A veteran lacrosse official in Georgia, Ron was a Charter Member of the association who passed away in 2004 after a brief battle with cancer. Long-time Atlanta lacrosse fans who met Ron undoubtedly remember his unique passion for the sport of lacrosse. His presence was welcomed on the field by coaches, officials, and players due to his outgoing nature, his enthusiasm, and his friendly demeanor.

Veteran Club Player Jon Ochsner recalled how unique Ron was. “Ron officiated our men’s club games by himself, which is unheard of today. He understood the flow of the game very well and always called a safe and fair club game. He always made a point to get to know all of us club players off the field.”

In his memory, GLOA created the Ron Mallonee Fund which annually awards camp scholarships to deserving high school boys who have a passion for the sport of lacrosse and a desire to improve. Since the Ron Mallonee Fund’s inception in 2005, GLOA has been able to provide scholarships to over fifty players from the state of Georgia to attend lacrosse camp.

The ten Ron Mallonee Scholarship winners for 2012 are as follows:

• JT Barry (Lakeside Evans High School)
• John Dempsey (Lakeside Atlanta High School)
• Zachary Halbig (St. Pius X Catholic High School)
• Greg Jacquet (Archer High School)
• Robert Johnson (Dunwoody High School)
• Josh Jones (Collins Hill High School)
• Kyle Kitchens (Decatur High School)
• Cody Lewis (Collins Hill High School)
• Andrew Martinez (Collins Hill High School)
• Jacob Samuels (River Ridge High School)

These ten players were all nominated by their high school coaches and will receive their award at halftime of one of the two GHSA Lacrosse State Championship Games played this weekend.

If you would like to learn more about the Ron Mallonee Fund, please visit the GLOA web site online at GALAXREF.com and click MEMORIAL on the top right tab.  Tax deducible donations to the Ron Mallonee Fund can be made through the Georgia Chapter of US Lacrosse.

These rules clarifications provide clarity around Rule 7-1-1d, regarding a player releasing from a penalty during a face-off; Rule 1.6.1, regarding equipment (stick) checks and taped ends; and Rule 4-15, regarding bringing the ball into the attack area.

Officials are encouraged to review these rule clarifications carefully.

The 2012 revision to rule 1-7-3 is stated as follows:

All hollow crosse handles must have their open end covered with a plastic or rubber end cap manufactured for a lacrosse stick.

When the rules committee adopted that language, it was believed that plastic and rubber were the only two materials used in the production of lacrosse end caps. It has since been determined that end caps are manufactured for use on a hollow stick using wood. As a result, the rule is further revised for the 2012 season as follows:

All hollow crosse handles must have their open end covered with an end cap manufactured for a lacrosse stick.

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A veteran lacrosse official in Georgia, Ron was a Charter Member of the association who passed away in 2004 after a brief battle with cancer. Long-time Atlanta lacrosse fans who met Ron undoubtedly remember his unique passion for the sport of lacrosse. His presence was welcomed on the field by coaches, officials, and players due to his outgoing nature, his enthusiasm, and his friendly demeanor.

Veteran Club Player Jon Ochsner recalled how unique Ron was. “Ron officiated our men’s club games by himself, which is unheard of today. He understood the flow of the game very well and always called a safe and fair club game. He always made a point to get to know all of us club players off the field.”

In his memory, GLOA created the Ron Mallonee Fund which annually awards camp scholarships to deserving high school boys who have a passion for the sport of lacrosse and a desire to improve. Since the Ron Mallonee Fund’s inception in 2005, GLOA has been able to provide scholarships to over forty players from the state of Georgia to attend lacrosse camp.

The eleven Ron Mallonee Scholarship winners for 2011 are as follows:
Jared Arntzen (Harrison)
Tony Battle (Whitewater)
Mitchell Beck (Lakeside Evans)
Andrew Bryant (Dunwoody)
Simeon Johnson (Decatur)
Blake Martin (Archer)
Christian Matos (Collins Hill)
Demetrius Milling (Druid Hills)
Chris Miller (Brookwood)
Scott Mudrak (Greenbriar)
Titus Zeiglar (Grady)

These eleven players were all nominated by their high school coaches and will receive their award at halftime of one of the two GHSA Lacrosse State Championship Games played this weekend.

“This is fantastic news and testimony to the Ron Mallonee Award recognizing deserving players, said Archer Coach Matt Jackson.  “This will go a long way not only with Blake Martin, but also for Archer HS Lacrosse which just finished its first season. Thank you!”

“Thank you so much for bestowing this honor on Chris Miller.  He is a well-deserving young man and I know that he will represent the Ron Mallonee Award well,” added Brookwood Coach Kris Muir.

“We greatly appreciate their generosity of the numerous lacrosse referees and the Mallonee Family that have made contributions to the Ron Mallonee Fund over the last few years,” said Georgia Lacrosse Officials Association President Sonny Pieper. “Ron would be so pleased at how well the sport has grown in Georgia.  Special thanks to Ken Lovic for hosting these deserving players at the Georgia Tech Lacrosse Camp.  I invite all lacrosse fans to help support a great and worthy cause by donating in his memory.”

If you would like to learn more about the Ron Mallonee Fund, please visit the GLOA web site online at GALAXREF.com and click MEMORIAL on the top right tab.  Tax deducible donations to the Ron Mallonee Fund can be made through the Georgia Chapter of US Lacrosse.

I recently received a very nice thank you note from Laura Mallonee (Mother of Ron Mallonee) for our continued work on the Ron Mallonee Fund (RMF). I wanted to share the note with all of you. You can view the note here.

We will conduct a raffle at this end of year GLOA party (Friday, May 13th) once again to raise additional funds to support the RMF and the Kevin Moore Fund (KMF). GLOA has awarded over 40 camp scholarships to deserving high school players through the RMF since 2005. You can learn more about our two GLOA Charities on the GLOA Memorial page.

Our GLOA Awards committee is soliciting items for this raffle. We are specifically looking for electronics, vacation related items, sporting tickets, sports memorabilia, golf items, restaurant gift certificates, auto accessories, professional services, etc.

Jeff Greene has already secured 2 sets of AirTran roundtrip airline tickets donated for the raffle, along with ground transportation, plus complimentary hotel rooms from The Ritz Carlton Hotels, W Hotels, and Renaissance Hotels. So there will be some excellent prizes up for grabs in this raffle!

Here is how you can help.  The GLOA Awards Committee has developed a form letter that GLOA members can use to solicit donations from businesses.

Please download the letter at
http://galaxref.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/RMF-Raffle-Donation-Letter.pdf (PDF file)
http://galaxref.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/RM-Donation-Letter.docx (Word Document)

We encourage all GLOA members to use this letter and talk with some folks you know who maybe able to help us. Remember, the Georgia Lacrosse Foundation (GLF) can write you (or a business) a letter stating the dollar value of the donation for tax purposes.

If you or your company would like to donate items for the raffle, please contact Tom Smith (tomdsmith@na.ko.com, 404-245-7711) or Bob Foster (uva71@comcast.net or 678-770-1485) for more information.

I hope all of you can get involved with the RMF/KMF and support this worthy cause.

Thank you!

Sonny Pieper
President – Georgia Lacrosse Officials Association (GLOA), Inc.
www.GALAXREF.com