Cardinals Men's Lacrosse: Are titles obligatory? How Aboutt... A lot to write, a lot to read, and not a lot of time...

After a short night of sleep, a full day of teaching, and a nice swim session at Memorial, I am finally ready to sit down and write this bad boy. Question is where do I begin...? So most of you have already seen the publication of some of our gear on LacrossePlayground.com. Well, not too long after, InsideLacrosse published an article featuring our three captains wearing our new jerseys from photos taken by our assistant coach Jared Burns.
--Found here for those who have not seen--
http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/02/29/suny-plattsburgh-gear-looking-spiffy-gear-zone

So last blog I told you how we were taking roster pictures that day. They are up on the site and damn we look good. Steph Dutton our SID, did a great job as always. Well guys, we do have some good ones...

The annual goofiest photo of 2012 goes to the one and only Peter Knutson. Caught in a moment that looks very personal, if you catch my drift.

The next one goes to a guy who has been getting a lot of photo action, but hey the swag here is undeniable. I mean the product, the chops, the stash, it is just ALL there.

Moving right along. Friday we left at 10am for Long Island. Setting record time by any bus driver I have been with, Paul da man got us down their in about 5 hours. It is always great to play at Maritime, especially for me because I spent two summers there for football camp and had some good memories there. All of us were really focused and just excited to play guys in different colored jerseys. Let me tell you, five weeks of pre-season really gets to you after a while, and this first game was a display of how hard we have been working and our potential from here on out. We really came out with a bang against them, and as an upperclassmen, it was good to see us continue that intensity after halftime as well.
Tailgate hosted at the end of the game was phenomenal as usual. I really am not just saying that to sound like a suck up. Our parents are simply unbelievable. This parent association I think has exceeding any persons', who have been associated with this program, expectations. You could not get the same food at the fanciest catering hall, and trust me, been there done that. I really want to thank the Krammers. I mean come on. They are just out of this world. The shoes that had to be filled after Donna Glynn left were enormous and Veronica Krammer has slipped into them as if they were a pair of her own. I do not know if the news has been spread. I am sure it has, but Joey -Filth- Krammer was awarded SUNYAC Player of the week with his 11 point weekend. I think his parents should be named SUNYAC Parents of the week especially for organizing the dinner Saturday afternoon at the Lindenhurst pavilion. You just can not ask for more.
So Sunday we faced off against Farmingdale in a rematch of last years disappointing loss. As far as we were concerned, we were the underdogs with something to prove. We knew it was going to be a close one, with factors like time of possession, ground-balls, and face-offs being the difference. Personally I had a chip on my soldier from a poor performance last year that I was urging to get rid of. With a stance full of Plattsburgh fans, better then a home game actually, we really played a sufficient first half. I was able to get my first collegiate goal, and man did it feel good (88 BABY). Hopefully that will not be my last. With the great play of our goalie Gordie, a scoreless second half for us was enough to hold them off. Unfortunately a big win also brought a big loss. Freshman Brenden Damm suffered a broken collarbone midway through the game and is officially out for now. Everyone is wishing him a fast and healthy recovery.
Okay we are almost there! I want to congratulate coach Ryan for a 2-0 start to his head coaching career, but I know him well and I know he is no where close to satisfied with where we are. We had the day off of practice today which was much needed. This week we prepare for the first of four games during our spring break down in LI, PA, and VA (notice how LI is abbreviated as if it is a state, yeah that is righttt). Yup, no Mexico or Punta Cana for us, strictly business. We hope to get some wins against some big name schools to finally earn some respect in division three. We know what we have to do and how we have to do it. I think that it will be one of the most intense and fierce stretch of games until conference play.
So currently besides my school work I am working on a million things. I am trying to set up a photo sharing account on any website that is FREE, so far that has been nothing but a fail because of trial restrictions. I have a ton of photos from both games from my pops and my girlfriend's dad. I am talking close to 1,000 photos. If any parents or who ever wants any player or just some good shots you can send me an email at m.santi002@gmail.com and just let me know what you are looking for. As of now that project is on a hold because I am working on a warm up tape for my brothers lacrosse team over at MIT, as well as putting a video together of this weekend probably combined with spring break though, and I am trying to maintain being a student also. Man I should get a check from Plattsburgh State for this. I will also be randomly tweeting pictures that I think are good shots on @platts_lax, so if you still have not been convinced to make a Twitter, I would highly advise it. I would say there are close to 10 or 15 parent followers, 70 followers in all. It has received so much publicity, it is unreal. Well, if face-offs are not bad enough for my wrists, blogging will sure do the trick. I think I have said what needs to be said, and I must go study for a biology quiz. Two games into a long season ahead, but we achieved what we wanted this past week, and now need to continue to work hard this week in practice.
I wish you all a wonderful night.

-#12 Mike Santi

Two great shots from this weekend...