All Lacrosse America

Acknowledgements

Craig Shirley for giving me a job at such a young age.

Press Coverage

New York Times
Washington Business Journal
Eugene-Register Guard
The ACC

“Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.”

- Earl Wilson
AllLacrosseAmerica was the first and largest source for lacrosse news online in 2001. Containing real time scores, game recaps and analysis, AllLacrosseAmerica (ALA) at one point had over 8,000 unique users and 200,000 page views a day. The site contained a summer camp database with sponsored links, a guide to lacrosse equipment, exclusive photos, video highlights, exclusive columns written by the most popular lacrosse players and a message board that was frequented by 70% of the site daily.

Our crown jewel was one of the earliest flash games. Users could shoot lacrosse balls on a trash talking goalie and competed for the highest score after 2 minutes. The AI improved and users were forced to change strategies several times throughout the level. Bonus points were awarded for hitting various items in the background (+10 for hitting certain goofy fans in the bleachers, +15 for hitting popping 3 balloons held by a floating baby and a water pipe would break and squirt the goalie in the eye, making it easier to score).

What I did

I wrote every single line of code on this site. I did the graphics, layout, photographs, database work, server management and any other task associated with the site. I hired columnists, moderated the message boards, built a community and even integrated our news feed into other third party sites using very early RSS feeds using Javascript.

When I had to leave for the Naval Academy, I transitioned maintenance to a new guy and the site kept on being a major source of information and fun for the lacrosse community. A few years later, the plug was pulled on the site, I heard due to lack of funding, which wouldn’t surprise me since that same time period also corresponded with a shift in advertisers pay per click.