The Green Room In conjunction with the 2008 U-19 World Championship, we asked Jim Green of Team USA to write periodic blog entries, providing friends, family and fans with a personal perspective on his experience. The U-19 World Championship Tournament is July 3-12 in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. The United States enters the tournament as the five-time defending ILF Under-19 champion.

Welcome to Canada
Posted: July 8, 2008

Sorry for the long time without an update but we’ve been extra busy now that the tournament is under way.

We started off the tournament on a positive note with a win over a good Iroquois team and followed that up with a win over the Australians, both exciting games. We then faced Japan, who despite being less talented than our team, tried their hardest and were good sportsmen.

The next day we played Canada in an epic game. We came back from a seven-goal deficit at halftime to win the game in overtime. I happened to have the winning goal in overtime which was an awesome experience. It was an intense game and left us tired for our game the next day against England, though we managed to win that and remain undefeated in our round robin play.

Besides lacrosse, we’ve all just been hanging out with our families, who help us to avoid the cafeteria food whenever they can. I myself went to Grouse Mountain in Vancouver with my family and did zip cording as well as saw the lumberjack show, both of which were fun. I then went to downtown Vancouver with the MacKrideses and Dolentes, where we ate at a good seafood spot and saw some of Vancouver. We play Thursday against England again in the tournament semifinals, where hopefully we’ll pull out the win and advance to the championship against either Canada or the Iroquois Nation.

Sleepless in Seattle
Posted: July 1, 2008

The road to the World Championship begins. We arrived in Seattle for training camp last Friday after a short six hour flight from Newark. Half the team flew out of Newark while another group flew out of BWI. Two of our teammates missed their plane and ended up meeting up with our North Carolina native, Tony Mendes, in Atlanta.

The team is staying at the University of Washington. Eventually, I was paired up with Adam Ghitelman, making our room a virtual frat house. Our coaches were brutal in that we ended up having to have a two hour practice that evening despite the fact that most of us had been up since 3:00 a.m. East Coast time. Trying to have a practice from what would normally be 10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. was tough!

Early on Saturday morning, we headed off to participate in a community service event planned by our national teams coordinator, Stacie Wentz, and the US Lacrosse Washington Chapter. We volunteered for an organization called Mountains to Sound Greenway. Little did we know what kind of work we were getting ourselves into!

We were supposed to help with some trail restoration. Once we got to the trail, we actually found out that we were going to be taking out wood planks that weighed what seemed like 150 lbs from a previous trail and then moving them about 1/2 mile to create a totally new trail. Because the old boardwalk was in a wetland, we had to take each plank and spike out by hand because machines would ruin the habitat.

We were all pretty much hating on Stacie for the work and I do remember asking her how much granola she's been eating, but it was all good. We worked together as a team and got it done. We'll look back later and realize that what we accomplished will impact those around us by enjoying a new, safer trail. And, it earned us a night out in Seattle as practice was cancelled that evening!

The next day we had our last exhibition game and beat the Washington state College All-Stars 20-2. By far the most interesting day occurred on Monday while the team was out swimming at the lake. Team USA doctor, Brian McGinley, saved a life when the lifeguard was unable to. Tonight (Tuesday) we are headed to a Seattle Mariners game and then off to Canada to bring home a World Championship title! Later.

We started our team meeting watching a little film; however this was soon interrupted by an important guest speaker. Lt. Walker, a former lacrosse player at West Point and now an officer, came to talk to us about what it means to serve your nation. He inspired us to do our best at the upcoming world games.

After the serious meeting things lightened up with some goofing off in the locker room, helped by coach Giblin’s gift for humor. Practice commenced, going smoothly despite some learning curve struggles. The offense attempted to learn a few plays, each of which ended in disaster and confusion. It's something we'll continue to work on. Everyone is also working to gel as a team. I mercilessly ripped shots on Adam Ghitelman as well, who is by far the frattiest kid I have ever met. Practice ended with an interesting "tire of truth" drill pitting teammates against each other in a tire tug of war. Max Schmidt was victorious with the power and strength of an early 20th century lumberjack. Festivities were done for the day and we each retired to our places of rest before another day of lacrosse.

Saturday started off with an early morning practice, which also went well. We continue to come together as a team and learn more about each other. After practice we had a sizable amount of free time, which I spent with fellow Pennsylvania natives Matt Dolente and Matt Mackrides, as well as Joel White and Josh Amidon. We went to Chipotle, where we gorged ourselves with tasty burritos. Joel and Josh even got seconds to eat later at the movies. We then attended the beautiful Bridgewater Mall movie theater. First, we saw The Happening, which was one of the strangest/worst movies I’ve ever seen. We then watched You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which I feel asleep in, but the parts I did see were horrible. I wouldn’t recommend either movie to anyone.

We returned to Basilone Field House to prepare for our exhibition. The game went smoothly and I even netted a few goals, however due to a colossal thunderstorm with a generous amount of lightning, the second half was cancelled. We suffered a 7-6 loss. In the locker room we remained optimistic about next week’s scrimmages despite being devastated by the loss of valuable lax time. We then departed, knowing we will soon again reunite in the name of lax and America, with several more scrimmages remaining before we travel to Canada.

The weekend started off smoothly with a easy cruise up I-95 to begin the festivities for Team USA. Arriving at C.W. Post (N.Y.) University, I was greeted by fellow team members, coaches, and managers. We were then shown to the locker room where we recieved an ungodly amount of the finest lacrosse stuff from adidas and STX. After gleefully recieving our gear, we strapped up for practice.

Practice went well as all the team members got reaquainted. We had previously met in the fall. After practice everyone was incredibly hungry and excited to go eat at the team dinner which had been prepared for us. Dinner was great. After a word from our coaches, we left to enjoy the comforts of Adam Ghitelman's house for the night. A sizable numner of us stayed there overnight.

We were groggy after having to get up early the next morning, but quickly awoke in eager anticipation of more lacrosse. Both practices went well despite the excrutiatingly heat. We were also entertained by Coach Giblin's sarcasm, as well as his Stanford story. After lunch, two practices, and signing posters for sponsers, we were treated to dinner at the Ghitelman's, where we all hung out and had a few aggressive games of KanJam frisbee. We then retired to our respective places of lodging to await our scrimmage the next day.

After waking up Sunday we went right to the scrimmage at Cold Spring Harbor High School,where we played the Long Island All Stars. The game went well (despite being at least 100 degrees on the turf) and we pulled out the victory. From there, we parted ways until next weekend when we will reunite and lax on.