Lax Beat

Evan Kirk has won an NLL Cup and been the league's goalie of the year. Now he has signed as a free agent with the Rochester Knighthawks, who have played only one partial season so far. Kirk joins LaxBeat host Stephen Stamp to talk about the journey that led him to sign with Rochester, the challenges that face all teams and players heading towards the 2021/22 season as we come out of the pandemic, mentoring younger goalies to give back after he was mentored, his and his father's commitment to raising funds for the Terry Fox Run and how it will probably be far more comfortable practicing in the Brampton Memorial Arena in the winter than it was when he played in it during the summer. 

Adam Charalambides has been touted as a potential high pick in his NLL Draft for years. Jake Harrington is from a D3 field lacrosse program and hasn't been able to head north of the border to play Canadian summer box lacrosse as he'd hoped for the last two years because of the pandemic. That means he isn't well known. Both are tremendous athletes. Both are looking to see their dreams come true on Saturday August 28 when the National Lacrosse League holds its annual entry draft. And both are on LaxBeat for interesting conversations with host Stephen Stamp as the prepare for one of the biggest nights of their young lives.

Check out more NLL Draft coverage on LacrosseLink.com (where you can find Stamper's mock draft with guest and expert prospect analyst Brad MacArthur) and ILIndoor.com, where Stamper's Top 50 introduces you to the hottest prospects for the draft. 

Brian Shanahan got into the lacrosse media business almost by accident, but since his serendipitous entry he has become one of the leading figures in the field. This week on LaxBeat he shares with host Stephen Stamp stories about the World Junior Lacrosse Championship they just called in Winnipeg, the sports talk show trivia quiz call that wound up being instrumental to his announcing career, the photo of Shanny with his brother Brendan while they held the Mann Cup and Stanley Cup, respectively, that they had both won that year and more from a career in lacrosse broadcasting. 

Dempsey Arsenault is one of the leading stars in women's lacrosse. From her days at Boston College to playing with the US national team to now being a captain twice in the first three weeks of Athletes Unlimited Lacrosse, Arsenault is a leader, a great talent, and also one of the nicest people you'd care to meet. She joins host Stephen Stamp on LaxBeat to talk about the new AU league and its rather unusual stats system, draft strategies in the league where new teams are formed each week, the bumps and bruises the women are getting as they play an intense style of lacrosse, the US national team Sixes camp and how players are adjusting to that format, plus her roots in New Hampshire and how beautiful the region is in the fall. It's a wide-ranging and interesting conversation this week on LaxBeat. 

Adrian Balasch is putting the "al" in Austria. The alternate captain for Austria's national team was selected the all-star team transition player at the 2019 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in Langley. Now he's gone down under, spending the last year and a half in Adelaide Australia. This week on Lax Beat, host Stephen Stamp talks to Balasch about the growth of the game in Austria and across Europe, adventures in Adelaide, how the flow for which he's known came to be and much more. It's a great conversation with one of the good guys in the world of lacrosse. 

Also, news about the OJLL and MSL starting to play, the NLL announcing a prospect showcase for potential draft picks and more. Plus we tease next week's show, which will feature a prominent Athletes Unlimited lacrosse star who got the LaxBeat bump this week before she's even appeared on the show. 

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Boxla Beat has a new name! To reflect the broader perspective the show is taking to include all forms of lacrosse, the show will now be called Lax Beat. It still features the same great conversations with host and leading lacrosse analyst Stephen Stamp joined by a who's who of movers and shakers in the game of lacrosse. 

Major Series Lacrosse announced in the morning that five of their teams will be playing an 8-game season, and in the afternoon MSL Commissioner Doug Luey joined Stamp to talk about how the league put what they're calling the MSL Classic together, the rules adaptations they're going to try out, what managing to have a season means to the league's players and much more. 

When Kenya sent a team to the World Lacrosse U19 women's world championship in Peterborough, Ontario in 2019, it was the first time an African team had gone to a lacrosse worlds. And it was no easy feat getting the team there. Obstacles abound in Kenya, where many of the players face hurdles stemming from poverty and other issues in the nation. A recently released documentary film, Sleeping Warrior, looks at the journey of Kenya's team to Peterborough.

 Storm Trentham, a former Welsh international player and a coach at many levels, helped Kenya Lacrosse overcome the hurdles and get that team to Peterborough, where they enjoyed success beyond what you'd probably expect from a new team the majority of whose players didn't even have shoes when they arrived at tryout camps. 

Now Ashlee Aitken is on board with helping Kenya lacrosse as well. Aitken wound up as the team's local liaison at the worlds through a bit of serendipity and she fell in love with the girls comprising the team. 

Trentham and Aitken join host Stephen Stamp to talk about the documentary, the hurdles, the journey and next steps for Kenya Lacrosse in an enlightening, riveting and at times challenging episode of Boxla Beat on Lacrosse Link.

Notes: to learn more about Kenya Lacrosse and/or if you'd like to donate or help in any way, you can go to their website. 

You can watch Sleeping Warrior on the World Lacrosse Facebook page. 

Callum Crawford has just gotten better and more productive in his 30s, defying the traditional trajectory of most professional lacrosse careers. Now he's ready to get back to it after leading the National Lacrosse League in scoring when teams were last able to play back in 2020. Crawford joins host Stephen Stamp to talk aging like a fine wine, helping a new team try to climb to championship heights and his pride in the success of players from the Ottawa region he grew up in. 

Panther City Lacrosse Club held its National Lacrosse League expansion draft in Forth Worth on Tuesday, June 29. About 16 hours after they wrapped up, I was on the line with General Manager Bob Hamley and Head Coach Tracey Kelusky, talking about what went into the process of building a new team from scratch.

We talk about how the staff came to consensus on the players they picked, the trades PCLC made, what they want the team to look like and what's next. Enjoy the conversation on Boxla Beat, part of the Lacrosse Link family. 

Host Stephen Stamp welcomes Inside Lacrosse CEO Terry Foy for a discussion of the Las Vegas NLL expansion team and the impact the star-studded ownership group including Wayne Gretzky, Dustin Johnson and Steve Nash will have on not only the team but the league as a whole. They also talk about how Inside Lacrosse has addressed the challenges presented by the pandemic, how it's coming back strong and what it can take from the adaptations that had to be made as we progress towards a post-pandemic world.