Thursday, April 28, 2011

I wouldn't say I was the best manager in the country. But I'm in the top one.


I would love to see what that text message said.



So it all comes down to this.

One more day of practice left and then senior day and our final regular season game against Cortland.

Tomorrow the seniors make their speeches. It's a tradition on our team for all the old wise men to pass on the knowledge they gained from the four years they have spent at school. That sounded a lot more stoic and intelligent than it really is. All kidding, aside I've heard some great speeches in my four years hear and looking forward to making one of my own.

Funny side note: Kyle Norchi will be the first senior to have made two senior speeches....At this point do I even need to say anything? Are you really surprised he had to have one more than everyone else?

Not much else to say. Just trying to live to fight another day.

Awesome website that has video of every dunk made in every dunk contest from 1984 to present. Yeah it's legit.

Mel Kiper Jr said the Jets might have made the best pick of the draft so far. He's a good pass rusher which is what we need. Hopefully this isn't Gholston 2.0.

-DeFran



Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.




Surfing photos might be the best but basketball is a close second.



Big win for the Cardinals today!

Wasn't our best effort, especially on defense, but we got the W and that's all that matters. We played a lot of guys in crunch time and they came up big which showed that this was a team win. This is a 32 man team, every roster spot matters.

A lot of guys on the team seem to hate on my turf dogs. I don't know why. I think they are pretty styling. Here is a picture of them below:



Fresh I know.

Regardless of your feelings on my footwear those shoes are 2-0 at Oneonta. Hmmm...reminds me of a certain commercial:



I'm not saying the shoes won us the game but....I mean I did have an assist.

Couple of milestones were broken in today's game as well:

-Danny Caufield tied the record for the most wins by a goalie in a season
-Kyle Norchi became the leading points scorer in SUNYAC history



Huge game against Cortland on Saturday I hope you can all come to support us on Senior Day!


-DeFran








Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.


Surf photos are the coolest. I dare you to try and tell me otherwise.


Apparently Plattsburgh was relocated to the Amazon rain forest today. We got about, rough estimate here, 15 inches of rain over the span of 2 hours.

Practice was just getting started when a huge thunderstorm rolled in ending things early. Rumor has it that is the forecast for tomorrow in Oneonta. Hopefully we won't see any lighting to ruin our match up.

I had to do a little research on the effect the new bats specifications have had on college baseball's offensive numbers. Their impact is a bit ridiculous. Made me think about how last year the NCAA required lacrosse heads to be wider in an effort to cause more turnovers and make the game quicker. I wonder if it really worked? Inside Lacrosse, if you're out there, I'd love to see a story on that. Hell, I'd even write it for you ; )

I'm REALLY looking forward to this weeks Swamp People. For those of you that haven't seen the previews two brothers make their first appearance. I'm pretty sure I heard the shows narrator snicker as he was introducing them.

Hope to see you all out there tommorw. Bring your recycled ponchos from Disney World circa 1998...I know my mom will.

Classic...in my opinion.

-DeFran


Monday, April 25, 2011

If you have to ask you can't afford it

This picture makes me chuckle

Warm and somewhat sunny in Plattsburgh. What a surprise! One more day until another big SUNYAC showdown with Oneonta.


There is a bit of a mullet craze going around on our team. I'll leave it at that.

Nothing much else to say, just making sure Mrs. Alonge won't yell at me on Wednesday for not posting.

-DeFran




Sunday, April 24, 2011

The older you get, the more rules they are going to try and get you to follow. You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.

It's tough times here in Cardinal Country so I'd figured I would keep it light to start:



This past week has been tough. Wednesday's performance was inexcusable and I apologize to all the parents for having to make the trip to see that game. I think this video sums up my thoughts:




Saturday was an absolute heart breaker. It seems like too many times I've had to say that on here. Losing a game is tough. Losing a SUNYAC game is terrible. Losing a SUNYAC game with 5.4 seconds left feels like you got your heart ripped out and stomped on.

As tough as it may seem, we need to bounce back. Wednesday is a chance for us to get a conference win against a team that beat us last year. All we can do is take it one game at a time.

As the season dwindles to a close it's all starting to set in that this will be my final year at Plattsburgh. I was thinking about it today and I've had a longer relationship with PSU lacrosse than all of my past relationships with girlfriends combined. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

72 degrees on Wednesday! It's almost like we don't go to school in Antarctica.

This made me chuckle.


My mind is fried. I'm at a loss for words at this point.



-DeFran

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

We get one day a year to prove we're not screw-ups and what do we do? We screw it up.

Hey there.

Not much to report here at the birds nest. Tomorrow is our big show down against Williams at 6 p.m. Hope all of you can make it. If not check out the live stats.

I've decided I'm going to take on the local eating challenge here at Plattsburgh. It's called the "Turtlezille" and it's a burger that weighs 2 lbs that is served at The Naked Turtle, a local restaurant down by the harbor. The turtle officially opens April 28th so I have some time to prepare. I'll let you know how my training goes.

I leave you with one of my favorite clips from one of my favorite shows:


Forgot how much I enjoyed this song.
-DeFran

Monday, April 18, 2011

Money isn't real, George. It doesn't matter. It only seems like it does.

Another great day here in lovely Plattsburgh. I was informed by my roommates that it snowed this morning. By the time I woke up and got outside, about noonish, there was no snow on the ground therefore I refuse to believe them. It's like that saying "If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it does it really fall?", yeah I don't want to hear about snow on April 18.

Practice was business as usual for the boys in red and white as we prep for our rematch against Williams on Wednesday.

Interesting factoids about Williams College. Established in 1793, Williams was an all males school until 1970. Williams has won the NACDA Directors Cup 14 times, "presented to the institution within each NCAA division that has the greatest overall success in NCAA sanctioned-championships". The award has been around for 15 years. The school has also produced 37 Rhodes Scholars, the most of any liberal arts school.

However, my favorite fact about Williams is something that Norchi pointed out to me. Kyle had a little extra time on his hands and decided to do a comparison of Williams College and our fine state university Plattsburgh.

In 2009 Plattsburgh received $10.3 million in endowments, not bad for a small state school.

Williams? $1.41........billion.

They better have a nice visitors locker room...

-DeFran


Sunday, April 17, 2011

Great White Buffalo

First of we have another addition to the ongoing video blog done by sophomore face-off specialist Mike Santisteban:



Great job as usual by Mike. That's sophomore midfielder Angus Rodriguez getting his groove on at the end of the video. He'll be appearing in next seasons "Dancing With the Stars".


There is no easy way to describe Saturday's loss. I'll be the first one to point the finger at myself. For the second time this year we allowed a team to score 10 or more goals. As one of the leaders on defense this year I made it my goal to keep opposing teams under 10 goals to give us a chance in every game. After an initial slip up against Farmingdale, we had a nice stretch going of 9 games in which we held to that goal. Against Brockport we failed to do our job as a defense and for that I apologize.


On a lighter note, all is not lost at Plattsburgh. Our hopes for a playoff berth are still very much alive. Fortunately for us our future lies solely in our hands. With three games remaining against Geneseo, Oneonta and Cortland we still have the chance to be the number one seed if we win the remainder of our conference games.

This week we get a slight break from SUNYAC competition as we head down to Massachusetts on Wednesday to take on Williams in a rematch of last years 17-15 thriller.

The Celtics ripped my heart out for the tenth time this year. Speaking of hearts, if you want to read a real tear jerker (yeah I said it, big whoop want to fight about it) of a story check this bad boy out. It's about a father and son team that run marathons together, literally. Real inspirational stuff.

The writer, Gary Smith, is an absolute genius. He was the one that first brought media attention to a mentally challenged man that worked with a high school football team in South Carolina. Maybe you've heard of him? They made a movie about his life. His name was Radio.

Saw this bad boy in VH1's top 40 one hit wonders of the 90's.

Keep on keeping on.
-DeFran


Friday, April 15, 2011

I'm not great at farewells, so uh... that'll do, pig.

Greetings from the Ra Cha Cha. Not much news here. Got into town at about 9:45. Just relaxing before the big game tomorrow.

Just a reminder, tomorrows game is at noon not 1 p.m.

In other news we got a bit of press for out pink and blue game. Laxallstars.com had a feature about our game including pictures. Shout out to PSU lax alumni Longstick33 for letting them know about our game.

Unfortunately Caufield did not win play of the week. =(

Not much else going on here. Hope to see you all at tomorrows game.


-DeFran


Wednesday, April 13, 2011

If I were a lion and you were a tuna, I would swim out in the middle of the ocean and freaking eat you




So I was going to put up a picture of a dead bear, due to our victory, but I would hate PETA to start looking into my blog. Instead I decided to put up a logo of The Grateful Dead which just so happens to be a bear....GET IT?

I also decided to put up a picture of this cardinal because it looks bo$$.


Big win for the boys in red and white. Every victory feels good but SUNYAC wins feel great. Pete and Timmy paced the team with four points a piece. Travers, Kramer and McClelland all had two points from the midfield. Caufield came up big with 10 saves.

Like I predicted the game was a battle for three quarters. Potsdam never gave up and drew even with us in the beginning of the third. The defense held strong, stopped the run and the offense stepped up going on to score six unanswered goals.

Glad to see the live stats work for those of you who couldn't make the game. I know Saturday is a far drive for many of you (apparently my parents might have to go through Pennsylvania to get there) but I hope you all can make it.

A trip out west means we get to stop at my favorite restaurant spot, The Brooklyn Pickle. The Pickle is located right in Syracuse and offers some of the best sandwiches known to man...believe it Long Island.

Also we have a bit of a celebrity on our hands. Danny Caufield's fantastic breakaway save is featured in local television stations WPTZ's "Top Plays". Vote for Caufield here and forever turn him into a celebrity...in Plattsburgh. Results will be announced Thursday night so I'll let you know how it goes.

We are looking into doing a guest blog in the upcoming weeks. That should be interesting.

Finally I have a very important announcement. Clarkson defeated St. Lawrence 11-4 today. Now normally this news would just greatly anger me due to the fact that we smoked Clarkson and lost to St. Lawrence in OT. Well as Kyle Norchi pointed it out to me due to that loss we are Kings of the North Country. Follow me here:

Platts, Clarkson and St. Lawrence are all 2-1 among North Country teams (Potsdam is 0-3 wah wah wah). The games are as follows:

Plattsburgh 11 Potsdam 6
Platsburgh 12 Clarkson 5
Plattsburgh 7 St Lawrence 8 (OT)
Clarkson 11 St Lawrence 4
Clarkson 8 Potsdam 7
Potsdam 2 St Lawrence 13

So if you look at all those scores and figure out the score differentials (the tie breaker in SUNYAC) it goes as follows
Clarkson: -7,7,1=1
St Lawrence: 1,-7,11=5
Plattsburgh: 5,7,-1=11

Winner winner chicken parm dinner.

-DeFran


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

That's somebodys daughter up there


Tomorrow's another big day here in the 'burgh. Potsdam is one of our biggest rivals and always a great game. Definitely looking forward to scrapping it out for 2 hours in what is gonna be an absolute battle.

The game is at 4 p.m. so if you're in the area I strongly encourage you to stop by the field house as we would love your support. I know week day games are tough, especially for those of you out there on the island, but SUNYAC games are definitely worth the trip.

Unfortunately the weather is supposed to be absolutely miserable up here. This doesn't surprise me considering last time we played Potsdam at Plattsburgh it started hailing the size of golf balls in the fourth quarter. T.I.P.-This is Plattsburgh.

So today after dinner we saw a commercial on TV for a very dumb movie, which I can't think of right now. It was at that point that I turned to Tucker and told him how I planned on becoming a millionaire when I wrote a screenplay for a movie about William Randolph Hearst's life, the crazed media tycoon who started the yellow journalism war with Joseph Pulitzer in the early 1900's. I had to read about Hearst in my Media and Journalism class last week and found him hilarious. The dude got kicked out of Harvard because he gave all his professors chamber pots with their faces at the bottom. Awesome.

Great idea right? Well apparently, according to Tucker, someone already beat me to the punch. Some chump named Orson Welles. The movie is called "Citizen Kane". It's considered one of the greatest films ever made.

At least it was a good idea...just 70 years too late.

-DeFran



Monday, April 11, 2011

I turned the whole world into a tabloid


Stop.

Before you say it, I already know.

Let's just move on and forget that it's been over a week since my last blog.

Big things have gone down in this past week. Last Wednesday we had a tough overtime loss to St. Lawrence. I have lost 4 overtime games in my entire lacrosse career and I remember each one vividly. This one definitely tops them all. Every year it seemed like we were getting closer to beating them. I really feel like I let the program down considering this is a team that we have never beaten. At this point I just hope the younger guys learn from the loss and can do what I couldn't do in my four years here.

On a lighter note congrats to Nick Travers who had a career day scoring 5 goals in the losing effort.

Friday was a bit of a different story. Great game, great cause, great turnout. Big shout outs to the Alonge and McClelland families who raised $275. That along with the money raised in the raffle totaled $522, which will be given to the Fitzpatrick Cancer Center in Plattsburgh. Not only were we able to help raise money for cancer research but we also got a nice W for the home fans. Although the game was a bit sloppy at times we still managed to pull out the victory. Oh yeah by the way...DID YOU NOTICE HOW GOD &^%$ GOOD WE LOOKED?

This week we round out our tour of the North Country when we take on Potsdam at home on Wednesday. The bears are tough squad that always gives us a good game.

Also like to say congratulations again to Travers who earned SUNYAC player of the week honors for his 5 point effort against St.Lawrence and 4 point game against Morrisville. Nice to see someone take home that honor that's last name doesn't end in "orchi".

This is it folks. Besides out trip down to Williams we are officially in SUNYAC season. Every game from here on out can basically be considered a playoff game with a loss to any team seriously damaging your chances of making the playoffs. While some people might look at this as a negative aspect of our conference, personally I love it.

The fact that, with every game, there is so much on the line is awesome. It makes the season that much more exciting. It reminds me a lot of college football. While I am definitely not a supporter of the BCS system I can appreciate it's fans who say that it makes the regular season that much more exciting.

I really feel like Swamp People is catching on among the team. At this point, if you're not watching I feel sorry for you.

I will say this about the show. I know I like to go one here and crack on them because, well, it's easy. However, I would be willing to bet that if camera crews came to Plattsburgh to film my life people in the south would definitely make fun of "the dumb yankee boy". How do I know this? They already did it and it's called "The Jersey Shore". Haha ok that was a joke (besides those people are WAY less intelligent than Troy and the Swamp People) but my point is just because it's funny and weird to us doesn't necessarily make them wrong. It is just two completely different lifestyles.

Ok, hopefully I don't break my leg as I get off my high horse.

I also was in a bit of predicament the other day. In case you didn't know I am a big fan of food. So the other day I decided to order myself some Applebee's Car-Side-To-Go. For those of you unfamiliar with this process it is basically like ordering take-out at Applebees. There is a catch though: They deliver it to your car without you having to get out. Fancy, I know. Now I had ordered from them a handful of times before but every time I did it was after the "car side" aspect of the program was closed because it was so late. Not a big deal as my obesity has not yet overcome me enough where I can't get out of my car. However on this particular evening I had placed my order early enough to enjoy the perk of sitting in my car while my food was brought to me. Here in lies my problem: Do I tip the food deliverer?

As the food neared my car I had a mini panic attack as I realized I would have to make this decision within the next 15 seconds. Lucky for me I paid with a debit card which gave me another minute as the deliverer returned inside to complete the transaction. As if this whole process wasn't stressful enough, after giving me back my card and receipt to sign the deliverer stood next to my car waiting for me to sign the receipt.

I decided to give her two bucks because she was cute. God I'm a sucker for blondes.

-DeFran

Sunday, April 3, 2011

You go, We go.

Hey everybody.

Great win for the Cards on Saturday. SUNYAC's are what we have been preparing for all season so it's nice to see some results after all the hard work we have put in so far.

Also big thank you to all the Oswego parents for putting together our great pregame meal at Greene's. That was awesome and all the guys definitely appreciated it. Parents your hard work does not go unnoticed trust me.

The usual suspects put up 11 points. Brett McClelland had a big day in front of his home crowd with a 4 point day (3,1). Not to be outdone, his roommate and fellow middie Nick Travers had three points (1,2) and went 6 for 8 at the X. He also led the team with 7 GB's. Kramer had two goals and eleven Cardinals in total scored a goal, including freshman Connor DeNike who recorded his first college point. Congratulations Connor you did in 3 years quicker than it took me. CAUFIELD came up big with 15 saves.

Besides getting the W the big news of the day was Norchi breaking the schools career points record of 253 previously held by Luke Weidlein. After the game Mr.Norchi assured me that he is trying to teach Kyle how to share (Kyle went 3,0 on Saturday...the stats don't lie) and blames himself for Kyle's behavior.

Now I like to crack on Kyle a lot on here but the truth is the I'm extremely jealous of him. See not only is Kyle the leading points scorer in PSU history, he is also a Youtube sensation.

In 2006 Kyle was a senior at Hauppauge High School on Long Island. The team finished 11-5 during the regular season and was given a 7 seed in the sectional playoffs pitting them against cross town rival Smithtown East. The teams had faced each other in the final game of the regular season with Smithtown winning 15-14 in OT.

Well wouldn't you know that the underdog Eagles upset the heavily favored Bulls 14-10 to advance to the sectional semifinal. Kyle's team ended up losing in their next game to Comsewogue 9-8, ending Hauppauge's Cinderella run, but that doesn't matter.

See the real story is in one of the goals that was scored in that game. While on a man-up Hauppauge ran the ever elusive hidden ball trick and I think you can guess who pulled the trigger and scored the goal. Lucky for us the play was documented and put on Youtube, thoughtfully entitled "Sickest Lacrosse Play Ever". Believe it or not the video has gotten over 500,000 views, which, as a Youtube expert, I can say is a lot for video that doesn't feature cats or babies.

There are so many things I love about this video. I will simply just let judge for yourself.



Despite having been posted almost 5 years ago, it still gets comments, almost daily.

Funny side note: Joe Tansey, a LSM on our team who is red shirting this year due to an injury, was actually on the field as a downer for Smithtown. Tansey had been pulled up as a sophomore for sectionals. To this day he still gets angry when the goal is brought up. Also I believe rules have been passed since this game that would now make this play illegal. Kyle Norchi, changing lacrosse one play at a time.

Big week for us coming up. First up we begin our second tour of duty in the Battle for the North Country when we head to St.Lawrence on Wednesday night.

Then on Friday at 7p.m. we are playing in our first ever "Protect Your Equipment" game against Morrisville at home. The game is being played in order to raise money and awareness for Breast and Prostate Cancer. We will be wearing special jerseys for the game. It's gonna be awesome.

Sorry it took so long for the blog to be posted. I spent the night in Oswego. Always a great time there.

Apparently I have got at least one reader to start watching Swamp People (Middie Kevin Alonge's mom). I strongly urge you to take a gander. If you're still apprehensive take a look at swamp legend Troy explaining "One Eye"




People, it only gets better. Trust me.


-DeFran



Friday, April 1, 2011

I need your help. I can't tell you what it is, you can never ask me about it later, and we're gonna hurt some people....Whose car we taking?

So today we are off to good ole Oswego. There is nothing like kicking off SUNYAC's against one of your school's biggest rivals. Definitely looking forward to the game on Saturday.

I do have some loose ends I want to tie up:

1. Forgot to mention it in the last blog but a big thank you to Mr. DeNike who kept the parents updated regarding the game on Wednesday. Apparently our site's live stats were not working and Mr. DeNike sent out several emails throughout the game keeping the parents who couldn't make the game informed on what was going on. Awesome!

2.As pointed out by former alumni Chris Dupree, Kyle Norchi currently stands one point away from tying Luke Weidlein's record of 253 career points. Considering how selfish Norchi is I'm pretty sure he will look to break it as he is not into sharing.

3. Great article in this weeks Cardinal Points about our junior goaltender Danny Caufield. As I write this I realize I have been spelling Caufield's name "Caulfield" this whole time. I am a moron.

4. For those of you that haven't heard, we will be attending Greene's restaurant in Oswego, NY tonight for our pregame meal. Any parent that will be in or around Oswego tonight is more than welcome to come and hang out with the team. We should be arriving there around 7-730.

5.Did you see Swamp People last night? Just when I thought I couldn't love a show anymore...Favorite part of the show had to have been when they were showing home movies of one of the hunters father who said, and I quote:

"I'm 82 right now and I want to be hunting alligators for two more years until I'm 85."

This is Swamp People.

Big game tomorrow. Hope to see you all there in high spirits!

-DeFran