LAX Preparation

Now that hockey is over, it's time to start thinking about spring sports, and that of course means lacrosse (LAX). There is significant crossover between hockey and LAX, so we'll be seeing a lot of the same families well into summer. In light of this, I tried to convince N to play for another program, maybe one with closer ties to where he might go to school one day, or at the very least not so closely linked to the bad hockey vibes, but he said he wanted to play for the same team. Who am I to argue? They are a good team, no question, but my feelings are that it's time to move on. Clearly I'm alone in this thinking.

Either way, we had to dust off the LAX gear and check the sizes on various pieces of equipment. As would be expected, several things need an upgrade, so that's our current mission. Nothing major, so that means it's not so painful in terms of cost. Fortunately the big items, like helmet and pads, still fit. New shoes are in order, but there are numerous options when you look outside the LAX box, i.e., many sports use cleats, and buying specialized LAX cleats bumps up the price significantly while also severely limiting the availability. It's all marketing in the end because cleats are pretty standard across the different sports, so a soccer or football cleat will do just fine. Baseball maybe not so much.

So with this in mind, we did some online shopping and found a nice pair of brand name cleats for a great price. I got the wrong size at first, which would have been a serious bummer if not for Dick's Sporting Goods, which offers free shipping as well as free return shipping. How cool is that? I returned the small shoes and got a bigger size, though it was still a bit of a crap shoot because without trying them on you just don't know. As luck would have it, however, they fit great (I took a chance and got a size bigger - whew!), though if they hadn't, we could have returned them again, for free.

Now he's set. I have to say, as much as I love hockey, it's nice to get a break from the rink and all the drama. Looking forward to warmer weather and the activities that go with it.

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Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Fred Backhaus for the pic.