Most National Lacrosse League teams have a unique way to recognize someone who has excelled in or reached a milestone in a game — a game ball, a zany helmet, a flashy jacket, a lunch bucket or some other object of sentimental value. Recipients cherish these tokens because they come from their peers or, in some cases, from the coaches in the dressing room right after a game.
Here’s what game MVPs get.
BUFFALO
Jordan Durston and Zach Higgins are thrilled to receive Bandits’ championship belt.
In coming up with something new this season, the Bandits went with an idea originally suggested by assistant equipment guy Nick (McLovin) May: a championship belt.
The team submitted a design — drawn up by May, equipment helpers Jeremy Wiseman and Dan Ristine and forward Craig England — to the Sylvania, Ohio, company ProAm Belts and everybody was happy when the finished product was delivered in Buffalo.
“The players love it,” equipment manager Ted Cordingley said.
CALGARY
The Roughnecks started the season with a suit. Big goalie Frankie Scigliano had to squeeze into it after getting it after an early-season win. Now they go with a game ball. Curt Malawsky got one last Saturday when he registered franchise-record win 47 as head coach.
COLORADO
Assistant coach Chris Gill gets set to present the Mammoth game MVP award, a lunch bucket.
The coaches decide after a win on a post-game recipient of an old-fashioned lunch box done up in Mammoth maroon complete with team logos. This is the second season for an award Colorado players give acknowledging effort on the floor.
GEORGIA
Frank Brown got the Swarm silver jacket after a recent game in which he scored his first NLL goal. Lyle Thompson looks on.
A slick silver dress jacket goes to the Swarm MVP. It’s a beauty.
“Mitch Belisle brought that to training camp last year,” captain Jordan MacIntosh said. “I think it’s the jacket he wore to prom.”
A Swarm player receives the jacket from the previous weekend’s winner.
“It’s a fun way to honor the player who had a big game,” MacIntosh said. “It’s a peer award. The jacket is enormous. It didn’t fit a single guy on our team. Lyle [Thompson’s] wife ended up sewing in some extra buttons so we could actually button the thing up.”