US Lacrosse fielded a large pool of applicants from coaches across the country. US Lacrosse high school area chairmen nominated the boys’ coaches, who were then selected by the US Lacrosse men’s game coaches subcommittee. Girls’ high school coaches submitted applications to the US Lacrosse women’s game selection and coaches subcommittees, who then made the final selections.

The girls’ and boys’ divisions will each have four teams that compete in a round-robin format and then conclude with the championship and consolation games on the final day of each showcase.

The girls’ showcase takes place July 21-23. The following are the girls’ showcase coaches and their respective high school teams:

Team Freedom – Coach Andrew Reed, East Syracuse Minoa (N.Y.)
Team Freedom – Coach Juliet Mittlemann, Palisades Charter (Calif.)
Team Liberty – Coach Kayla Grieser, Neenah (Wis.)
Team Liberty – Coach Lisa Parsons, Loomis Chaffee (Ct.)
Team Pride – Coach Elizabeth Applegate, Tower Hill School (Pa.)
Team Pride – Coach Nadia Harmsen, The Winchendon School (Mass.)
Team Spirit – Coach Carter Abbott, The Pingry School (N.J.)
Team Spirit – Coach Jay Watts, The Westminster Schools (Ga.)

The boys’ showcase takes place July 25-27. The following are the boys’ showcase coaches and their respective high school teams:

Team Freedom – Coach Tim Reidy, Rockhurst Jesuit (Mo.)
Team Freedom – Coach Lou Corsetti, Riverwood (Ga.)
Team Liberty – Coach James Dock, Gould Academy (Maine)
Team Liberty – Coach Matthew Plitnick, Columbine (Colo.)
Team Pride – Coach Evan Whelchel, Westlake (Texas)
Team Pride – Coach Steven O’Donnell, LaSalle Academy (R.I.)
Team Spirit – Coach Alan Rotatori, Grafton (Mass.)
Team Spirit – Coach Christopher O’Dougherty, Eastlake (Wash.)

“I am thrilled to be selected as one of the coaches for the Champion All-American Showcase, a US Lacrosse event,” said Corsetti, coach for Team Freedom. “As a long time coach and advocate for US Lacrosse principles it is an honor to be chosen. Coaching these young men will be a wonderful experience and I can’t wait to meet the players and other coaches.”

To learn more about the Champion All-American Showcase, please visit click here. Follow the action on Twitter @USLacrosse #2013AAS. – See more at: http://www.uslacrosse.org/TopNav/NewsandMedia/PressReleases/2013ChampionAllAmericanShowcaseCoachesNamed.aspx#sthash.9TDXkPXv.dpuf

Marist School will host their 1st Collegiate Lacrosse game on Friday, March 8th at 7:30 p.m. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets will play the Boston University Terriers. Admission is $ 5.00 but all Youth Lacrosse players will be admitted free if they wear their Lacrosse Pinnie. The Georgia Tech team will host a Q&A session after the game to answer questions about NCAA recruiting and Club Lacrosse team opportunities. The game will be played in Hughes Spalding Stadium, Marist School, 3790 Ashford Dunwoody Road, 30319

This is a great opportunity to watch Lacrosse, “the fastest growing sport in America”, up close with the entire family.

“Every year we schedule a couple of our games at High Schools in the Atlanta area and in Alabama to introduce Georgia Tech Lacrosse to our youth. Our players also enjoy sharing their love of Lacrosse with the community,” Ken Lovic, Head Lacrosse Coach, Georgia Tech.

“We are thrilled with the opportunity to host Georgia Tech Lacrosse at Marist School” , Men’s Head Lacrosse Coach, Scott Mandy. “One of our Marist graduates, Danny Coughlin (#20), is on the Georgia Tech Squad along with 15 other Atlanta High School graduates. The Atlanta Youth Lacrosse league will hold a scrimmage during halftime. This is a great way for the Atlanta community to learn more about Lacrosse”

The team hopes to draw a large crowd to entice more college lax programs to schedule games in the Southeast. The ACC plans to hold their tournament in Atlanta in 2014. The organization hopes local high schools will follow suit and host college level games whose spectators will support a future ACC Championship tournament in Atlanta.

The two club teams will square off at 7:30 p.m. with a tailgate for All Georgia Tech Alumni before the game at 6:30 p.m. To register for the tailgate and purchase $ 6.00 meals please visithttp://www.nmetrogtclub.com/2013/gt-lacrosse-tailgate-and-game/ The Georgia Tech Prep Band will be on hand to enhance the game experience.

Georgia Tech has a MCLA club Lacrosse team and Boston University will be transitioning from a MCLA club sport this season to a Division 1 team in 2014.

The Friday game will also be a fundraiser for the Andrew Oswald Memorial Fund. Named for the Pope Lacrosse player who died in a car accident in July 2005, Oswald’s family initiated the non-profit organization to promote safe driving among teenagers.

Advance tickets are available at Play It Again Sports in Buckhead. For more information regarding the game, please contact Trish Coughlin,404-435-3795.

The team hopes to draw a large crowd to entice more college lax programs to schedule games in the Southeast. The ACC plans to hold their tournament in Atlanta in 2014. The organization hopes local high schools will follow suit and host college level games whose spectators will support a future ACC Championship tournament in Atlanta.  Atlanta Youth Lacrosse, the oldest lacrosse program in Georgia, is sponsoring the event, in hopes of providing valuable exposure to college level lacrosse for younger players. Interacting with collegiate players from both teams will offer a tremendous opportunity for all youth athletes. Other local youth teams are encouraged to attend.

Fundraiser activities will include a fastest shot contest, a silent auction and lots of good food. Tickets are only $5 in advance and can be purchased by emailing katiearney@gmail.com or jodi.jackson@comcast.net. Tickets are also available for purchase at Atlanta Youth Lacrosse (http://ayllax.com), Play It Again Sports in Buckhead, and http://rumbleatriverwood.brownpapertickets.com/. Advance tickets are recommended.

Gates open at 10 AM and the face-off for the first game of this four-game, GHSA-sanctioned lacrosse marathon is 11 AM. All games will be played on the turf field at Pope HS football stadium, and one ticket is good for admission to all four games.

Now in its seventh consecutive year, AJO4LAX hosts three of the four teams that played in last year’s AAAA and AAAAA state championship games:

11am – Walton HS v. Pope HS
1 pm – Centennial HS v. Lambert HS
3 pm – Decatur HS v. Lassiter HS
5 pm – Northview HS v. The Westminster School

The AJO4Lax Fest honors the memory of Andrew Oswald, a star Pope High School attack man who tragically died as a result of a single-car accident in Marietta, GA in 2005. Proceeds from the event support the Andrew J. Oswald Memorial Fund, Ltd. To date the Fund has raised over $120,000, used to fund college scholarships, grants to community based high school and youth lacrosse projects, and teen safety education initiatives.

“We continue striving to ensure that our teens are properly educated before they get behind the wheel,” said Andrew Oswald’s father, and the Fund’s co-founder and President, Bruce Oswald. “Our primary mission for the last two years has been helping Georgia’s teen lacrosse players to make the right “life” decisions.”

The AJO4LAX Fest takes its name from Andrew Oswald’s initials, the #4 jersey he wore, and his passion for lacrosse. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for children under 12, and they will be sold at the door.

“We have lost too many lacrosse players in recent years to accidents, suicide, fraternity hazing and other incidents that involve poor decision making,” added co-founder and Vice President Kathleen Oswald. “Both the Memorial Fund’s adult and student board of directors are committed to making an impact – ensuring teens are educated and providing the support they need to make good life decisions.”

For additional AJO4LAX Fest sponsorship information, to make a tax-deductible donation, request a scholarship application, or for advanced ticket sales contact Bruce or Kathleen Oswald, http://www.ajo4lax.com/, the_ oswalds@ajo4lax.com or (678) 777-3041.

Hall of Fame
David Feroleto, Veronica Hewgley, Damian Kavanagh and Don Rigger

Chapter Awards
Outstanding Contributors – Dave Adams and Kurt Kinsely
Youth Coach of the Year – Girls-Craig Maxwell Boys-Jeff Mathis
Program Administrator – Brandon Allen
Outstanding Official – Patrick Joyce
Outstanding Umpire – Paul Heathcote
Excellence in Growing the Game – Rich Wehman, Andy WIlson and Jason Breyo
Man of the Year – Chris Kelly
Woman of the Year – Pam McNabb
President’s Award – J.D. Humphries

Please plan to attend a banquet in their honor on January 27, 2013 at the
Atlanta Marrito Northwest at the Galleria,
200 Interstate North Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30339

Cash bar and check-in begin at 4pm. Dinner buffet and program begin at 5pm
Ticket price is $40 and includes dinner. Payment by PayPal or by check.
PayPal Link at www.galacrossefoundation.com/hall-of-fame/reservations
Make checks payable to: Georgia Lacrosse Foundation
Send checks to: Michael Butkus, 4717 Maple Brook SE, Marietta GA 30067
Refer questions to: hof@galacrossefoundation.com

RSVP BY: January 18, 2013

We hope to gather a large corp of writers who want to share their knowledge about coaching, playing, officiating, and anything else lacrosse related!

He was right. As soon as I shortened my explanation of a new skill, the kids zeroed in on what I was talking about and executed the technique well. They were paying attention better too. Earlier in the clinics, when I was explaining a drill they would zone out and get that “dude, get on with it” look on their faces. Kids want action, and lets face it, they have shorter attention spans than an adult. So we as coaches must tailor our explanation of skills, drills, and game strategy to a few easy-to-repeat steps.

Here is my extremely detailed method of picking up a ground ball:

1. See the ball on the ground
2. Yell “I got ball” or ball
3. Run towards the ball
4. Place your front foot as close to the ball as possible
5. Bend down as low as possible
6. Keeping your stick close to the ground, run through the ball until it is in your stick
7. Give the stick a slight cradle as soon as the ball is in your stick
8. Bring the head of your stick close to, but not touching, your helmet
9. As you continue to run yell “Release!”
10. Run in a wide arc to separate yourself from pursuers
11. Once you are safely away from other players, look for the open pass or shot

Did anyone else get bored and wonder when the heck is this list over with? If you did you know exactly how a youth player feels when a coach talks, and talks and talks. The player is thinking, “when is coach going to get this over with and let us do a drill?” As I said earlier, kids crave action. So spend some time and review your talking points with a willing adult. If they get bored listening to you explain a drill, chances are your players will do the same.

Now lets take a look at my truncated, but still perfectly valid ground ball explanation:

1. Bend down as low as possible
2. Run through the ball until it is in your stick
3. Keep running

Simple. Direct. Repeatable. When I explain how to pick up a ground ball to new players I start with #1, then restate #1 and state #2. Then I wrap up by stating #1, 2, and 3 together. That gets the technique drilled into the player’s mind effectively through repetition. By the time I am finished, all of the players are thinking “bend down, run through, and run.” That accomplishes the core skills required to pick up a ground ball.

Everything else that I listed above can be added to future ground ball drills. For instance, I don’t require players to shout out “I got ball” during the first ground ball drill they ever do. What does it accomplish to the actual task of picking up a GB? Nothing! Let the kids worry about steps 1-3, and then after a few repetitions, add in the ball shout.

So avoid bogging down your young player’s minds with extraneous detail. Save that for small group or one on one work. Instead, focus on shortening your explanations so you and your players can get to the action.

In my ten years of coaching and officiating youth lacrosse I have seen a lot of varying coaching styles. Some successful, and others not so successful. Please note that I equate successful youth coaching to how much their players improve over the course of the season. Not how many wins or losses a team accumulates due to the coach or coaching style. The best youth coaches I see generally do two things very well. One, they maintain discipline. One coach uses a particularly effective technique where he shouts out “Ready!” When he says “ready” all of his players snap their eyes to him and shout back “Focus!” I’ve seen this coach calm down an entire team with that one technique. The second thing that the best youth coaches do well is they have a simplistic game plan.

Here is where some youth coaches and I part ways. I personally think that the simpler an offensive and defensive scheme is, the more efficiently a youth team will perform. This goes against a lot of youth coaches that dream up cool plays, or zone defenses for their teams, and then whiteboard them to the whole team on game day. I have seen a lot of confused looks on many players trying to remember their job on the “Indigo Blue 31″ play. This does not mean that a team should not have some set plays, or set defenses. What I am stressing here is the need to keep things simple.

For instance, last season a coach was unable to show up to coach his team. No problem, we are lucky enough to have staff on hand for these instances. It just so happened that my name was next in the rotation to coach so I strolled over to the team as they were warming up, and got them into some passing drills. I had no idea what their head coach had told them about offense or defense, so I went to my old standby: “players, remember that when we are on offense we are spread out like fingers, when we are defense, we are close in like a fist.” Every dead ball I repeated that mantra of spread and tight. Every time out I zeroed in on becoming like fingers on offense and being like a fist on defense. The kicker here is that the kids got the concept beautifully.

Offense

Defense

They played a tough game and wound up winning, more in part to their effort than my coaching, in a one-goal game. The coolest part was how the entire team latched onto two very simple concepts, and translated them into good lacrosse. I gave them no plays to run, or slide packages to consider. I just said stay tight on defense and stay spread of offense.  This became a team mantra for that game, and I could hear players on offense saying “get wide, get wide,” and players on defense saying “come in tighter!” The defense kept the goal guarded by protecting the middle of the field, and the offense got the ball around nicely by staying open and cutting naturally.

Tight. Spread. Two words that all of the players focused on, believed in, and executed well. At the end of the game I told them how great they looked as a team, and how they played the game well. I wrapped up question to every team I coach after a game, “did everyone have fun?” I got a big “yes” for an answer.

Finally, I will end with a quote by one of my favorite philosophers – Mike Tyson. Who said that “everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.” Coaches – ask yourself if your game plan is simple enough to survive a punch in the mouth. If it has a lot of moving parts, and is very convoluted it will likely break apart. However, if it is strong, direct, and simple, your team will always have a fighting chance.