February 3, 2010
The League of leagues
by Justin A. Rice/
Lacing up his cleats before hitting the turf last month at Boston Indoor Sports in Revere, Geoff Ianiri groaned as he grabbed his feet to stretch.
"I'm hoping my aspirin will kick in," the 35-year-old from Dorchester said before playing a game in the Blazer League, the state's only full-contact indoor lacrosse recreational league. "It's great exercise and it beats running on a treadmill. It's good, it's real box lacrosse with pads and full contact and regulation goals. It's fun to play with full contact."
Even though Ianiri might have been sore the day after playing in a league run by the coaches of Boston's National Lacrosse League team, youth is not necessarily an advantage in the Blazers league — or in box lacrosse in general for that matter. It usually takes field lacrosse players three or four seasons before they truly feel comfortable in the box since the indoor version of the sport is so foreign in this country, especially compared with Canada.
That's exactly what Boston Blazers coaches Tom Ryan and Randy Fraser set out to change with the advent of the Blazer League.
"Tom and I have been very deep in trying to grow box lacrosse in the United States," said Fraser, who also is the Blazers' assistant general manager. "In the U.S., field lacrosse dominates. People are just learning box lacrosse. Tom and I coach the U.S. National Development team and we're trying to grow the talent pool; grow awareness.
"That's where the love for the sport kind of fell in place with the league. It's a way for us to expose people to box lacrosse and get people to come to our [NLL] games."
The Blazer League began its first-ever session last October, and its second session started Jan. 5 and runs until mid-March. At $150 per player, the recreation league is 11 games long, including playoffs.
Several former pro players also participate in the league, including Paul Talmo, a member of the original Boston Blazers. The Jamaica Plain resident has been retired from professional lacrosse for five years and sells medical devices, the same industry he worked in throughout his playing career in the National Lacrosse League and Major League Lacrosse.
"I wish I could get back at a faster clip," said Talmo, declining to dispatch his age. "I'm old. Some of these guys are half my age."
The silver lining for Talmo, however, is that the league is full contact.
"Other leagues don't allow cross-checking," Talmo said. "Box lacrosse without cross-checking is just short-field lacrosse and at that point I'd rather play field lacrosse. That's what makes the game so much fun, the pace and the contact."
Fraser, another original Blazer, also plays in the rec league while Ryan officiates league games.
One key way that the Blazer League is different is that the first few weeks of each session are dedicated to drills and scrimmages that teach the game, rather than throwing everyone directly into the fire. As such, it's one of the few places that an aspiring box lacrosse player can go to get the highest-quality instruction.
In the fall, a number of young, aspiring box lacrosse players used the league — and the chance to play against former pros like Talmo and National Lacrosse Hall-of-Famer Bill Beroza — as a chance to learn the box game before attending a Blazers tryout.
"It was an opportunity for guys to get a little experience before tryouts, especially those first weeks when I taught them how to play box lacrosse," Fraser said. "They learned pick and rolls, they learned how to play with cross-checking on defense. These are things that don't come into play in field lacrosse. And, of course, you get used to the bounces off the boards."
Most of the players consider it the highest-quality indoor league in New England, just because of the caliber of players there, mostly former college and pro players looking to keep a stick in the sport and to stay in shape. The champions of the Blazer League's fall session automatically gains a spot in The Eagle's Cup, the would-be national championship of box lacrosse with champions from the top leagues in Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia; the V-Men, who won the inaugural session, represented the league at the Philadelphia tournament in January.
It's not surprising, therefore, that the League has already proven that it can be a springboard to the pros.
John Ortolani joined the rec league in October before attending open tryouts for the Blazers in November. He was the Blazer's starting face-off man when the season opened on Jan. 9 with a loss to Toronto.
Ryan Hotaling — who had previous experience on the national development team — also made the leap from the rec league to the Blazers this year.
Mike Stone — a Blazers draft choice — Chris Ajemian and Matt Smalley are all local products who played in the Blazer League's first session, and wound up on the Blazers' practice squad.
Ajemian, who played for Fairfield University before graduating last May, had never played box lacrosse before joining the Blazer League, and said that little bit of experience made all the difference.
"I definitely felt like I had the upper hand on guys playing for the first time," the Duxbury native said of his tryout with the Blazers. "You just try to learn the movements first and use your skills to adapt to the system. It definitely takes time and experience."
Several other players in the Blazer League wound up being late cuts for the pro team. Fraser is hoping that the league develops a reputation for developing young players anxious and capable for a shot at the pros.
While Ajemian said the hardest adjustment for him was just having the fact that he was playing a different game sink into his head, Talmo said he enjoys teaching the game to the younger guys. Talmo also said the biggest problem the new players have is trying to play the game the same way they played field.
"You get stuck in what worked in the past," he said. "Box [lacrosse] forces you to be a student of the game because it's so foreign. Then you see stuff the Canadians do and it's like 'What happened?'"
Said Fraser: "Our aim is to make this the best box lacrosse league in the Northeast, the place where you get the top post-collegiate guys, the best club players and, yes, some guys with pro aspirations, coming together to play box lacrosse at the second highest level available in America, one step below the pro league. If we can do that, this league will be a success on every level."
