We've Got Balls
I apologize for the potentially misleading title. When I was thinking of what name this week’s piece, all I could think of was Robert Duvall in one of my favorite movies, Kicking and Screaming exclaiming, “I’m Buck Weston, and He’s Got Balls!” If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s a comedy about a father/son rivalry played out vicariously via youth soccer. That isn’t even close to the best quote of the movie, it’s just one that stands out as Robert Duval’s character, who owns a sporting goods store, thinks his off-color moniker is appropriate for a TV ad. Though not to be taken out of context, this title couldn’t be more accurate for our dilemma. We’ve got balls, and I would love to know if other coaches do to.
Our lacrosse ball stock is overwhelming. We have so many balls on our campus that we can’t use anymore that I am running out of ideas on how to get rid of them. We have 3 buckets down at the field, 3 more in our indoor facility, and at least four or 5 more cases in storage. As far as old balls, we gave 2 full buckets each to both our athletic training staff, and our strength and conditioning staff, since I know a lot of the athletes on our campus like to use lacrosse balls to roll out on and use for stretching. Every other ball sits in a massive rolling tool chest on wheels that is parked next to the press box adjacent to our field. The chest is so full of old balls, that it can’t be even rolled anymore. The contents of it are so heavy that its handle has broken clean off. There must be at least 300 hundred old balls in that chest. Any time balls get too slick or ‘greasy,’ I’ll put fresh ones in the buckets for practice and throw the ‘greasers’ in the chest. I have spent a lot of time around lacrosse players and coaches all my life (and I have spent a lot of time thinking about this obviously) and somehow, I have never stumbled upon any sort of viable solution in all my conversations with other coaches. I mean they must go through something similar, right? We buy 1000 balls to get us through practice/games for an entirety of an academic year. And you can ask my guys, when it comes to balls, I am most definitely on the stingy side. I know for fact other coaches probably rotate balls quicker than I do. So, what do they do with their excess of balls? Or better yet, what can be done?
I think the best solution is obvious; in order to reduce excess, you need to buy balls that last. I have looked long and hard into the company ‘Pearl.’ I have spoken to other coaches that use pearl balls and they say they are considerably more expensive than standard balls, but since they never get greasy, they are worth it. There is one catch. You have to be good at ball hunting in order for it to be worth it, and our guys are not (they have to run a sprint for every ball that is left on the field). In fairness, our complex isn’t the most conducive for not losing balls. We have a sizeable hill leading to a highway behind the south end line and a large parking lot behind the north end line. We do have nets that run along the end line, but they are more designed for soccer. The corners of the field are left exposed and we lose a lot of balls that find a pipe every now and again, some of which end up on the highway and thus are lost for good. I am just unsure how long a bucket or Pearls would last.
I know I ask a lot of questions in my articles, but for this particular one, they aren’t rhetorical. I would be really interested to hear from other coaches out there. Does anyone else have similar problems of excess greasers unsuitable for practice? What do you do to mitigate the mountain of balls that build up over the course of the season? I feel like this HAS to be a problem, or at least has to have a solution that I am not aware of. I have spoken to my ball rep and he mentioned to me once the size of the orders for big Division I schools. He says they can have orders up to 60 cases (that’s somewhere between 6000 and 7200 balls per year). I just have a hard time accepting that all these balls just ‘naturally’ dissipate into the ether. Something has to happen. Where do they all go?!?!
I have heard things, like balls can be reconditioned and whatnot. We actually had a one of those ball sanders for a bit, but it was really time consuming, and the balls never really got back to their original state. I wonder if ball companies are willing to take old balls back for their processing. It has made me think of other serious applications that there could be uses for. I would think that latex rubber could have a ton of practical uses, whether medical, industrial, or otherwise. I should talk to one of our environmental science professors to see what they think. If anyone is an engineer and has any insight, I’d love to hear some thoughts. Maybe we can start a company where we provide a central depository for all the high schools and colleges in the US to ship their old balls to. Might be farfetched, but I’m sure there has to be some merit to that idea. I could use a side hustle.
KASEY BURST
The HC at the University of Dubuque, Kasey brings all things college lacrosse to your inbox.
Since the rubber in lacrosse balls has been vulcanized, it is difficult and expensive to recycle. Has anyone explored potentially replacing the crumb rubber in synthetic turf fields with rubber from ground up lacrosse balls? I imagine the cost of transporting lacrosse balls to a location to grind them up is a notable cost but fields typically need to be replaced every 7 to 10 years and based on usage, additional infill materials need to be added during that time frame. Thoughts?