A new professional lacrosse league is in the works in Virginia, and all profits from the league will go to Haitian earthquake relief. Allan Harvie, the founder and commissioner, was a blast to talk to on the phone and is extremely passionate about sports and helping the devastated country. As I posted on Facebook, even if you have no interest in sports, Harvie’s story is an interesting one.

Read my article on Harvie’s plan to help Haiti through lacrosse here.

To prepare for both, check out my overview of the University of Virginia baseball team and their dominance thus far this season for The College Baseball Blog, and my overview of Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team and their surprise appearance in the Final Four after a so-so season for Examiner.

I promise original content will return to this blog this weekend, when I have time to sit down and write for hours on end.

I wrote about the facts of the case, as they are known, this afternoon at the Examiner. Not only is the story incredibly heartbreaking to the lacrosse world, it strikes another chord with me because I feel also for the administrators at UVA.

In my full-time job, I have served on a crisis response committee that responds to student deaths for the past four years. Trying to make sense of the tragedy that is a young man or woman passing away accidentally and suddenly, while consoling the students who comprised the deceased’s “second family” is a test of emotions. Add to that the close-knit quality of any athletic team, and the impact must be intense. UVA administrators are working overtime, providing counseling services to students, staff and faculty members, while trying to manage a controversy hungry media, and trying to be appropriately responsive to a grieving family.

On top of that, another student of theirs is being charged for murder, a charge that allows for an nearly automatic suspension in most university conduct codes. Suspension is not at all automatic – one can’t just press a button to suspend a student – especially in a day and age where students retain lawyers to represent them in noise violations, let alone a murder. While a student facing a murder charge has “bigger fish to fry,” you would be surprised at their priorities and assumptions. Parents stunned with the grief of losing the student they knew, a son or daughter who would never commit such a devastating crime, may believe that courses could be completed from a jail cell, or that the criminal process may speed along and allow for a student to come back to school that same semester.

I do not envy the administrators at the University of Virginia right now, but I believe they have the strength and abilities to provide the best outreach during this difficult time. My thoughts are with everyone connected with this tragedy.

However, I found it curious – why would the MLL host a game in a city they had pulled out of a mere year ago? It was then that I followed some statements on lacrosse boards and stumbled upon the fact that the Chicago Machine had no home games scheduled – every upcoming game was scheduled for the “MLL Home Office.” So I wrote an Examiner piece about it – “Are the MLL Chicago Machine on the outs?”

While the NLL has a cautious optimism about the stability of their league – as evident in Commissioner George Daniel press conference on the State of the League two weeks ago – the MLL continues to run into potholes. It’ll be interesting if they do end up moving the Machine franchise to a market that they had previously moved out of, or what other cities become a part of the Machine’s 2010 Road Tour.

Alas, the Boston Blazers were defeated in the first round of the playoffs this weekend, but they still made a great showing for a team in their inaugural season. There is still much college lacrosse to be covered, and the Boston Cannons are currently in training camp and begin their season in two weeks. So there will not be a dearth of lacrosse to watch and cover – in fact, there might be too much!  Keep your eyes peeled on my Examiner page for more lacrosse coverage.

First off, on the HLOG, I chronicled how my fantasy hockey season took a turn for the weird when I had two of my top players stricken with mono. (The Mono Award)

Secondly, I was able to get NLL All-Star and Boston Blazer “Dangerous” Dan Dawson to answer some quick questions about his fourth All-Star team selection this week for the Examiner.  I think one of the highlights of doing this interview was the discovery that Dawson spells words the Canadian way, just like I do.  I was way too excited about that.  (Blazer Dan Dawson makes his fourth NLL All-Star Game; Cosmo, Belisle named reserve)

Yes, I am that much of a loser that the name of my notes section excites me.

Oh, the Superfans.

They wear mustard colored cheap t-shirts with burgundy writing, either given out or sold by their bookstore.  Maybe 2% of them own hockey jerseys.  And if the hockey team is playing at the same time as their football or basketball team, they magically dissapear.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Boston College Superfans.

The Superfans, or Stuperfans, or whatever you wish to refer to them as, are oft-complained about.  I really don’t dislike them, I’m just amazed at their…indifference? Lack of jerseys? Bandwagon jumping? Pep band’s rendition of Ridin’ Dirty by Chamillionaire? (You have not lived until you’ve heard a tuba blast out the first few lines of that song.  Really.  It’s made my Beanpot the last two years.)

The Superfans have little to cheer about this weekend, as their men’s hockey team lost their national championship rematch with Notre Dame this weekend, 4-1 (that one goal being scored with the man with bionic arms, aka Brock Bradford, aka the player who was neck and neck with the FWNICM in goal scoring in Hockey East a week ago, before FWNICM fell back into his “instead of scoring, I’ll just assist on every goal instead” phase) and, very shockingly, lost this afternoon to usually-downtrodden Maine, 2-1. Hooray, Maine’s Bananas the Bear has something to smile about this evening! The Superfans do not.

The Superfans have even more to fret about, after this characterization of them was offered up this afternoon by HockeyBuzz.com writer Jule Robenhymer:

The SuperFans from BC…I’m not sure how you can call yourself super because you were no where near it during Friday night’s game. Relatively quiet for most of the game, there was even one student section that wasn’t even standing or clapping AND on more than one occasion you allowed the large contingency of ND fans chants of “Let’s Go I-rish!” to go unanswered – what is up with that?? The band was good and I thought it was great that they marched around the concourse before taking their spots during pre-game, but other than that…what a lazy effort on your part…

Wow, Julie. Wow.  I mean, all of us other Hockey East fans think it, but you just went out there and said it.  Called the Superfans out. I imagine the Superfans are already out in full force against her quote, but the damage has been done. The Superfans have been called out as lazy.  I am eager to see how they respond, if at all.

In other college hockey news, a fair number of Boston University hockey fans made the trip down jammed packed route 495 to the Tsongas Arena Friday night to take in the BU-UML game.  This game will forever be known as the “World’s Craziest Hockey Game.”

A colleague who couldn’t make the trip e-mailed me after the game to ask me what the heck happened, given that the last he had checked in with one of us, BU was losing 3-1. I struggled to summarize it, before just typing out on my Blackberry: “We stunk for two periods, UML was better, then they sat back in the last three minutes and we actually decided to play, and then scored three goals.”  There is no other way one could summarize that game.  We all had thought it was over late in the third, but unlike last year, BU has the speed and endurance to stay in the game when other teams are fading.

What was notable about this game was the lack of penalties in comparison with the other Hockey East games this season.  This was the first game this season I have seen where most of the game was played five-on-five.  There were no penalties at all in the first period, and it wasn’t until 8 minutes into the second period.  Even when the refs weren’t given a choice after a few fights, they handed out pretty lenient penalties.  For example,at the top of the third period, I was certain that an extended and very rough fight between BU’s Colin Wilson and UML’s Ben Holmstrom would result in a game misconduct or at least a five minute major.  But no – despite helmets flying off and the officials struggling to stop the fight, both players were only handed two minute minors for roughing.

Another notable item was that UML superstar goalie Carter Hutton came out for the second period, was warming up by skating forward in front of the goal, and slipped and fell flat on his behind.  Hutton is about as tall as two Jeff Lergs, so that was a whole lotta goalie falling down.  He quickly got back up, and looked as if he was laughing.  Hutton played the whole second, but didn’t start the third, leading me to announce a faux injury report to my seatmates: “Hutton, pride, out 4-6 weeks.”  The next morning we learned it was an ankle injury.  Hutton is up there with Theissen in my “scary goaltenders in Hockey East” list after the first two periods he played.  Sure, he’s not the best goalie in Hockey East, but he played a great game Friday night, and it won’t be fun to face him in the future.

Last but not least from Friday’s game, the most interesting non-hockey related aspect of this game had to have been the official Tsongas Arena shopping cart.  During the second intermission “Chuck-a-Puck” contest, we spotted this out on the ice:

The Tsongas Arena Shopping Cart

If you look near the net, you see a shopping cart.  It was a red accented shopping cart that obviously belonged to some store at some point.  My partner-in-crime turned to me and said, “Do you think they made some poor intern steal a shopping cart?  ‘Hey, it would be great to have a shopping cart for the Chuck-a-Puck. Go get us a shopping cart from the grocery store.  Never mind that it’s kind of stealing.”

I am sure the Tsongas Arena obtained the cart legally, and I’m impressed that they thought of it.  It definitely attempted to make cleaning up quicker, although it really didn’t because people were having too much fun rolling it across the ice.

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Lastly, here’s my routine plug for my Examiner Boston work.  I have a piece on the reduced season ticket prices for the Boston Blazers here: Due to an uncertain economy, Boston Blazers cut season ticket prices. I know many of you don’t care much about lacrosse, but think of it as a “The More You Know” moment.  Picture an NBC celebrity telling you that the more you inform yourself about pro lacrosse, the better the world will be.  Dah-dah-dah-dummmmm. Cue the peacock.

And if you do care about lacrosse, and you played or still play lacrosse and hockey at the same time, email me at the address in the sidebar.  I despartely need interview subjects for one of my forthcoming Examiner pieces.  it’s four questions via e-mail, and I will be super happy to hear from you.

But enough about my political thoughts.  I come to you today with links to articles that also have nothing to do with politics, because there will be a point sometime on Tuesday where you are going to want to bang your head against the wall if you hear one more iota about the election:

-Julie Robenhymer, from Hockey Buzz.com has fallen hard for the Boston University men’s hockey team. I love this article because she talks about the sense of team that has really seemed to form this year.

-”I claim voter fraud.” announced my partner-in-crime (aka the fiance) this evening.  “There is no way a team needs overtime to beat Merrimack and still stays in second place in the national polls.”  Chalk it up to a national championship boost for Boston College, as they are held up above BU in today’s polls (Colorado College stays in first.)  Boston College goalie John Muse has weaknesses – it’s just going to take a UNH, BU or Northeastern to expose them fully (NU already has.) I also would have flip-flopped Northeastern and Princeton at spots 9 and 10, because I’m wicked scared of NU this year.  Brad Theissen is too good, almost Curry-esque.

-I think I’m going to forgo the whole buying a Trent Edwards jersey/t-shirt, and just ask for a Ryan Miller shirt for the holidays.  Miller from my parents, and a Phil Kessel t-shirt from the fiance.  They are my two favorite NHL hockey players, and I seriously lack NHL wear. I’ll wear a Bruins shirt for non-Sabres related Bruins games, and the Miller when I’m back in Western New York and when the Sabres play the Bruins.  Is this wrong?

-If Bill Simmons doesn’t want his job, may I have it? Seriously, I don’t understand what’s going on between Simmons and ESPN, and I don’t even think I want to know.  His NFL picks are one of the only regular columns I and many others read on the site (along with anything Bucci), and for ESPN to forego publishing it is questionable. Did Simmons miss a deadline or submit something not up to par?

-Everyone’s Favorite Goalie continues his winning ways with a 5-4 win over the Houston Aeros. John Curry made 34 saves in the 4-3 win.  It’ll be interesting to see if they start a goalie rotation between him and former Rochester American Adam Berkhoel, who showed a lot of spark in the games he filled in for Curry.

-Two fun t-shirt retailers from my old and new homes: Buffalo Sports Tees (gotta love the “Remember the Aud” tee) and CPR Gear (fun and catchy shirts for New England sports fans.)

-Last, but certainly not least – I am looking for a few folks to interview for my new stint over at Examiner Boston.  The groups of interviewees I am looking for:

• those of you who play both lacrosse and hockey, for an article on the correlation between the two sports
• parents of lacrosse players, specifically in the New England area, for a series of pieces on getting your child involved in lacrosse.

Interviews will take place over email, and will be three to four questions at most.  Email me at sportsgirlkat AT gmail DOT com if you are willing to help out.

Sports fans, I’m with you on Election Day.  Keep fighting the good fight, and don’t get bogged down with Election Central on every station if you can help it.