July, 2007 - These Girls Are Still In the Game...
August, 2006 - These Geezers can play
Meet the senior members of the Drexel University class of 2007 women's lacrosse team. From left to right: Emily Hoesch (midfield), Susan Seborg (defense), Nicole Adams (attack), Kerry Kelly (midfield), and Kelly Benzing (defense).
These ladies compiled very impressive resumes over the last four years at Drexel. All are four year members of the varsity lacrosse team. Collectively, over a four year period, this group won more games than any other women's lacrosse team in school history. Their impressive mark of 46 wins against only 22 losses will be a benchmark for future teams in the program.
Their accomplishments were not strictly on the field. In the classroom, each one of these exceptional student athletes posted a grade point average over 3.0. These young women will be embarking on careers in a variety of fields including physical therapy, nursing, education, accounting and architectural engineering.
Hats off to the class of 2007 Drexel University women's lacrosse team! Geezers Athletic Wear salutes you.
Local squad captures title at World Cup of lacrosse
(Reprinted with the permission of the Capital Gazette newspaper)
By JOE GROSS, Senior Staff Writer
It was 18 years ago that Edgewater's Chris Van Syckle initially contacted G.P. Lindsay and asked if he were interested in playing on a lacrosse team that would compete in some tournaments around the country.
Lindsay had been an All-America player at Severn School and Washington College. He continued playing on club teams after college and, at 34, was still in better-than-average playing condition.
Lindsay jumped at the opportunity. So did several other local players contacted by Van Syckle: Skip Miller and Steve Hincks who had played at Navy, and Sam Bland, Jim Matters and Bill Jacobs who had played for St. Mary's College of Maryland.
Van Syckle, who played lacrosse at Towson University, also went beyond the Maryland borders to find players. He talked them all into playing on a Masters team that would be called the Geezers. The organizer put together a better team than even he could have imagined.
Last month, several players who joined forces with Van Syckle all those years ago were playing together again. The name Geezers was more appropriate than in the early years. But the quality of play might have been even better.
The Geezers won the first world championship of the new Centurion
Division, made up of players 50 and over, in the World Cup of Lacrosse competition held at London, Ontario, Canada.
It was the second World Cup championship for most of the players. The Geezers captured the over-35 Masters Division title in the 1994 World Cup play at Manchester, England.
"I've been working on putting this team together since last August," Van Syckle said. "I tried to get as many of the former players back as I could and some of them were hard to find. I had the hardest time finding the whereabouts of goalie Bill Beroza so I got help from the people at the Lacrosse Hall of Fame and found him in Boston."
Van Syckle explained that he brought in several players from New York and added a smattering from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Illinois, North Carolina and California.
"It was amazing that we put together a great team," Van Syckle said. "All the personalities fit and that doesn't happen very often."
So good was the Geezers' team that it outscored its seven opponents by a combined 64-24. Twelve different players scored goals, led by Lee Murphy's 18 and Skip Miller's 13.
"Several things made this a successful team," he related. "First, we had a lot of young players. Next, we had outstanding talent. And finally, all of the players had been playing competitive lacrosse at some level during the past year."
Van Syckle explained that he got the right number of players; enough not to have some players burn out, but not so many as to bring complaints about not getting enough playing time.
"The guys we had this year enjoyed being with one another on and off the field. And, they were unselfish; they each had roles and they all played those roles," Van Syckle noted.
Lindsay, who remembered the Geezers' first important win at the Vail Masters Tournament in Colorado in 1990, was not aware of all Van Syckle had gone through to put together the latest edition of the Geezers. He was in complete agreement with the ingredients that made the team into a championship group.
"This was a very good team; better than I could have imagined," Lindsay said. "It was hard to believe how we played together, the amazing teamwork and the coordination. The new faces and names mixed extremely well with the 13 guys who have been with the team from the start."
Like Lindsay, the other Geezers appreciated Van Syckle's efforts to put the team together and at a dinner following the tournament the players presented him and his wife Laura with a ball signed by the team. That, Van Syckle said, was a personal highlight of the entire experience.
"What might have been most amazing was that we played seven games in five days that were over 90 degrees and there were no injuries. You have to remember that we're all over 50," said Lindsay, who said he will have a party for the team just as he did after the Geezers won their first world championship in 1994.
Lindsay noted that the first game the Geezers played was close, but the local team dominated its remaining games, including the 9-4 win in the championship game over the Maryland Eagles that was made up of several men who played with and against each other nearly 20 years ago.
"It's a different game today than the way we played in college. The long stick defensive middies make it different. I would rather play the way we did in college, but it was OK for us," said Lindsay, who grew up as a rock 'em, sock 'em, physical type of player. "But, because of the makeup of our team we were able to wear down the other teams we played."
Lindsay said this is likely his last appearanr teams we played."
Lindsay said this is likely his last appearance in World Cup competition because he will be 56 for the next World Cup Tournament in 2010 at Manchester, England. He knew he and his teammates had done something special.
"It was a great experience for me, for all of us. We got together after the championship game and we realized we might be the best 50-year old lacrosse team in the world."
Published 08/06/06, Copyright © 2006 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
