Princeton University Athletics
Men's Lacrosse Trip: Practice With The English While Impressing The Spanish
June 05, 2008 | Men's Lacrosse
As Bill Tierney sat with the English national men's lacrosse team coaches after dinner while his Princeton players and the English players mingled on a balcony overlooking the spacious La Managa Club Resort, it was easy to forget that it had only been seven hours since the Tigers had arrived here. And even easier to forget that no one in the travel party had actually slept the night before.
Like Princeton, the English team is staying at the resort for the next few days, only in the case of the Brits, it is in preparation for the European championships in Finland in early August. Princeton will face the English team in exhibition games Friday and Saturday morning at 10 a.m., which is 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in the U.S.
The teams practiced together for two hours Thursday afternoon as the temperature reached 80 but a breeze off the Mediterranean Sea made it feel perfectly pleasant. The drills left Tierney and the Tigers impressed with their opponent for the next two days.
The drills also impressed Pedro Martinez, the tour guide for Princeton in Spain. Martinez had never seen lacrosse before and knew nothing about the sport, other than his assignment for the week was to accompany a team that played it. In advance of Princeton's visit, Martinez had done some basic research, which left him with one question.
"Which one is the really good one with the Italian name?" he asked.
"Dan Cocoziello."
"That's it," Martinez said.
As the Tigers and English went through their workout, Martinez began to talk about the game.
"I never heard of it," he said. "Not on TV, not in the movies, nowhere. Here, soccer is big. I watch American football sometime, but I don't understand it. If all you know is that people run into other people but you don't know much more, you can't enjoy the game."
It took about 10 minutes to explain the basic rules, and it took about 10 seconds once the teams started doing full field drills for him to start to get into it.
"There's a lot of contact," he said. "Are there penalties? Are they allowed to hit each other like that?"
By the time he left about an hour later, he was starting to figure it out. And enjoy it.
"They're going all the time," he said. "And it's better than American football, because they don't stand around while someone calls a play for them to run. It's a lot of excitment."
While Martinez studied the ball and the basic equipment, the teams continued to go through a hard workout. England head coach Dave Elwood is still evaluating players, and Tierney, being Tierney, couldn't let a good practice opportunity go to waste.
Afterwards, the travel parties for both squads met for dinner. It would prove to be the end of the night for the Princeton side, which was pretty wiped out after the no sleeping the night before.
The first game between Princeton and England will be followed by an afternoon of activities around the resort, including a bull-fighting lesson for those who want it.