NLL Insider

Disclaimer: I want to apologize to my loyal fan base (Frank Resetarits and Steve Wilcos) in advance for this week’s blog not following its usual format. Be sure to check out the pics from this week’s Stealth game against the Colorado Mammoth. They’re way sweet, as usual.

This is sort of embarrassing to admit, but Facebook kind of (in a very, extremely small) sort of way influenced this blog. Huzzah!! For those Facebooker’s out there, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about, and for those out of touch ‘mountain-people’ types who haven’t caught the FB bug, well, try and keep up….

It’s those damn ’25 Things People Don’t Know About You’ quizzes…they kinda got me thinking. I started to go through my list of ‘odd’ things about myself…things like #19: I own a touque…(ask a Canadian) or #17: how I always forget to wash at least one article of dirty clothing every time I do laundry… or #1: I know I guy who knows a guy who knows Rudy Pikuzinski… THE Rudy Pikuzinski!…

But more importantly #4 and #23 stand out…and they are as follows; #4: Before I started playing professional lacrosse I worked as a sports anchorman for CBS affiliate WCAV 19…yeah, the sports guy on the news, hilarious! And #23: Due to some glitch in the matrix, I still get the NLL player polls, which I still fill out and send in.

Now you might be asking yourself ‘what exactly do #4 and #23 have in common?’ or ‘why do I care about this guy’s former occupations?’… These are both good questions…but these numbers may have more at stake for us lacrosse fans out there.

Let’s start with #23 first…Ok, I might have screwed myself with admitting that I still get the NLL player polls, but the point I am trying to make here is way more important. So, as a player in the NLL or MLL, you receive email questionnaires from the league or from the IL front office itself on a periodic basis sort of’ taking the temperature’ of the players and their thoughts on certain topics. For the players, this is a great way to give your feedback and get some type of dig on a teammate published…pretty funny stuff for sure.

Two weeks ago I was very excited to see an Inside Lacrosse questionnaire that revolved mostly around the NLL and it’s amount of ‘exposure’ in the national spotlight. As a photographer, I was stoked to fill out my rebel questionnaire…that’s the whole reason I point my camera at lacrosse players in the first place – to get THEM and the sport more exposure. In a world of guns and rockets, it’s amazing to see how much power a guy with a camera can still have…whoa, that was pretty deep…..

So, I filled out my questionnaire very honestly, stating that I thought the NLL and the sport as a whole had a long way to go to reach the media stratosphere that the MLB, NFL and NBA have grown into over the last few decades. But exactly how far does lacrosse need to go and exactly how do we get the sport to that point in the national spotlight? Hmmm…these are also good questions…

Now, unfortunately, with the NLL ALL-Star game going on, this questionnaire got kind of pushed to the side and wasn’t posted…I was bummed. And like I do every night before bed time, I began to think of other ways to increase the sports exposure to the ‘non-lacrosse’ world….presumably the same Facebook-challenged mountain folk of paragraph one…presumably.

That’s when good ol’ #4 on my list popped up. Ok, get this…my first job out of college was as a sports anchor for a small CBS affiliate. (Seriously, ask Jon Christmas) As a smaller station, this meant that I had more responsibilities…from getting game footage, to doing interviews, to editing the day’s sports highlights and ultimately, throwing a suit and tie, an earpiece and a little bit of make-up and giving the local area five minutes of sweet sports coverage. Sounds like a busy day, right?! Now, I don’t wanna come off as a lazy guy, but I’m all about things that make my life easier. Who isn’t right?! That kind of peanut butter that already has the jelly in it is my idea of efficiency.

Now, back at the news station… in between all the events and interviews I actually went to, I was constantly on the phone or that intranet thing trying to figure out scores of the games I couldn’t go to or what was happening locally I should be covering. The sports segment doesn’t seem that long, but five minutes is a lot of things to cover…sometimes we would stretch stuff out to be able to fill up all the time…sometimes we would just hope someone called before the sports segment was to air with a gem for us.

And low and behold…the station’s sports info line would ring…and there would be someone on the other end who would either tell us of upcoming sporting event or the score of one that just ended. Now that’s stuff we can use!!!

So what do #4 and #23 have to do with each other? A lot in creating a buzz about the sport at the local level…and getting it some TV time to boot! Believe me, whoever picks up the phone will probably be pretty gracious seeing as though you are making his or her job that much easier…it’s the whole peanut butter with the jelly thing…genius!!

Here, I made a simple ‘Fan Checklist’…

ZACH’S FAN CHECKLIST

INSTRUCTIONS
-Apply checklist to any lacrosse related event.
-Follow directions carefully
-Rinse and Repeat

STEP ONE:
-Obtain telephone numbers for each of your local news stations.
NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX
(the numbers are easily found on station website…make sure you get the
sports department!)

STEP TWO:
-Prior to ‘lacrosse related event’ call each affiliate and ask them if they are
covering said event. If they are not, tell them they should be, along with when and where the event is taking place.

STEP THREE:
-Following the ‘lacrosse related event’ call back each of the affiliates and
ask them if they covered said event. If they did not, tell them they should be, along with the score and other relevant facts.

STEP FOUR:
-Tell others to do the same.

See, isn’t that easy!!! But in all seriousness, see how easy that is?!…

The author Malcom Gladwell wrote a book called ‘The Tipping Point,’ in which he tells of how fads within our cultural happenings grow from nothing and get to the crazy level of popularity in which they do. He breaks it down simply enough to the notion that good ideas will spread like wildfire if you get enough of the right people behind them. As fans of the sport, I can’t think of better people to get behind lacrosse…only makes sense right?! Now, we just need more of ‘em. I urge each fan, each player, each GM and each owner to follow my checklist each week. That’s it, that’s all…and remember…in this world of guns and rockets, it’s amazing to see how much power a guy with a camera can still have…or in your case a phone…Get to work!

Please check back in next week as the Stealth take on the Minnesota Swarm and I will write a blog that actually has something to do with the game…I promise.

NLL Insider will be posting blogs from Zach Heffner, a member of last year’s regular season Western Division champion San Jose Stealth squad, Zach has since started his own company, VERDICT Photography, and looks to promote the team and the sport through his photographs.

Zach joined the Stealth after a stint with the Chicago Shamrox and is currently a player with the San Francisco Dragons after putting in two seasons with the Chicago Machine. An NCAA National Champion while at the University of Virginia, Zach lists winning a bronze medal with the USA National Indoor Team at last years’ World Indoor Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia as his top lacrosse moment.

To view the full photo gallery from this post, Visit the NLL Insider Photo Gallery Page

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