The Georgia Swarm announced on August 4th the signing of Scott Ratliff to a two year deal. Ratliff, a Marietta, Georgia native, plays long stick midfielder for the Atlanta Blaze. This will be the first National League Lacrosse experience for the 25 year old Loyola graduate. Ratliff has been in the MLL for four years now and made the All-Star game this season, Scotty has racked up 66 ground balls, 14 caused turnovers and has 20 points this season.
Hopefully with this acquisition, we will see more collaboration between the Blaze and the Swarm. For a growing region this is much needed. After an interesting first season the Blaze need everything they can to keep the fire alive. Not to mention now the Swarm have an impressive number of Americans on their team; which is usually rare for an NLL team. A good sign of growth for box as a whole.
Not to state the obvious, but this is huge for Atlanta lacrosse (and Ratliff). Ratliff was blessed enough to live his dream and play for his hometown with the Blaze. Now he gets to step into a different game for the same state. Atlanta lacrosse will grow because of this move. The youngblood youth players from the region will see that even they can make it big and play for their hometown. In a region where lacrosse hasn’t been big but is growing, this means everything. Ratliff opened the door and showed everyone here that this is possible and can be obtained. Lacrosse is no longer a regional sport. Anyone from anywhere can make it big with the right amount of work.
Field lacrosse is not the only thing that will grow from this either. Ratliff is the president of LB3 lacrosse and oversees youth development. Now that he will have some box experience he will be able to translate the box game into his teaching and maybe even add more box opportunities to LB3 and Atlanta as a whole. Box has been growing in non-hotbeds the past couple years and this move will spark even more growth. Box lacrosse just got bigger in Atlanta, all from just signing one player; the right player.
