Reflections about Berlin Open 2013

Many things where better than expected and some did not go as well as I would have hoped.

The women's team evolved a lot during the tournament. That was the best part. I wish I could have seen them more, but the referee schedule didn't allow me to. I really have no bad feelings about the opportunity to be a referee though and not about the schedule being extensive either. If I am to evolve as a referee, I need experience and that is hard to get without the games.

It was also extremely valuable to have the assessors by the fields, because they really pointed out many things that I had not understood during the referee camp.

Unfortunately we had one of the team in the hospital, but expecting a full recovery and we had one taken by airport security (to be released ten minutes later) so it is was eventful. Thanks for this year's Berlin Open!

The women's team is improving.

The second game yesterday was finally a victory for the Swedish Lax Mafia. They played very well against BLAX securing their first victory of the Berlin Open 2013.

In today's game against the Helsinki Chiefettes they started off worse and found themselves to be down 5 - 1. However after a strong recovery they managed to get even at 5 - 5,  which also was the end result.

In the battle of 9 - 12 place, the Swedish ladies had no losses and ended up in 9th place in total.

Second day of Berlin Open

Six games in my first day. Five of them on the field and five of them with assessors. Many learning experiences and good feedback. Almost 30 degrees out. The day started off with some nice breezes, but the afternoon was hot.
Started off easy on my second day with a CBO assignment. The second game was never played as pne of the teams never showed up. All men's round robin games are now complete and I am waiting for the assignment of referees for the quarter finals.
The women are struggling a bit. They lost all of their round robin games, one of them with only one goal. Then a tied game against the same team earlier today. Hope for the best as they are playing one more game today against the home team BLAX.

First game in Berlin

Did my first game of refereeing today in Berlin Open. I was an on-field referee with Babs and Alex. The really good part of the game was that there where two experienced assesors at the game. They gave me very valuable feedback about what I should think about in my coming games. Valuable feedback. My first game with assessors since the referee camp. Five more games coming up today, so there will be plenty of time for improvement.

The Swedish Championships in Swedish media

 Lacrosse in Sweden is not a big sport and the room in media we get is equally small. Whenever we do get into the media it warms us all as we are recognized. Here are two articles about the Swedish Championships of lacrosse.

Karlstad fyra i lacrosse-SM på hemmaplan | Värmlands Folkblad
Lacrosse drog nyfikna blickar till Klasmossen - nwt.se - Ditt Värmland, just nu!

Last day of the Swedish Championships 2013

Final day. Each team had one full time game each. I had two games of refereeing. I had the honor of being the head referee at both the Swedish Championship final and the bronze medal game.

To sum up. A great lacrosse-event took place in Karlstad. With 8 teams at location it was a big lacrosse gathering in Sweden. Thank you KAUIF for a great lacrosse weekend. For me personally it ended up being seven games of refereeing men's games and one and a half game as an umpire of the women's games. I was the only full-time referee at the championship but I hope we can be more in the future. I want to thank all my co-referees!

Finally: Congratulations Farsta for securing another title as Swedish Champions.

First day of Swedish championships

A long day of lacrosse. It started at 08.00 and kept on until around 17.15. Tomorrow the final games are played. The mens final will be played between Farsta and Sundbyberg. The third price game is played between Nordia and KAUIF and Luleå and the mix team will battle it out for 5th place. The womens game will be played between our two present womens team.
I was a referee in five mens games today and an umpire in one of the womens games. It has been good overall and a lot of experience. Looking forward to the final day tomorrow.

Charging for the Swedish Championship

Almost everybody has arrived in Karlstad. The Swedish Championship of Lacrosse has started with a meeting about Sweden Lacrosse. The first match will start at 8 tomorrow morning. In the meantime we are charging the batteries for tomorrow. The soccer game is on.

The official roster has been published

We ran into problems along the way and we had to switch some players out due to eligibility issues, but in the end we managed to fill the entire roster with both players and staff. This is the official national team of Sweden going to the Women's World Championship in Oshawa, Canada 2013:

00	Pernilla Malmgren	Goalie
1	Linnea Bengtsson	Midfield
2	Tove Björklund	Low Attack
3	Natalie Aranda	Low Attack
4	Kristin Jonsson	Low Attack
5	Lotta Kockum	Low Attack
6	Teckla Jackson	Midfield
7	Sara Sundström	Low Defense
8	Ebba Ovrén	Midfield
9	Cecilia Roos	Midfield
11	Helene Hollingworth	Low Defense
12	Anneli Jonsson	Midfield
13	Sara Ekstrand	Low Defense
14	Claire Karlsson	Attack
16	Anna-Klara Nilsson	Midfield
18	Hedvig von Beetzen	Midfield
19	Matilda Nilsson	Center
20	Emilia Norlin	Low Defense
	Daniel Svanström	General Manager
	Kaitlan Biondi	Head Coach
	Jillian Durgin	Coach
	Chelsea Wagner	Assistant Coach
	Eric Rylén	Physio
	Kathryn Bruha-Karlsson	Medical Officer
	Curt Kinney	Doer

We also have many people that has helped us in many ways with preparations before the championships. A big thanks to you all!