It is hard to believe that another Vail Shootout Tournament has come and gone.  There are now 4 team photos on my office wall.   I am slowly coming out of my post-Vail depression and I have managed to get through my backlog of emails, voice mail messages and important papers.  However, I have already begun to lay the ground work for next year's tournament and all I can say is that if you could have made it out to Vail this year and you didn't - you blew it!

Here are a few of my recollections from this year's trip.

1.  There were actually clouds in the sky this year and it even rained a little bit.  

2.  Once again, the competition was fierce:

a.  We lost a very hard fought game in round 1 against Team Colorado (tournament champs).  The first half was very close and for a while it looked like we might be able to steal the win away from them.  However, they were the superior team and they managed to break ahead and win by a score of 16 - 9.  Of note is the fact that 2 of their players competed in the Tournament's Elite Division!  The best compliment I heard about the game was from a player on another team who thought we won because of the sad state of Colorado's players on their bench.  We inflicted a lot of physical damage due to our very aggressive play.

b.  We had an won easy win (10 - 3) against Pepsi Masters.  President McCardell attended the game and we were very happy that he saw us in winning form since his last Middlebury lacrosse game was the NCAA finals! 

c.  Our third game was against Team Texas and we started out favorably and the game was tied at half-time (6 - 6).  After the half, they scored the first goal at about 2 minutes and then they ripped into a flurry of activity and scored 5 consecutive goals.  We managed to get back in control, but we were never able to catch up.  The game ended with a score of 15 - 9.   Once again our play was very aggressive, but unfortunately we had the dubious honor of numerous penalties. 

Overall we were proud of our efforts and look forward to next year.

3.  The alumni reception at the Borgen residence was exquisite.  The Borgen's are the parents of Randi '98 and Jon-Erik '99, both of whom played lax at Middlebury.  President McCardell attended the reception.  While it was a regional Middlebury alumni reception, in actually, it was a Middlebury lacrosse reception.  There were players (male and female) from the current teams, a few recent lax graduates and then there was our group.  We comprised 19 players, 1 coach, 1 manager, 11 wives and 26 children.   We were everywhere!  The house was amazing and the views were almost surreal.  The President gave a great speech recognizing all of our efforts and what it all meant to him and the Middlebury community.  But the highlight of the evening was when Pete sang the Park School Song accompanied by President McCardell.  For me, the most important take home message was that President McCardell was deeply honored to be out in Vail and to be with us.  I tried telling him that we were honored by his presence and his response was that on the contrary, it was he who was honored.  The community that we have created is very important to the College and it values it very much.  Let's make it grow even more.

4.  Several families (Sideli, Chafee, Wheeler, Sargent, Ford) and a bunch of guys (Heffernans, Dobek, Kemp) went on a very memorable hike to Hanging Lake.  It was a great hike up a craggy trail in the Glenwood Canyon to a crystal clear mountain lake with several one hundred foot waterfalls.  Of course, the young ones raced up the mountain and Roy Heffernan, Duane Ford and I worked real hard just trying to keep up with them.  Julia Ford and Darren Scheufele were the first to arrive at the top.  The hike up took about an hour and at the top we drenched ourselves in the waterfalls and we had a great picnic lunch.  Greg Wheeler must have made over 50 sandwiches.  He might have missed his calling in life as a deli man! 

5.  The evening of our last day in Vail we all shared a great meal at a local Mexican restaurant.  The kids ate quickly and then romped in the playground while the adults eat and drank margaritas.  After the meal, Chip Kenyon and Pete led all the kids in a conga line to the ice cream shop.

6.  There were lots of trips into the Vail village to shop, eat and drink and there was always someone in the Manor Vail Lodge pools or hot tubs to chat with.  Many families rented mountain bikes and rode down the Vail mountain trails.  Greg Wheeler went trout fishing almost every day and told lots of fish tales.  Jon Peterson and Chad McClennan took a few breaks from golf to play lacrosse with us.

7.  The children really had a blast.  They played steal the flag for hours and during breaks at our games they staged their own lacrosse games. 

That's just a few of the great memories that I took home from Vail.  I really can't emphasize enough that the Vail Shootout experience is not to be missed.  When you are old and gray, if you didn't make it to at least one tournament I guarantee that you will have regrets.  Do yourself a favor and commit now that you will start planning to make the trip next year!

IMPORTANT:  Vail participants, please send me your favorite photos from the trip and I will scan them and post them on our web site and I will return all photos that you want back.

Bobo