Tampa Lax Report, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, was started in July of 2017 and is the collective work of Pete Mastro and James Broome. Its main purpose is to help shine a light on the vast amount of boys and girls lacrosse talent found primarily within FHSAA 1A and 2A districts 9-11 (we also cover 1A girls district 5). Tampa continually places top male and female athletes on competitive summer squads that not only compete in the toughest tournaments in the country, but also return home with championships from many of them. Our best and brightest lacrosse stars have been chosen to compete in All-Star games at the most prestigious showcases in the country. And in high school, Plant High School (2016), Berkeley Preparatory School (2017), Jesuit High School (2018 & 2019), and Cardinal Mooney (2018 & 2019) have earned spots in FHSAA Elite Eights for boys varsity lacrosse, Steinbrenner girls, Plant boys, and Canterbury boys made it to the FHSAA Final Four in 2021, and in 2022, Jesuit and Plant boys, along with Steinbrenner girls, competed in the FHSAA Final Four.
Florida is quickly becoming a new hotbed for lacrosse in the country, and Tampa Lax Report is working to promote the players and clubs that call Tampa their home.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do we get stats to you?
The best way would be to email us (stats ‘at’ tampalaxreport.com) an Excel spreadsheet with stats from a single game. Keep players in order by jersey number and add stats by column. Texting works well, too. Again, keep players in jersey number order and their stats next to their name. For example, John Smith 3G, 1A, 4GB, 4/5 FOW, 2CTO. Please be aware – since our system tracks stats on a game-by-game basis, submitting stats that combine multiple games into a single submission will not work.
Which stats do you track?
We currently track goals, assists, ground balls, faceoff wins, faceoffs taken, caused turnovers, saves, goals allowed (per goalie), as well as draw controls for girls. If you submit stats, keep them in this order please. We then calculate goals per game, assists per game, faceoff win percentage, and save percentage.
What if my child’s stats are incorrect?
Go to you child’s team page and find their schedule. Click on a finished game’s score to be taken to the game details page. Here you will find player stats for that game – if they were submitted and entered. If you find either missing or inaccurate stats, contact your coach and have them let us know.
Can a coach or team representative just enter stats themselves?
Yes. An account on our website can be assigned Team Manager status which allows them to add schedule info, roster info, update scores, and add player stats to games. Register on our homepage here, then let us know.
How are Players of the Week awarded?
Stats, stats, stats. We comb through all the stats submitted to us over a given week. We then weigh those numbers against that team’s schedule / strength of their opponents. A 15 goal week is impressive. But its amazing and likely award-worthy when accomplished against highly ranked teams.
How are teams ranked when you do your polls?
Similarly to college football. Win/Loss records are important, but who you beat and who you lose to are also pivotal. Two teams with 7-1 records midway through the season will not always be equal. We have to gauge who the wins were against as well as who the loss was to. Teams are usually not penalized for losses to higher ranked teams – unless the losses are lopsided. Likewise, a string of wins against weaker teams wont always move a team up in the polls.
Why does TLR have incomplete schedules with missing games not shown?
Our schedules are taken from the official record keeper for the FHSAA, which is MaxPreps. We pull schedules from MaxPreps prior to the start of the season. If a team makes a schedule change and doesn’t alert us, then those changes won’t be made in our system.
Why don’t you cover independent schools? Or some schools in districts close to Tampa?
Our goal with Tampa Lax Report is to cover local teams as they compete towards district playoffs and further into state playoffs. Since independents are ineligible for either districts or state playoffs, they are omitted from our coverage as well. Once an independent school is added to an FHSAA district in our coverage area, we will add them to our site. Secondarily, TLR is just 2 lacrosse dads doing this work. As such, we need to draw a line somewhere regarding how many teams we can reasonably manage to cover.
We cover districts 9-11 (with the exception of 1A girls where we cover 5, 9, and 10). Unless the FHSAA reassigns schools to one of those districts, they will likely continue to fall outside of our coverage area. While we’d love to cover the whole Gulf Coast, the work involved would be far too great for a couple of old lax dads. We have to draw the line somewhere, and while that line keeps getting moved on us by the FHSAA, we still try to keep things smaller and easier to cover if we can.
Why does it seem you favor schools in the middle of Tampa?
The 2 people running Tampa Lax Report all live in Tampa. When we began TLR, our goal was to cover Tampa schools only – maybe 10 or so schools. Due to the growth of the sport as well as the FHSAA classification change in 2020, we now cover 74 teams from north Pasco county, south to Sarasota, and east to Lakeland. Regardless of where the schools are located, we continue to track their wins/losses, schedules, results, statistics, as well as considerations for Players of the Week. But actually attending those games gets harder as our coverage area expands.
You used to cover [school]. Why don’t you anymore?
Due to the way the FHSAA determines how teams are placed in districts or moved from Class 1A to 2A (or vice-versa), teams will find themselves sometimes placed into a district that we do not cover, even though they were previously in a TLR-area district the season before. We do not have control over the FHSAA’s decisions when redistricting teams or reclassifying teams. As such, schools will continuously be moved by the FHSAA following each season. This sometimes has unfortunate consequences to teams we enjoy covering.
How do you choose games to video as part of your Game of the Week?
First and foremost, we look for either rivalry games or big district matchups that will shape playoff seeding. Secondly, we want to spotlight equally talented teams whenever possible to make for exciting highlights. And lastly, we have a single person responsible for capturing video, editing, and doing the voiceover. He is involved in the local lacrosse community and has his own schedule to contend with when determining availability.
What is your Privacy Policy and your Terms of Use?
Our Privacy Policy is linked here and our Terms of Use is linked here.