Sometimes stories seem like a big deal at the time and fade away, never to be thought of again. We decided to round up some of the bigger stories of 2014 that you may have forgotten happened.
Kahnawake Mess
The Ales Hrebsky Memorial Tournament is the best amateur lacrosse tournament in the world. It takes place every year in Prague, Czech Republic, and teams from all over the world participate. This was going to include two teams from Kahnawake this season; the Rapids and the Tomahawks.
American Indoor Lacrosse
The American indoor lacrosse scene was at its bleakest in the past four years in 2014 with no viable professional league to play in. Sure, we had random and sporadic USLL news every six months or so, but the reality is, players didn’t play. With the NLL, MLL, and CLax as active and alive as ever, it may have been forgotten. The only time we saw former stars of the NALL were in leagues like the Baltimore Indoor Lacrosse League and Philadelphia Box Lacrosse Association.
The NIFL
Does anyone remember the NIFL? No? That league that was going to have field lacrosse inside? Oh, yeah. That. It never worked out. The league announced five teams in Ontario and upstate New York, was going to attempt a new form of the sport, but none of it ever came to be.
The ELL
The European Lacrosse League plays every fall, but they can be lost in the hype of the other pro lacrosse leagues. This season Deutschland Adler from Germany won the league’s title with an 8-7 win over the top regular season record holder the Wolves.
Colorado Sabertooths Leave
The CILL has been dominated by the past two seasons by the Colorado Sabertooths. This season, the schedule left them off initially as they tried to figure out how to work out travel costs being the furthest team to the west. Midway through the CILL season, the defending champions announced they would not return to the league.
Grippy Ball
This was a pretty big deal for a while at the start of the season and it might not go away. Major league Lacrosse has historically used dimpled balls and going into 2014, they eliminated them in favor of smoother ones. Coaches complained at the start of the season and it was true that two point scoring went down as goalies had clearer vision when the ball wasn’t moved thanks to the grippy balls. It remains to be seen if this remains a story in 2015.
