Hello Lady Titan LAX Family,

What a week we have had…hell, what a month! I am feeling so heartbroken about this Spring season, and I miss being on the field with my fellow coaches, and all of the players.

I wanted to get everyone caught up on where we are at right now. As of today, all of you should have heard about the “Stay-at-Home” ordinance that will take affect in the Jackson County MO, Johnson County KS, KCMO and Wyandotte County, KS…starting tonight at midnight. This is supposed to be in place until at least through April 24th from what I have heard.

So, what does that mean for us? All i can tell you is that our KC Metro Girl’s League has yet to “officially” cancel the Spring 2020 season, but based on this multi-county-wide ordinance starting tomorrow, I can’t see any other decision coming from the league other than a total cancellation. From what I hear, there is already guidance in place to have no more than 10 people gathered together in one place through 15 MAY. I will say that until I hear the official word, I am going to hang on to the tiny sliver of hope that we can at least do something lacrosse-related this spring.

I want to offer my deepest sympathies to the 2020 Seniors who did not get a chance to play out their final season in their high school careers. My heart truly goes out to all of you. I want to also express my sympathies to all the players who will not be able to attend prom this spring, and most of all, to all those players who will not be able to take the ACT (just kidding, I am sure y’all are happy about that one).

Moving forward in the near term (maybe long term), I suggest you stay home to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Also, stay in touch with your lacrosse family members via Facetime, Zoom, etc…don’t forget about each other.

On another note, please be on the lookout for additional communications from me as we get more information. I will suggest you start looking into summer club programs in the hopes that all of these issues are over with by then. If anyone is interested in summer programs, please reach out to me and I’ll give you some additional information.

And if anyone needs anything, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly. If I can help, I’ll be happy to. If not, I’ll try to find someone who can.

Stay home, stay clean…
~Coach Jay

Hello Lady Titan LAX Family,

I know there is a lot going on, and a lot of changes happening for our upcoming season. I truly appreciate everyone’s patience and flexibility as we get through this COVID-19 Pandemic. My hope is this pandemic will go away as quickly as it has come upon us, so we can get back to our normal daily routines.

So, I know I have already shared the league’s plans for this season. Hopefully we can put that plan in place without any more changes so we can at least enjoy half a season.

Today the JV Tournament in Columbia that was scheduled for 4 APRIL was officially canceled as well (no surprise), so it looks like we will have to just circle our calendars for 6 APRIL as our first day of practice, and expect our first game of the season to be either that Wednesday or Thursday.

According to the plan, we will play 5 regular-season games, one game night each (both JV and Varsity) against our division opponents (St. Teresa’s Academy, Notre Dame de Sion, Shawnee Mission, LS North, Blue Valley). Expect to have at least 2 home games, if not 3.

Playoffs are still targeted for the week of 4 MAY. As soon as I get the updated schedule, I will share it with all of you.

Enjoy your Spring Break (as best as you can). Stay safe, don’t shake hands, and keep your hands washed.

~Coach Jay

Hello Lady Titan LAX Family,

I have good news, and I have bad news. As all of you know, the CoronaVirus Pandemic has caused many issues when it comes to schools, businesses, and athletics just to name a few, and our KC Metro League is no exception. The Board for the KC Metro League met tonight to discuss the future of the league for this season.

Tonight, the KC Metro League sent out a communication on how we are going to manage our league this season. I will remind everyone that this situation is very fluid and can change. Here’s the email I had received:

Attention All Coaches and Team Administrators,

The board conducted a conference call tonight regarding the current state of the COVID-19 Pandemic and how it is affecting our league. I want to remind everyone that this is obviously a very fluid situation and is subject to change daily if not hourly. We will continue to monitor the situation and how it is affecting each and every program in our league and attempt to accommodate everyone to the best of our ability. Knowing that each program is going to be affected differently depending on the decisions their respective school districts make regarding the situation we will do what we can to work with everyone. Please keep in mind that at the end of the day there is a possibility that a program or two may end up not getting to play the same amount of games as some of the other program. Regardless we are changing the post season tournament to accommodate every program in the league with details to follow.

From the KC Metro League:
As of today we are suspending all league activity to include practice through April 5th 2020. As of Monday April 6th programs will be permitted to return to practice with the game play beginning on Wednesday April 8th. We understand that there may be a program or two that are not permitted to return by that date and we will do our best to deal with that situation. The new schedule will be set up for each team to play everyone in their division once and then we will play a post season tournament during the week of May 4th. Since we have side by side lighted fields rented for the post season tournament everyone will be entered into a single elimination tournament and we will do what we can to get all the games in. Obviously with everyone only playing 5 regular season games there is no way to make it fair and some programs will get 3 home games and other may only get 2. We will also come up with a way to seed everyone to the best of our ability.

As I mentioned previously, this is a very fluid situation and something that nobody should be taking lightly. The number one priority of the league is the safety of the student/athlete and we will ultimately err on the side of caution when it comes to their safety. We are anticipating that things will probably change between now and April 6th, and since as we are typing this email we are receiving messages that there is already new news developing on a minute by minute basis. Please be flexible with regard to the season and know that we will do what we can to give these girls at least something to look forward to. The board will meet again on April 2nd to re-evaluate and decide if we are able to proceed with the above listed plan. If things should dictate that we meet earlier then we will do so. Everyone please be patient and hopefully we can make this happen for all the young ladies who look so forward to playing the game we have all grown to love.

Back to Coach Jay:
So, based on this email above, we will not have any organized practices between now and 6 APRIL. We will also be receiving a new schedule, so throw out the schedule I have already shared. Also, once we receive the new schedule, we will ask for volunteers for team feedings…so if you volunteered for one, disregard for now. You can expect 5 regular season games, and then the playoffs. In my humble opinion, half a season is better than no season at all, so we’ll do our best to make this a season to remember.

Your daughter may have a Senior player reach out to her talking about a group of teammates getting together to play catch, work on some fundamentals, etc…as a coaching staff we cannot “stop” any players from taking the initiative to get together with their teammates. Just know that none of the coaching staff will be there per the league mandate. Now, having said that, the mandate was put into place for a reason, so any activity between now and 6 APRIL will be completely optional and will be left to the discretion of each parent to allow their daughter to participate. As a coaching staff, we do not want to be part of the problem, but part of the solution, but we also cannot stop players from getting together if their parents are good with them going out and meeting. Hopefully, this pandemic will pass quickly, and we can all go about our lives without fear or concern.

Enjoy your break…wash your hands, and self-quarantine if you have to.

~Coach Jay.

Lady Titan Family,

For those of us that were planning on going to Omaha on 27 & 28 MARCH for the 2-day event, it’s with a heavy heart that I have to tell you that it has officially been canceled as of this afternoon.

As for what lies ahead of us for the upcoming season, I have yet to receive word on what’s going to happen, so until I hear differently, I will assume we still have our first game vs LS North on 25 March.

I have heard that several of the private schools in the metro have postponed their games until 6 APRIL to monitor the situation, so there may be changes ahead. As soon as I hear any information I promise to pass it along.

Until then, have a wonderful Spring Break. Wash your hands!

~Coach Jay

Good Morning Lady Titan LAX Family,

Now that we are done with Varsity tryouts, we head into our first week of practice to prepare for our first game. Based on the weather forecast, it looks like we are going to have to be flexible on finding a dry location to practice over these next 4 days.

Here’s what’s going on for this week:

Monday 9 MARCH -
Indoor practice. We will be doing film study in Mrs Boulden’s Room (Rm 2178) from 5-7pm tonight. No equipment needed as it will be all classroom time.
Parent meeting. At 7pm tonight, we will have the annual Parent Meeting in Mrs. Boulden’s Room (Rm 2178). This should last about an hour. Please make every effort to attend this meeting as I’ll be discussing what to expect for the rest of the season, coach’s expectations, etc…we will also be taking volunteers for game days and for team feedings.

Tuesday 10 MARCH – Practice. I will try to have practice outdoors, but may have to move it inside if our field is too wet.

Wednesday 11 MARCH – Practice. I will try to have practice outdoors, but may have to move it inside if our field is too wet.

Thursday 12 MARCH – Practice. I will try to have practice outdoors, but may have to move it inside if our field is too wet. We will also have our LSW LAX Board Meeting at 7pm in Ms. Stuart’s Room (Rm 1091 – in the mobile trailers) if you want to attend.

Now, at the end of the week we will be going right into Spring Break. We will not have any organized practices during Spring Break, but our coaching staff has elected to host some practices (weather permitting) during that week for any players who are not out of town and would like to practice. I will send more details out as we get those details nailed down (i.e. which days, and what times).

Sunday 22 MARCH – Practice. Because our first game is later that week, the coaching staff would like to get an organized practice in on Sunday 22 MARCH for those who are in town. We will most likely be targeting an afternoon practice, and will pass along more details as it gets closer.

Now for some other items to note:
For Varsity Parents – An email was sent out to all Varsity parents who are on TeamPages with a link to the hotel to reserve your room for the upcoming Omaha trip. If you did NOT receive this email, please let me know ASAP at 816-977-5707 or lswhsgirlslax@gmail.com so i can get the link to you. You must reserve your room by this Friday to guarantee a room at the team rate.

For JV Parents – we will be going to Columbia, MO on 4 APRIL. This will be an all-day affair, so please block your calendars. If you cannot participate, please let me know so we can make sure we will have a full roster.

Social Media – We have a Social Media presence in 3 different locations:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/LSWGirlsLAX Make sure to Like the page, and check out 10 years of photos.
- Twitter: @LSWGirlsLAX I like to send out a lot of information here.
- Instagram: LSWGirlsLAX Some of our players manage this page…lots of good pics so far.

Teampages – I will ask that all parents have the ability to receive text messages via Teampages. I don’t send these text messages that often, and try to only send them out when very important information needs to go out to the team. I have attached a How-to document to show you how to activate text messaging.

I know this is a lot of info…please let me know if you have any questions.

Go Titans
Coach Jay