Upstate Of Mind

KASEY BURST

It is that time of the summer that I have begun to feel nostalgic. Maybe it's because summer to me is and has always been about family. As we are coming off of the 4^th of July, this time of year has made me poetic. Having just spent almost 2 full weeks off the road, I had enjoyed some much-needed family time. My family spent 5 days "Up North," as we refer to it (up north being my father in law's cabin in Mountain, Wisconsin) to get out of town for a bit. We spent our days outside, my daughter running around with her cousins, going to the lake, taking dips in the river, seeing the fireworks, and of course eating some good food. I went wading in the river, fishing whenever I could, and sat out around the fire at night. Upon returning, we spent some time at my mother's house doing the same, grilling out and having some laughs. I think it was around this time, where started to reminisce about my own childhood, as I watch my daughter in only her 3^rd summer. I thought about what I did each summer as a child, and what we would do each summer from here on out that would shape her future memories of this time of year. Now, I have never been particularly sentimental about the seasons in Central New York (especially winter), but as i grow older, and dare I say wiser, I find myself looking to the past for some comforting thoughts of an upstate summer. 

Upstate, NY is a strange place. I was always reminded of that of my friends in college. They couldn't figure out why people in New York would choose to live so far from the City, or the Atlantic Ocean. Central NY is a vast place with many layers. Let's talk about the weather. The winters are some of harshest imaginable, while at the same time having brutally sweltering summers, and everything in between. Half the year the ground is blanketed with snow that never lets up and the sun disappears for months on end. The summer months can spurn some of the muggiest days and nights in contrast. How about the landscape. Cities, suburbs, and small towns lay scattered across the state from the Tug Hill Plateau to the Southern Tier. All manner of geography can be found from huge lakes to small streams, tree-covered mountains to vast, flat fields of corn. Valleys and gorges have been sculpted by the last ice age, as well as the finger lakes which are remnants of a time long ago. And the leaves of Autumn are some of our country's most abundant and colorful displays one could come across. The culture is curious as well. It is nothing I could've articulated as a youth. There is a very core 'east coastedness' within the people of CNY, with a certain brash and sarcastic wit and a propensity for not wasting time whenever possible. While at the same time there is a homeliness within its inhabitants. A certain down-home-ed-ness, and quaint, country mannerisms similar to that of a Midwesterner. 

There are many dualities within this strange place. But my favorite paradox of all is the food! From farm grown staples to regional fare, that is the one thing I'll say I miss most about Upstate NY is the summer cuisine. Here are a list of my favorites: Hoffmann coneys and hotdogs, fries dipped in malt vinegar from Heid's, Utica greens, salt potatoes, corn on the cob, chicken riggies, grandma's baked beans, bagels smokes lox, buffalo wings, city chicken (this could be just my family) and pizza frittes from the Great New York State Fair. If you have never had a pizza fritte, I feel immense sorrow for you. If you can imagine a beignet the size of an arm, hot and covered in sugar. It is unlike anything else. To me, the perfect summer meal is 2 coneys from Heid's, a side of fries, salt potatoes, or potato salad, with chocolate milk from Byrne Dairy.  Not that a lot of this couldn't be replicated to a certain extent and is not bound to a certain geographic location, but it wouldn't be the same. And I think it's more than the food but the memories that are attached. I remember eating outside on the deck with my mom and dad every Sunday evening for so many years. We could not do that any other time of year. Its probably a huge part of the reason I love summer so much, that and the weather.

And I don't know how other people feel, but I can't think of summer and not think of Lacrosse simultaneously. I'm sure lacrosse is synonymous with summer in most people's minds now because of the PLL and summer recruiting tournaments etc, but those two things did not exist when I was a boy. Growing up, lacrosse was summer. First it started, as it always does, with the Division I final 4 on Memorial Day Weekend. I remember getting a chance to go often. Obviously, Baltimore was a popular destination, as it still is, but back in the day it wasn't always held in Philly and Boston. I remember going to Rutgers in New Jersey, and College Park near DC on occasion.

 But for me, the summer is when we played. And not tournaments. The only tournament I ever remember playing as a kid growing up as the 1812 tournament in Sacketts Harbor, right on Lake Ontario. I played in that one every July for years. It was the only tournament for boys in the summer at that time. But as far as playing goes, that was the time to play when you were a child. The Brine Upstate Lacrosse League, or BULL, was where I learned to play starting in the summer of 95. A spring season was not a thing until I was in junior high school. We practiced during the week and played games all summer long. For a kid in CNY, the summer was your lacrosse season. Once it stopped than football began. When I think of the youth now, it makes more sense to grow the game this way. The weather is better, there aren't hardly any conflicts with other sports' seasons interfering, and children and their parents are likely to have more free time in the summer. I'm not sure how youth sports are done now but more states could benefit from doing more local summer leagues. And I mean a real LEAGUE, with practices and games, not just travel ball going to tournaments. I just got back from Colorado Springs recruiting seniors and juniors. At this same event there were all ages. I noticed boys that were easily U-10 and under. I watched boys' teams play from Seatle, WA and Tulsa, OK. If they have no other choice but to travel by plane to play in a youth tournament for one weekend, and pay thousands of dollars to do so, I have to believe that they are doing it wrong. Now if that is a family's choice to travel their son or daughter that young, then that is their prerogative. But if more states have local summer leagues and youth lacrosse seasons, you can get all the benefits of playing and practicing over summer break, without the travel costs, recruiting scams, and general headaches that come from people selling the intensive travel experience that is club lacrosse. 

But I'm soapboxing now and need to stop. Lacrosse consumes my summers now for sure as a coach, but I will always have fond memories of playing on grass fields at middles schools playing in the BULL league. Once I got into HS and college, 2 of the best summer men's leagues ever were at our disposal in Central New York. The Jones Road men's league and the City Rec League were two of the best. I remember the Jones Road league being more for current college players. You could sign up to hop on a team or build a team of your own. We played twice a week in June and July. The City League was elite. Some of the best players in the world would show up at night during the week at Valley fields or Henniger HS. This was before the PLL and the MLL was a fledgling league at the time, but honestly in Upstate NY, you could find one of the greatest lacrosse players at any time that you had never heard of. They never played professionally or even collegiately. During these summer nights I experienced some of the best competition I had ever seen in all my years of playing. But I hope more states have these opportunities in place. It's one thing to have a beer league tournament every year, or to make the trip to Vail or Lake Placid every once in a while. But to continue to offer the sport in the same manner as anything/everything else. When I think of how many rec softball, volleyball, and basketball leagues there are in any given city, it makes me feel as though lacrosse should not only be offered in the same manner but participated to the same degree. But those are my memories of Lacrosse and of summer, growing up in Upstate, NY.

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KASEY BURST
The HC at the University of Dubuque, Kasey brings all things college lacrosse to your inbox.

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