Sizzling In Baltimore

The uniforms were, uh, colorful. The sleeveless jerseys were black, with the word "Kentucky" centered in florescent orange with florescent green outlining. The numbers were gigantic, off to the right on the front, all white.

As for the shorts, well, they were black with checkerboard done in the florescent green and white.

What made these uniforms most interesting, though, wasn't their design or color scheme. Nope, it was the sport.

These were lacrosse uniforms, worn by youth lacrosse players from Kentucky. The competed this weekend at the Summer Sizzle, a tournament held in the heart of lacrosse country, Baltimore.

In the world of youth lacrosse, it doesn't get much better than the Summer Sizzle, which draws teams from all over the country to compete against the best teams in the Maryland area. There are eight divisions in the tournament, from high school down to U-11.

TigerBlog Jr.'s team, Twist, was one of the teams in the U-15B Division, which consists mostly of players who are heading into eighth grade. There is a U-15A Division, which is mostly kids who will be starting high school in the fall.

What was most extraordinary about this tournament was the fact that teams were there from all over the country.

There was a team from Nashville (the Groove). From Houston. From California. From Denver. Two from North Carolina, including a team from Winston-Salem. There were a few from Pittsburgh. There were a few from Virginia. And of course throughout the Northeast.

And of course, there was the team from Kentucky, who went 1-3-1 in its five round-robin games. After one of its games, TigerBlog overheard the coach say in his Kentuckian drawl: "If you throw and catch like that, you won't win a game in KIHN-tuh-kee, let alone up here."

And, in fairness to those who won, well, the eight divisions produced champions from the following areas: seven came from Maryland and one came from Long Island.

The 1992 Princeton men's lacrosse team won the first of the program's six NCAA championships. Of the 48 players on the roster, 20 were from New York and nine were from Maryland. Five more were from New Jersey, and three were from Northern Virginia or D.C.

There was one player from Michigan, and that was David Morrow, who stood out as a complete rarity back in those days. Morrow, of course, went on to become the national Division I Player of the Year and then the founder of Warrior Lacrosse, which was named for his high school, Brother Rice.

In 2001, when Princeton won its sixth championship, the roster consisted of 18 players from New York, nine from Maryland, four from Pennsylvania and three each from Virginia and Colorado. There was also one player from Michigan and one from Texas.

The most recent Princeton team had seven players from New York and eight from Maryland. It also had players from Illinois, California (two), Michigan and Montana, as well as six from Connecticut.

That the sport of lacrosse is growing is obvious. The Summer Sizzle was held on four locations, two for the youth and two for the high school.

Driving from the Maryland Fairgrounds to St. Paul's School at back, TB could see the hundreds of players, all in their wildly colorful uniforms (though not quite like Kentucky).

Of course, not that long ago, lacrosse didn't exist in most of these areas. And, as the number of Division I men's teams continues to remain in the area of about 60, the number of players per roster spot has skyrocketed.

This has put the pressure on the college coaches to find the talent, wherever it is.

And who knows? Maybe one day it will be coming from the kids from Kentucky. Oh wait. It already is; the recent high school All-America list includes three players from Kentucky, two of whom are headed to Division I schools (Providence and Dartmouth).

In fact, Hopkins has a player coming from Indiana. Other non-traditional states who have Division I players on their list: Tennessee, Ohio, Oregon, Maine, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota and even Idaho.

Still, that's not what any of this was about, at least not on the youth level. The players or parents who sit there and think in terms of college scholarships or college roster spots are missing out on the most obvious part of all of this.

TigerBlog Jr.'s team reached the U-15B final, winning all five of its round-robin games (against three teams from Maryland, one from Pittsburgh and one from New Jersey) before taking on a team from Philadelphia in the semifinals.

After that was a 6-4 loss to Hotstix, a team from outside of Baltimore.

TBJ's team had won two of its first three summer tournaments, one in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania. To go to Baltimore and compete so well against the best teams from Maryland and around the country was probably more impressive, but it's hard for a bunch of U15ers to think in those terms sometimes.

Still, after the team lost, nobody threw their equipment or cried or stormed away angrily or any of that.

Besides, when they think back in years to come about how they spent their summers when they were adolescents, they're not going to remember the scores of the games. They're going to remember sitting around a table at a hotel buffet in their own florescent green shirts, about hanging out with friends they made playing a game they loved to play.

Will TBJ or any of his 20 teammates play in college? If they're really lucky, maybe one or two will play Division I, and that would be a lot.

Maybe a few more will play at other levels in college.

The rest will probably play at some point in high school before the maturation process begins to separate the very best.

Still, nothing's going to take away from the experiences that they've gotten to have. That's what the Summer Sizzle - and the rest of the tournaments - are really about.

And it doesn't matter where you're from, Baltimore, Pennsylvania or even Kentucky.

It's a great way to spend your summer.