John McPhee- perhaps our finest non-fiction describer, boarding school alumnus and boarding school chronicler (The Headmaster)- published “Spin Right and Shoot Left” in the week’s New Yorker. If you’ve ever been part of that boarding right of spring- lacrosse, you’ll find much to warm your heart and reminisce over. The piece is a nice primer on lacrosse history, development and dissemination.

“Lacrosse and basketball are the siblings of soccer, hockey, and water polo…

Of these five games- with their picks and screens, their fast breaks and rotational defenses, their high degree of continuous motion- water polo, in its sluggish medium, is surely the most awkward, and lacrosse, at the other extreme, creates the fastest, and crispest accumulation of passes and is the prettiest to watch.”

McPhee touches on the game’s roots and history, international spread, a bit of coaching, some minutae- like the FOGO (Face Off, Get Off) specialist, modern equipment, his own playing experiences and the constant fiddling and re-engineering of one’s stick. He requisitely mentions one of the great pieces of lacrosse trivia. The game’s greatest player? Syracuse’s Jimmy Brown, yes, that Jim Brown.

You can hear Princeton coach Bill Tierney talking pure lacrosse to English national team players- pure coaching and lacrosse tempered with diplomacy and respect for learning players.

Pure, feel-great and fun. Spring is here.

Photo credit: psmithy