UVM Men's Lacrosse - New Uniforms for '10

The UVM men's lacrosse team, for the most part, has never had a good looking uniform. Traditionally, they're struggled with trim, color, and font. To make matters worse, Black has really caught on within UVM Athletics - so unoriginal. Black has been UVM's go to alternate jersey color and for the men's lacrosse team, their away color. Here are what the team's uniforms looked like last year... yawn.

But you're thinking, why is he mentioning all of this?? And the answer is... they have new - cool - looking uniforms (at least for away uniforms).
Positives: Much better Nike logo placement. Improved America East patch - the old one was comically large. Cleaner overall look. Easy to read numbers (although they might be a tad large). Improved glove design.
Negatives: Not every player is in the cool new shoe worn by #9 (lower picture). The Swoosh version of the UVM Catamounts logo is somewhat lost on the chest. Finally, I would comment on the helmet but don't get me started on that monstrosity.

 

 

Accuracy in the Sports Industry

I find it bothersome that predictions made by sports journalists, reporters, "experts", and anchors are not revisited for accuracy. Currently these folks foretell, declare, and weigh in on issues without being accountable to standards of precision or correctness.

How many times do you hear someone predict an outcome that sounds outlandish and eventually turns out to be so? (Lou Holtz)

Frustrating to say the least but in an effort to check my precision, I've revisited some of my entries from the past nine months. I've been spot on in some case but in others been wide of the mark.

Back in April I praised UVM men's lacrosse player, Andrew Kelleher, for winning the America East Player of the Year award and said that the recognition he earned would lead to success in recruiting. Andrew is now an assistant coach at Hamilton and UVM's recruiting classes have greatly improved. Zack Telander headlines the class of 2013 and was tabbed by Inside Lacrosse magazine as the nations 30th best midfielder. The class of 2014 also looks strong and includes Derek Braig, who is a total package guy from St Paul's School.

One statement I made that turned out to be completely inaccurate was that Lane Kiffin wouldn't succeed at Tennessee. All that needs to be said is that I'll be watching Lane and the Vols take on Va Tech in the Chick-fil-A bowl on December, 31st.

UVM baseball made headlines this past fall as it was one of two programs cut by University Athletics. While many people wrote letters to the editor and filled discussion boards with their opinion of the decision, I was quick to ask, "what's going to happen with the field?" Sure enough, we still don't know the fate of one of America's oldest ballparks.

Next we come to my prediction of how ESPN's Power Rankings would look at the conclusion of the 2009 college football season. To say Cal and Penn State let me down would be an understatement. Ouch.

Last but not least was my declaration that UMass-Lowell wouldn't handle their preseason hype well and thus wouldn't win Hockey East. I guess we will have to wait a bit longer to see where the River Hawks will finish but so far they've been inconsistent and are currently in 5th place in Hockey East. If the River Hawks were comfortable playing as the hunted their resume would be better, especially considering the parity this year in Hockey East.

The process of review for the purpose of accuracy should be used more in sports. After revisiting some of my blog entries I've learned that more often than not I make accurate sports predictions. I wish we could find out if the same were true for the Lou Holtz's of the world.

The There Were Four

Only four homes games this season for the Men's Lacrosse team?!?!

Give me a break.

Schedule and Results : Men's Lacrosse : University of Vermont

While I'm at it let me go on record by saying UVM will finish 5-11, beating Bryant, Marist, VMI, Binghamton, and Hartford.

Hopefully I'm wrong and they can pull an upset somewhere along the road.

Zack Telander

Zack Telander was tabbed by Inside Lacrosse magazine as the 30th best midfielder in their upcoming recruiting issue. Guess where he's headed? The University of Vermont.

Telander should be one of Vermont's biggest pickups ever and a sign that things are coming around for Vermont.

Freshman Success

Freshman, Alex Plavner, of the UVM lacrosse team ended the season as the starting goalie over returning senior starter Justin Lubas. Yesterday Alex appeared in IL's Top Saves of 2009 highlight video. Alex should develop into a strong netminder and I expect him to make big strides going into 2010.

Click here to see the video

Big Hits

Here's the worst big hits highlight video I've ever seen. Inside Lacrosse does many things well but this is not one of them.

The hits in this video, many of which are illegal, glorify poor play. I enjoy lacrosse because players are allowed to be physical but this video highlights the wrong elements of the sport. The hits are either from behind or cross checks.

Poor decision making IL.

Click here to see the video

I would like to point out that Chris Maubach, number 44 from UVM, is in this highlight and has a good - legal - check. Always good to see the Cats on the national scene.

Room for Improvement

The America East lacrosse conference announced all league honors at the end of April. UVM had two players mentioned. League "worst" Hartford had six players mentioned.

I like the players that Coach Curtis is recruiting but a stat such as this one needs to change.

New Look Needed

As some members of the UVM men's lacrosse team have been picking up awards from America East, I've been reminded about how much dislike their uniforms and helmets. I'll spend more time in another blog about their uniforms, but I would like to comment on the helmets.

In short, the helmets don't look good. They are too busy and the combination of gold and white doesn't work, or at least not the way UVM has done it. I don't know who designs the look for the team's helmets but they don't know what works. Hopefully the helmets the team used this year won't make another appearance.

Rather than just squawk about this years helmets I thought I would offer some suggestions. Please click the following links to see what I think would be good alternatives for the Catamounts.

Green & White Home Helmet

UVM athletics doesn't seem to like designing any part of any team's uniform in gold lately but I though the following would look good.

Gold & Green Home or Away Helmet

Rather than using gold, one of the school's official colors, UVM athletics has moved towards black. If this is really the direction they want, I designed a black helmet too.

Black & Gold Away Helmet

UVM's official colors are Green and Gold so here are my suggestions.

Green & Gold Option 1 Away Helmet

Green & Gold Option 2 Away Helmet


Green & Gold Option 3 Home Helmet

Hopefully UVM athletics will make some changes and the Cats will finally have some good looking helmets.

A Step Forward

I was very impressed with Andrew Kelleher, the Senior attackman from UVM this season. From the look of things, so too was America East and its fans. In fact, Andrew was just recognized as the innguaral Fans' Choice Player of the year. A great accomplishment.

I would have bet the house that a player from Albany or UMBC would have snaged the award. Vermont and Kelleher were nominated to the America East weekly awards only once (3/3/09), where as the Albany and UMBC players were nominated regularly. Again, a great accomplishment.

I look at Andrews selection as a big step forward for the UVM lacrosse program. I bet Coach Curtis and his assistants will use Andrew's development as an example of where the program is headed on the recruiting trail this off season. This award is also the product of good coaching from Coach Curtis and I'm excited to see how Andrew's award translates into success for the program going forward.

Click here for the full story

A Bad Loss

(Tuesday, April 7, 2009)

The University of Vermont men’s lacrosse team lost today to The Cross. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the Jesuit school in Worcester, MA – Holly Cross. The Crusaders came to Burlington carrying a 4 game losing steak and a 1-10 record overall.

 I had the opportunity to watch the Cats go up 3 to 1 just as the first quarter winded down. I had to leave but thought for sure Vermont would pull away. And they did. Vermont built a 5 to 1 lead with 11 minutes left in the first half but managed to let it slip away. The Catamounts let in 6 goals in the fourth, were forced into 2 OT’s and in the end fell to 4 -7 on the season.

 Prior to the game I thought Holly Cross would be an easy win. Perhaps I should have looked more closely at the Crusaders’ lone win before making my prediction. The Crusaders’ 1 win and Vermont’s last win, came against a common foe, The Hartford Hawks. Holly Cross put a beat down on Hartford, 7-3, where as Vermont barely beat the Hawks by 1. My oversight but still a bad loss.