It is interesting to examine lacrosse from the outside looking in. Try to envision the game through the lens of the general public. It is a complicated game! How many times do you hear questions like: “Lacrosse? Is that the game with those racquets?”

Trying to describe lacrosse and the landscape of the game to someone new to lacrosse is a bit of a challenge. You have indoor or “box” lacrosse that is predominantly played in Canada. You have outdoor lacrosse or “field” lacrosse that is predominantly played in the US (and quickly spreading internationally). You have boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse, minor, junior, senior, CLAX, NALL, high school, NCAA, club, masters, international, NLL, MLL ...

The game has such a wide scope; lacrosse takes on so many different forms depending on who you are and where you are. The culture of the game is so different in different parts of the world. Did you know Prague has a strong “box” lacrosse following? They have an outdoor box in the middle of one of the suburban towns. When they hosted the World Indoor Championships, the entire town came out to watch, creating a European soccer-type of atmosphere.

Flying from Rochester to Philly after our game on the weekend, I read the Sports Illustrated magazine devoted to Michael Jordan. It was interesting to get a sense of what MJ is like now in his life after basketball. MJ the person is much different than MJ the basketball player. It really had me thinking about our perception of sport and athletes.

As a player in the NLL you get consumed with the wins and losses throughout the season. You are emotionally invested and it becomes easy to lose yourself in the highs and lows of the season. Losses stick with you … eat away at you. You hate the losses much more than you enjoy the wins.

When I find myself getting too high or too low, I think about my old coach at Georgetown and the messages he reinforced to my teammates and in every day. Coach [Dave] Urick always reminded us that lacrosse at Georgetown was important, but it was not everything. The key was to strive for balance and to use lacrosse to help you become the person that you can be. We practiced beside the Georgetown hospital every day and had a tangible reminder of how lucky we were to be playing the game we love. It reminded us that the game could be taken away from us at any time and to really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to play. You don't "have" to play, you don't "want" to play, you “GET" to play.

Kyle Hartzell of the Philadelphia Wings will take questions from fans during a live chat on Wednesday, beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Hartzell is a four-year veteran who won the 2010 NLL Championship with the Washington Stealth. Hartzell also won a bronze medal as a member of Team USA at the 2011 World Indoor Lacrosse Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. The Maryland native made history on June 30, 2012 at halftime of the MLL All Star game, winning his second consecutive “Fastest Shot” competition and tied a world record in the process with a shot of 111 miles per hour.

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The more I learn about nutrition, the more I realize I how much more there is to learn. It can be overwhelming. Like most things, educating yourself on nutrition needs to be an active process. Everyone seems to have different theories on nutrition and it is subject to trends and fads. You have to do your best to sort through it all and establish a balanced plan that works for you.

As a kid growing up and even throughout high school, one thing determined most my food decisions -- taste. Making a healthy food choice meant adding pineapple to my pizza. This changed my sophomore year at Georgetown, living with my teammate and good friend Nick Miaritis. Nick, one of the more intelligent (and eccentric) guys that I know, was meticulous when it came to nutrition. Eating with Nick was funny/annoying. His meal never came as it read on the menu. A classic sub would be fries for asparagus. You mean you are willingly subbing fries for asparagus? Are you crazy? Nick definitely took a lot of heat for his uncommon food choices. If not for his Greek/Sicilian charm, I'm sure waitresses serving Nick would have been pretty agitated.

If you are a healthy eater in college, you are definitely in the minority.

Coming off back-to-back losses, we were really hoping to respond and get back on track. Our (2-3) record to start the season is a good example of the parity that exists in the NLL. If you look across the league, you will notice other teams with early swings of wins and losses. Because we only play sixteen games, every game takes on so much meaning.

It was discouraging not just to lose to Rochester, but to lose in the nature we did. From start to finish, we were outplayed. It now becomes a balance between moving forward, but not forgetting or accepting the mistakes made. It is important not to shy away from adversity. You need to meet it head on, embrace obstacles, and view them as opportunities to learn and grow. You have to hope that a tough loss like the one we experienced to Rochester will evoke some change and lead to us being better in the long term.

As a coach at The Hill Academy, I’m able to see both ends of the spectrum. Since I started my coaching career back in 2005, it has changed my perspective as a player. You view the game in a different light. As a player, you become much more aware of your preparation, body language and how you respond to direction — you think about the things you value in the players that you coach and try to “practice what you preach.”

Turning the page on a tough weekend and coming off a bye week, it is a fresh start for us in many ways. At 2-2 we are where we are, but we feel we are capable of much more. We have shown flashes of greatness, but it is a fine line for our team and we need to strive for consistency. There were many positive signs from our first quarter of the season and I still think we are scratching the surface in becoming the team that we are capable of being.

My best friend, Kyle Miller, brother of our goalie Brandon, is suffering from a rare form of cancer and after being told by his oncologist that there is nothing more that could be offered to him in Canada, he and his fiancé, Vanessa, have pursued alternative treatment in Freeport, Bahamas.

The timing of our visit to Kyle couldn’t have been better, coming off two tough losses, lacrosse couldn’t have been further from my mind as my wife Alex and daughter Sawyer spent the week with Kyle and Vanessa in the Bahamas. Kyle has been struggling lately, managing the pain of his tumors and dealing with the intense fevers that are initiated by his treatment. Brandon had been planning on visiting the week after, but decided to jump on the plane early with me to surprise Kyle. It was a cool moment to see Kyle surprised and excited to see his older brother. It was also really neat to see “uncle Kyle” spend some time with my newborn daughter.

Ned Crotty of the Philadelphia Wings will take questions from fans during a live chat on Wednesday, beginning at 2 p.m.

Crotty is a forward for the Philadelphia Wings. A Duke alumnus, Crotty has a stellar collegiate career and was named an All-American and awarded the Tewaaraton Trophy, the NCAA's award for the most outstanding lacrosse player. Crotty led the Blue Devils to their first ever Lacrosse championship in 2010. The New Jersey native is also a team of Team USA and played in the 2010 World Lacrosse Championship.

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Coming off an emotional win in Toronto, we faced the challenge of avoiding a letdown, playing back-to-back games against two strong opponents.

The weekend proved to be a battle of attrition as the majority of the team spent approximately 18 hours on the bus in the span of 24 hours. You could see the travel had an effect on our team's overall energy and focus level, especially in our second game against Calgary as evident from our 8-2 first half deficit.

Every team has to endure different forms of adversity, so we need to take ownership of our performance and do a better job of overcoming the adversity. "No excuses, no explanations!" Although we approach every game with the goal of winning, sometimes losing can be a positive thing IF you learn and respond. It can reveal the character of your team and bring some deficiencies to the forefront.

Kevin Crowley of the Philadelphia Wings will take questions from fans during a live chat on Thursday, beginning at 2 p.m. 

Crowley, the Wings’ top pick in the 2012 NLL entry draft out of Stony Brook University in Long Island, had a prolific rookie campaign in which he was named to the league’s All-Rookie team and Rookie of the Week three times, the most in the league. The New Westminster, B.C. native scored a team high 36 goals, and tallied 35 assists for 71 points on the season. The forward led all offensive players, recovering 81 loose balls in his first season and scored four goals in Philadelphia’s single playoff game.

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