Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. Shayne Jackson was named NLL MVP on Tuesday, as the league announced its annual awards despite the fact that the 2019-20 campaign ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson, a forward for the Georgia Swarm, had 31 goals and 42 assists in 12 games. Graeme Hossack (Halifax Thunderbirds) earned NLL Defensive Player of the Year honors for the third straight season, while Paul Day (Philadelphia Wings) took home two awards as NLL Coach of the Year and NLL Executive of the Year.
2. Transgender lacrosse player Gabriel Kris punctuated Pride Month with a powerful piece about his journey through autism, depression and gender dysphoria. Kris, 16, had previously tagged US Lacrosse on Instagram noting the lack of transgender representation in the sport. “There has to be some others like me,” he wrote. “But if I am the first, so be it. I am ready to make waves in the lax world.”
3. Regy Thorpe is back in the women’s game. Surprisingly dismissed by the NLL’s New York Riptide after one shortened season as the expansion team’s coach and general manager, Thorpe, who had a successful 10-year run as Gary Gait’s assistant at Syracuse, will be part of another startup at the University of Pittsburgh. Panthers women’s lacrosse coach Emily Boissonneault announced Tuesday that she had hired Thorpe, whose box lacrosse experience “will bring a creative and tactical system to our offense that we will need to compete in the ACC,” she said. Pitt will make its debut in 2021.