On July 27, 2019, 40 of the best players in Major League Lacrosse descended on Annapolis, Md., for the league’s All-Star Game. Max Adler and Kevin Reisman combined to win 20 of 32 faceoffs. Justin Pugal scored a two-point goal, which was followed by a goal from Bryce Wasserman to send the game into overtime. Brendan Sunday’s fourth goal of the night was the game-winner. Dylan Molloy scored five goals and added an assist en route to earning the All-Star Game MVP award.

Nearly one year later, the league spotlight will be cast once again on Annapolis. It won’t just be the All-Stars that bask in the glory, however. Every other player in the league will be joining them, as Annapolis is the host site for the entire 2020 MLL season.

“We felt it was a good opportunity for us be able to showcase our 20th anniversary season in Annapolis,” MLL Commissioner Alexander Brown said. “We had multiple conversations at the league and team level and the ownership level to figure this out. Like every other league, we went through a lot of different scenarios.”

Players will arrive in Annapolis for a two-day training camp beginning on July 16. The regular season will start on July 18, and teams will play one game against each MLL team. The four teams with the best records will advance to the playoffs, with the semifinals played on July 25 and the championship game held on July 26. All games will air on the ESPN family of networks.

All players, coaches and league staff will stay at The Westin Annapolis. In addition to having individual rooms and a hospitality area for meals, players will dress for the games at the hotel and be bused to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, home of the Chesapeake Bayhawks. Players will go straight from the bus to the field, eliminating the usage of locker rooms.

“At the outset, we got on top of our protocol very, very quickly,” Brown said. “I consulted with a few other commissioners, in particular [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver, on the things that they were doing, and that was very instructive. We even went to the Bundesliga, who developed a comprehensive document on COVID protocol. We engaged state officials and obviously a lot of physicians, and a number of them have ties to other leagues. At the end of the day, the key consideration is and always has been the health and safety of our players and our coaches and staff. I had multiple conversations with our players. I wanted to get them comfortable with everything we were doing. We’ve taken the proper steps and proper precautions that you have to take to execute an event like this.”

Bayhawks president Mark Burdett said the one-week schedule was the league’s fourth iteration of how the season could play out.

He said cooperation from state and local government, as well as corporate partnerships, were essential in making the 2020 season a reality, and that Annapolis had the best combination of both.

“The Governor of Maryland [Larry Hogan] was familiar with, supported and was a fan of the MLL and Chesapeake Bayhawks,” Burdett said. “He attended games and was familiar with the previous owners. He’s a fan of lacrosse because it’s important to the state of Maryland. The County Executive, Steuart Pittman, and Mayor of Annapolis, Gavin Buckley, they saw it the same as Governor Hogan did. They saw it to create economic impact, have a meaningful event and celebrate that lacrosse means something to the communities, and if it can happen safely, there’s no better place.

“The strategic partners, do you have the relationship where you can rely on the venue, the Naval Academy, to work with you?” Burdett added. “Can you rely on your medical partner to support you? Can you rely on your team hotel to expand for you? Can you rely on your catering relationship? All those partnerships were in place and well-oiled, so when the time to expand came, it had a small economic boom to it. It had a chance to be impactful and meaningful.”

Burdett said the league was booking 2,250 nights worth of rooms at The Westin, and the league’s catering partner, Main and Market, would provide 2,600 meals.

On the other side of the relationship, the Naval Academy was very flexible with Major League Lacrosse as the two worked through various iterations of a 2020 schedule. Bill Givens, the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Operations and Championships with the Naval Academy, said they initially agreed to a six-game home schedule for the Bayhawks. After the pandemic forced MLL to change its schedule, there was the possibility of playing one weekend’s worth of regular-season games at one site, and the league agreed on a date for Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium to host one weekend before the idea changed again, and the league opted to have the entire season in one quarantined bubble in Annapolis.

Givens said they had concerns about what protocols and practices the league would operate with, but MLL officials cooperated with everything that was asked of them and made the Naval Academy much more comfortable.

“They shared with us their game plan for protecting the players, so we were good with that, and not playing in front of fans,” Givens said. “We asked if they could get approval from the Governor’s Office, the County Executive and the Mayor’s Office, and they checked all those boxes.”

Not only were Givens and his coworkers comfortable with the plan the league provided, the players were, too.

“They’ve done an awesome job of reaching out to us twice a week about different protocols for staying safe and being able to compete,” Bayhawks attackman Colin Heacock said. “They’re going to make sure we’re doing the right things off the field to make sure we can compete. All the props go to them.”

To help protect the players and staff, many procedures were put in place. All coaches and support staff will wear masks on the sidelines, and teams will be on separate sidelines to maximize social distancing. Individuals were also sent care packages from the league that included masks, gloves, glasses and hand sanitizer.

Burdett laid out many other precautions with the priority of maintaining player and staff safety and health.

“From the time they basically depart to arrive in Annapolis, they will have passed a COVID swab test. If they don’t pass that test, they don’t come. They don’t play. They don’t participate,” he said. “They don’t leave the bubble. Everything is provided for them there. They are tested daily, temperature wise. We have extensive medical there, trainers and doctors, so if anyone is feeling anything outside of normal athletics, they will be seen, and they don’t have to travel for that.”

While the actual game schedule seems daunting — to win the MLL title, the champion will have to win seven games in nine days — Brown said the players were adamant they wanted to get back on the field, and Heacock confirmed the excitement to return to play.

“We have some of the best lacrosse players playing the sport,” he said. “Everyone is excited. It’s going to be fast-paced, very intense games. Everybody wants to come out on top. It will be tough playing a lot of games in a few days, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be who wants it most, and that’s exciting.”

It isn’t just the players who are excited for the return of the MLL season, either. Givens said he and his staff are looking forward to hosting the season.

“I’m an operations guy. I haven’t worked an event since early March,” he said. “The security staff and medical provider, they’re small businesses. It’s getting their folks working again. We won’t have large crowds, but, hopefully, this is the start of us getting back to business as usual. We have a football game against Notre Dame Labor Day weekend, and this will be good to get us getting back into the swing of things. It’s good to start opening the door and getting back to the new normal, as we’re calling it.”

There are plenty of things for everyone to be celebrating: the return of lacrosse, the 20th anniversary season, icons like Lyle Thompson and John Grant Jr. performing again, the return of the Philadelphia Barrage, the arrival of the Connecticut Hammerheads and watching the Bayhawks attempt to repeat as champions while the five other teams attempt to dethrone them.

Brown wants to make sure, though, that no one with the league gets complacent. He acknowledged the league was not infallible, and the pandemic was still a threat despite the good news and the precautions. He said it was imperative for the players to take care of themselves on the field in the late-July Maryland heat, and off the field, too.

“I’m really proud of these guys. Every one of them has taken it very seriously,” Brown said. “I’ve told them at no time in their MLL career would they have to be as professional as they are in this situation because the actions they take leading up to their arrival in Annapolis and then in Annapolis could impact somebody’s life. They all understand it and are very serious about it. I tip my hat to them.”

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