deeply unserious while also highlighting the way players and their new home markets are coming together.
Mid Week Media Calls
This is on the wish list every year, but so far, no luck. In the major sports, there is some kind of midweek media availability. Baseball is a bit different since they play every day, but still there’s a few minutes set aside for coaches/managers to meet with media members to answer some questions about whatever the topics of that day are.
I’d love for the PLL/NLL to add a media call time on Thursdays. I’m not asking for hours, but 10-15 minutes with each coach. Get updates on injuries, talk roster moves/construction for the week. That’s all. Just a half dozen quick hit questions about the team for that week. By Thursday the team zoom calls for the week have likely happened and rosters are settled. Every week, particularly in the summer when rosters come out, there are shuffles of players in and out of the lineup for the last few spots, some players get put on reserve, there are injury report updates. This is a touch point for coaches to communicate thinking behind those decisions, since there are inevitably questions about them. It could be a step forward in how information makes its way to fans. Rather than from league announcements with little context or information that nobody can get answers on for days at a time, a quick media call where reporters can ask who’s trending towards playing, who may be getting the week off, and so forth.
The Faceoff. Just leave it alone.
PLL removing the pole from the faceoff and sticking with the :32 post faceoff shot clock struck a nice balance for me. Without a pole, the prevent became much more difficult to run effectively, teams looked more comfortable in the :32 clock and offenses weren’t as hurried. There are still things I’d like to solve. The Atlas would occasionally use Danny Logan to try and just knock the ball as deep into the opponents defensive end as possible and allow them to field it there, which is really just the prevent with extra steps. Players occasionally stand over the ball on a procedure violation or a ball out of bounds and don’t pick it up, instead waiting for subs to happen. It slows play down, the opposite of what is intended. But that’s just nitpicking. Stocking stuffers at best. PLL last year had the faceoff in a place where it felt impactful to win it, it didn’t totally sway games, and you felt punished but not in a game breaking way by losing.
College faceoff saw some rules discussion at IMLCA last year, and could see more of that discussion this year. Some coaches want it gone, some like it (this tends to go along the lines of whether or not your team has an All American faceoff specialist). But for the sake of the position, let’s just settle down on the constant tweaks. I’d like the gift of a moratorium on rule changes related to the faceoff for a few years. Let the officials get comfortable officiating it (it looks like it’s been way better this fall so far), let the players get comfortable taking it. It’s a topic that’s always good for a million opinions but it really doesn’t need them.
Lots of Sixes
2028 will be here before you know it. With it comes lacrosse’s return to the Olympics. When the world’s eyes turn to Los Angeles for the games, it’ll be a first impression with the sport of lacrosse for many. Competition at the Olympics will be in the Sixes format. It wouldn’t be responsible or reasonable to continue to strictly play field and box lacrosse with a few Sixes events mixed in for the next three years. Sixes has to take more of a front seat as we get towards the Olympics. The PLL and WLL Championship Series is a great starting point, as is the USA Lacrosse Experience from this year. Those should be continued annually, but my Christmas wish is at least a few more events every year in the format. Plus youth, high school, and even college programs at some level incorporating a lot more Sixes play. The real wish here is that lacrosse is a massive success at the Olympics, but the work towards that wish is going to take the next three years.
What's on your Laxmas wish list? Send me a message here or on social and let me know!