In Baltimore we stayed at the Hunt Valley Marriott off of US 83. I will never forget the place because I spent both my SU spring breaks at this hotel as a Syracuse University (SU) lacrosse player in the 1980s (photo of the inn above). Today college lacrosse teams like SU travel to Florida and play in lavish tournaments in places such as Disneyland. Other college tournament organizers are luring top ranked teams to travel as far as the West Coast. In the 1980s, that was unheard of. The Hunt Valley Inn would be our home for the next week and it was not hard for this Junior college transfer to make the best of it. The Marriott looks like a sprawling fortress from 83. But inside it’s a fortress with the trappings of a luxury hotel including the rooms, whirlpool, and food. Road trips at Herk meant sleeping bags on the floor of teammates’ houses and team moms cooking pancakes in their small kitchen. Those poor moms would be cooking like machines trying to feed a dozen hungry college athletes carb loading for the afternoon game. In contrast, at Hunt Valley we each had our on beds and a wait staff that served us a semi-formal sit down breakfast with an abundance of eggs, pancakes, Danishes, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit and all kinds of juice. This was the breakfast routine each morning before we went off to practice on the turf at Loyola College. Between the room service, hotel whirlpool, and the breakfast, I felt like a professional athlete. More than twenty years later, I still regularly have dreams in which I get a call from coach Desko informing me that somehow the NCAA granted me another year of eligibility! Talk to any student athlete who enjoyed their college playing career, and chances are good that they have had a similar dream. In my dream I am frantically running around my house looking for my lacrosse equipment before the bus pulls off for another spring break trip and stay at the Hunt Valley Marriott. In Baltimore we stayed at the Hunt Valley Marriott off of US 83. I will never forget the place because I spent both my SU spring breaks at this hotel as a Syracuse University (SU) lacrosse player in the 1980s (photo of the inn above). Today college lacrosse teams like SU travel to Florida and play in lavish tournaments in places such as Disneyland. Other college tournament organizers are luring top ranked teams to travel as far as the West Coast. In the 1980s, that was unheard of. The Hunt Valley Inn would be our home for the next week and it was not hard for this Junior college transfer to make the best of it. The Marriott looks like a sprawling fortress from 83. But inside it’s a fortress with the trappings of a luxury hotel including the rooms, whirlpool, and food. Road trips at Herk meant sleeping bags on the floor of teammates’ houses and team moms cooking pancakes in their small kitchen. Those poor moms would be cooking like machines trying to feed a dozen hungry college athletes carb loading for the afternoon game. In contrast, at Hunt Valley we each had our on beds and a wait staff that served us a semi-formal sit down breakfast with an abundance of eggs, pancakes, Danishes, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit and all kinds of juice. This was the breakfast routine each morning before we went off to practice on the turf at Loyola College. Between the room service, hotel whirlpool, and the breakfast, I felt like a professional athlete. More than twenty years later, I still regularly have dreams in which I get a call from coach Desko informing me that somehow the NCAA granted me another year of eligibility! Talk to any student athlete who enjoyed their college playing career, and chances are good that they have had a similar dream. In my dream I am frantically running around my house looking for my lacrosse equipment before the bus pulls off for another spring break trip and stay at the Hunt Valley Marriott. 
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