NLL Insider

Looking for a spot on the Dutch National Team.

Current Washington Stealth defender Travis Gillespie recently spent time in Holland, an assistant coach with the Dutch Men’s National Team preparing for the 2010 World Championships in Manchester, England. The following is Gillespie’s breakdown during the team’s tryouts leading into next summer’s games.

About a year ago, a friend of mine who was living in England, started emailing me about an opportunity to coach the Dutch National Lacrosse Team.  He mentioned that their original coach for the European Championships had backed out at the last minute and the team was in need of a coach. 

He threw his hat in the ring and got the job.  I was pretty surprised that they would take on a relative unknown with no Dutch ties to lead them into a tournament that they did not show that well in the last time around. 

Over the next couple weeks he rushed together a plan to get the team ready.  With such a limited time frame to work with he took the team to a remote military base where the team was put through three-a-day practices, weight room sessions and intense classroom studies.  A near fairy tale ending had the Dutch team finish in second, losing to perennial European power England in the Gold Medal match.

With expectations high for next summer’s World Games in Manchester, Coach Travis Taylor (New Westminster, BC) was invited back as head coach.  This time he was given the chance to select his own assistant coaches.  Greggor Stockdale (Amsterdam via the US) was an easy choice.  He has spent the last few years coaching one of the strongest club teams in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Lions and was also a coach in the European Championships.  Coach Taylor started emailing me to see what I thought about maybe joining the staff for the games.  After clearing out my work schedule I thought I would be foolish to turn down such an opportunity. 

After hundreds of emails between the three of us I made the trip across the pond for the first series of tryouts.  After relaxing the first day and spending most of the second day checking out some parts of the city, we went over to a local field to check out an Amsterdam Lions practice. 

Both the men’s and ladies teams practice at the same time each taking one end of the field.  Unlike local field lacrosse players, all arrived on time and most rode their bikes!  The site of a pack of players with long poles pedaling towards the field stills makes me giggle.  After practice both teams retreated into the club house where one of the players had left practice early to man the bar.  I wish we had the chance to enjoy the clubhouse more but we had an early day coming up and a long drive.

The other two coaches did an amazing job sending out the invites to all the players and arranged for a local club in The Hauge (Den Haag) to host the weekend.  We piled into a rented car and drove almost 2 hours where we were greeted by 45 or so nervous players wondering what was in store for them over the weekend.  We tried to put together a collection of drills that would show the coaches a wide a range of the player’s skills and athletic abilities.  Many of the drills were new to the players forcing them to adapt and showing the coaches who was able to learn quickly.  I was pleasantly surprised with the level of lacrosse being played, the athleticism of the players and their overall size.

The highlight of the first day was when a strength and conditioning coach was brought in to run the players through a combination of running and agility drills.  After some ‘regular’ running drills the instructor had the players involved in a modified game of tag that had players piggy back style.  After that they lined up in two rows and did short sprints through a course of cones that forced them to meet each other in a series of violent collisions.  I am glad we filmed the whole weekend so I can steal this drill, throw in a ground ball and call in my own. 

Day two started off like day one with a selection of new drills for the players to showcase their skills.  Unlike day one though, it started to rain.  Being from BC I have experienced my share of wet practices but this was bordering on ridiculous.  Unfazed, the players battled through rain, wind and a muddy field.  The only complaints were from Coach Taylor who kept saying he was cold and tired.  Just like after the Lions practice, almost all the players piled into the clubhouse for some well deserved beverages.  For a country with such tall people they could learn to pour a beer that is more than 8 ounces. 

With the on-field activities completed, the other two coaches and I were stuck with the job of narrowing down the number of players from 45 to roughly 25.  We spent several hours reviewing tape of the two days, talking about players and trying to come to some sort of a consensus about who stays and who has to wait until next time.  This had to be the toughest and worst part of my trip.  In all my years coaching at the local level I never thought about cutting a player, actually we never had enough players to even think about cutting one.

I have been lucky enough to travel to a variety of places for lacrosse.  England, Australia, Germany and throughout North America have all been great but fail in comparison to this trip.  We took in the sites of Amsterdam where the red light district treats your eyes with bulky Jamaican women during the day and Eastern European Goddesses when the lights go down.  There were the typical American tourists sampling the goods at the many coffee shops and darting about down every street and lane were the cyclists.  I nearly got taken out by several of these helmetless Lance Armstrongs who are given the right of way everywhere.  We toured the Heineken factory where I was given some false information about a never empty beer glass and also made our way to the Van Gogh museum.  Feeling artsy, we also took in the Rijksmuseum where I snuck a couple photos of their most famous painting, “The Night Watchmen”.  Just when I thought I was on the verge of being ‘touristed’ out we got a train pass and made our way back up to Den Haag where I sampled a local delicacy of raw herring smothered in onions (actually pretty good, but that could have been the dozen or so beers talking).  We also checked out the city of Utrecht.  It was amazing to be surrounded by buildings that were built before North America was stumbled upon and to see how they have managed to pack 16.5 million people into a country that has 30% of its entire area below sea level.

Since being back, there has been a constant flow of emails between the coaching staff as we prepare for the upcoming games.  I am slated to head back for another set of tryouts and then again for our pre-tournament camps in July.  I have to thank my hosts for the week, Coach Taylor and Stockdale along with their other two roommates- Chris an Iowa native who moved to Amsterdam to practice law and was also trying out as a goalie during the weekend.  (I thought lawyers would know better than to stand between the pipes) and JJ (I won’t even try to spell his real name) who became my Dutch (and English) teacher for the week.  He also was trying out during the weekend but at the much wiser position of long pole. 

I am working hard here to help plan out the path in our march to Manchester.  Expectations are high and I am excited to be a part of it.

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