The
dinner Saturday night was a great occasion. We presented Bobo with an
"Alumni Appreciation Award" of a Middlebury College Lincoln clock for
all
that he has done with the web page, email listserv and the Vail Shootout.
Jamie Haire, current captain, gave a history of the program. Jamie did a
great job, so he is going to forward his notes to Bobo who will post them on
the web page. The other two speakers were Hugh Marlow, lacrosse playing
graduate from 1957 and John Atherton from 1993; both were great. Hugh
addressed his start in lacrosse (watching Jim Brown play vs. Harvard!) and
some of the differences between the program "then and now".
John focused on
the central Middlebury lacrosse theme of "family" and really hit the
nail on
the head in a meaningful address. After dinner we had a cocktail party
until 11:00pm, some of the boys were out and about after that, but I will
leave that to them!
Sunday began with a Memorial Service for Matt Slautterback, Sandy Hume and
Bruce Gevertz. Family members and friends for all three were in
attendance.
Jim Grube ran the "service" and appropriately referred to it as a
"team
meeting". After Jim's touching opening remarks, and a beautiful
rendition
of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on sax by Myles Donahue (father of
David,
'91. Myles played at Matt's Memorial Service in '91) John Burchard, Jon
Owsley and Chris Fagan each shared some personal memories of Bruce, Sandy
and Matt respectively. After the amazing Peter Kohn shared his
feelings
about Matt the ceremony ended with Myles playing Amazing Grace. The
ceremony was powerful and moving, but also uplifting. I am thankful that
Jim Grube and Jon Owsley had the foresight to plan this event along with the
festivities of the weekend.
The Alumni Game took place at 11:00am on Kohn Field and as usual was
lighthearted, but filled with glimpses of the greatness of the past. At
the
risk of leaving someone out, I will share some personal highlights for me,
no slights intended to those I don't mention. In no particular order,
Chris
Fagan's absolute cannon of a shot (left handed no less, that brought the
current players out of their seats), Dan Thomsen's tricks (even if he does
thumb the ball), Hieu Nguyen diving around the cage, Miles Lilly standing
tall between the pipes making a bunch of quality saves (even when Burch was
standing alone at 10 yards firing a cannon!), Bart Riley running the field
directing traffic, AJ Fitzpatrick looks like he would have 40 assists in a
season if he played for us right now and giving me an appreciation for how
he accumulated all those assists when he did play, Curt Goldman still
breaking ankles with his split dodge, John Atherton doing anything athletic,
listening to Bobo talk on defense, Ray Jones '65 throwing and connecting on
an over the head check, Norm Higgins '61 and Jed Raymond '00 lining up
against each other on a wing for a face off, goalie Dave Campbell getting to
score a goal, Charlie Whinery scoring his first alumni goal in 5 or so
tries, Dave Donahue scoring his first goal ever (first ever, period), Jim
Taylor battling on seemingly endless face offs, a slimmer Dave Watts, Peter
Ericson's face dodge, Jon Borgen always having fun, Adam Pascal always
looking like he is so proud to be a Panther and also using good judgment by
not shooting 106 mph at alumni goaltenders, Ian McCray throwing ice picks
and wraps-just like when he played, Kelly Cray getting bounced by both
Monninger and Wenner, Kelly Cray "d-ing" up Jed Raymond and Jed
dropping the
ball vs. a phantom check, Nick Whitman not going in the crease, Peter Ulrich
always finding a way to get open, Dennis Daly always a coach setting up
rides-and the ride working, Ben Fritz running through an attempted tackle by
Dave Watts, Jon and Nick Owsley playing exactly as they did when they were
here and looking like brothers even when they play, just seeing Derek
Esposito at all since he just arrived from Africa the day before, and of
course, Peter Kohn leaving defenders in his wake on his way to scoring the
"winning" goal in OT and getting the game ball...again!
I
neglected to mention that Brandon Doyle looks like he is one of our
current players running up and down the field-has not lost a step or his
great stick!
Thanks to all those who attended and to those who didn't we missed you.
Best,
Erin