2004 Choate Jamboree

It was a great day of lacrosse for all of the 16 schools from all over New England that converged on Choate's campus for a day full of scrimmaging.
Exeter started off scrimmaging the hosts from Choate, and the 50 minute battle ended in a 4-4 draw. Exeter did not look sharp early into this contest, but certainly the fact that most of the Exeter team awoke at 6:00 AM or earlier for a 2-3 hour commute to Choate can help explain the early difficulties. By the 2nd half of the scrimmage, Exeter was clicking nicely and certainly started to play closer to potential.
Next up in this day of five different scrimmages was a somewhat overmatched team from North Yarmouth Academy. Exeter dominated play all over the field, and it was a great opportunty for some of the younger and less experienced players to shine.
After a short rest and some drink and food, Exeter went on to play three concesutive 50 minute scrimmages. First up was a scrappy team from KUA, who made Exeter work at both ends of the field. Exeter outscored KUA in the scrimmage, but we came away with a lot of respect for this team that we will have to face on May 5th of the regular season. It will be a tough game. Exeter played Suffield Academy next, and it was clear that fatigue was starting to set in for both teams at this point in the day. Nevertheless, Exeter dominated play for most of the scrimmage, with the younger players seeing a lot of the action again. There was certainly some looking ahead to the final scrimmage of the day against Loomis Chaffee. The Loomis scrimmage was a nice preview of what promises to be a tough, close game between two of New England's better teams when we meet on May 24th. Loomis did a great job dominating face-offs and scoring the first two goals of the contest. Exeter came back nicely to score four unanswered goals of their own with some very nice play all over the field. Both teams were running on adrenelin at this point in the day, but the quality of play was high, as was the enthusiasm. Exeter's defense made things very difficult for Loomis, and Julian Rodier made several quality saves. Exeter finished the scrimmage with more goals, but the only thing that really counts will happen on May 24th. It should be another great game like last year.
There were many parents and friends in attendance. Thank you for your great support and the food and drink so generously provided. There were many tired young men at the end of the day.