Spring Break Preview: Tahoma in Arizona
The Tahoma Bears of Maple Valley, WA are one of a record six teams traveling on spring break to out-of-state competition this year. They are headed to Phoenix, Arizona to face two powerful teams. Tahoma has been strong this year, and are definitely a competitive team in most every game they play. With the exception of a rough one against the offensive buzzsaw that is Eastside Catholic, they have shown well in every game, and are the only team to hold Mercer Island to 10 goals this season.
According to coach Brian Johnson, Tahoma chose Arizona for many reasons - "the competition, my assistant Nick Johnson played and was a captain at ASU ... also, Chad Hedlund and Kyle Dige are accepted and most likely going to ASU, and of course the sunshine." A good list indeed.
Their opponents are the Chaparral Firebirds and the Desert Vista Thunder. In Chaparral, Tahoma will face a storied program. Chaparral has won multiple championships, and feature Rutgers commit Alex Larson in goal. The Desert Vista Thunder, under coach Dan Lannon, have been nothing short of impressive in the last years, and hold an undefeated record to date. The Thunder's four division 1 commits to Duke, Bellarmine, and Colgate, should be more than a handful for the Bears.
Even in the face of such stiff competition, Coach Johnson's goals are "to win both games. At a minimum, go down and give maximum effort, play with discipline, and represent NW lacrosse in a professional manner on and off the field. Our schedule only gives us a few opportunities to play against elite level teams. We want to be a top level program, so in order "to be the best, you have to beat the best." We played well at Mercer island, then we let a great opportunity slip away with a poor effort against Eastside Catholic.... These games are a big deal to proving to ourselves that we can play with the best, even though they are non-league contests."
Of course, it wouldn't be a good team spring break trip without some great activities beyond just practicing and playing. They will be guests of coach Chris Malone at Arizona State Unviersity's Friday practice, and will play Desert Vista this Saturday, prior to the Arizona State vs San Diego State MCLA game. They also plan to do a team hike up Camelback Mountain, a local favorite, and a test-piece for all trail runners in the greater Phoenix area. Finally, they plan to have dinner at Rustler's Roost, a restaurant famous for their live country-western band, their overlook, and for serving rattlesnake.
Have fun in the sun, Tahoma, and let us know how it goes!