NLL Insider

As the National Lacrosse League playoffs kicked off this past weekend, I sat by the the Le Pavillon Pool in New Orleans celebrating the 39^th Annual Jazz and Heritage Festival.  The Fest takes place at the Fair Grounds Race Course.  We went Friday to catch Zigaboo Modeliste, John Butler Trio, Trombone Shorty and the first couple songs of Stevie Wonder.

Saturday and Sunday we opted for pool over fest to rest up for the nightly shows.  This was my 8^th time to Jazz Fest and it reminded me of a trip back in 2001.

In MLL’s inaugural year of 2001 … training camp started the weekend after the NLL Finals.  On Friday night, we defeated the Toronto Rock at the ACC and proceeded to celebrate until my flight at 6 a.m.  I was the volunteer assistant for the Loyola women and we had a huge game against Maryland Saturday afternoon.  I got back to BWI and crashed in my car for a few hours before driving to College Park for the game at noon. 

The following Wednesday I flew down to NOLA and was planning on staying until Saturday morning.  The New Jersey Pride camp started Saturday afternoon with the a.m. session consisting of speed testing, agilities and all that good stuff.  I figured with having just finished a 6-month season I could get a pass, but that wasn’t the case.  I had to reschedule my trip and flew back on Friday night! 

Being the first year of a new team, GM Charlie Shoulberg wanted to make sure a certain tone was set.  Rules were laid out for everything from equipment used to undershirts worn.  I was mentally and physically spent from the NLL season and proceeded to tweak an already tight hammy in the 40 yard dash.  I was not a happy training camper.

I love to play lacrosse and think I take a very positive attitude into every practice and game.  I believe in going hard in practice to prepare both mentally and physically for games.  The mistake many professional lacrosse coaches and GM’s make is that they treat their “adult” players the same way they treat high school or junior high school athletes.  It doesn’t work.  In order to get your players to give everything they have, you must start by treating them with respect. 

The final game of our New Jersey Pride Season we played the Baltimore Bayhawks.  We needed to win to make the playoffs.  We fell behind in the second half and most guys played as if they wanted to go to the shore the following weekend instead of the playoffs.  I was disgusted and never played in the MLL again.  I would bet that the coaching staffs of the 4 teams still left in the race for the Champion’s Cup understand the delicate balance of demanding excellence while treating players with respect.

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