Today we had a great meeting with the new Men’s Lacrosse Staff at Manhattan College. A program that has struggled for quite some time has new leadership, a new identity, and a motivated staff that has this Jasper Program moving in one direction, UP.
First Year Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach, Coach Drew Kelleher, drawing up some plays for his Manhattan team this past fall
Head Coach Drew Kelleher, Assistant Coach John Odierna, and Assistant Coach Andrew Hodgson are re-building the Manhattan program from the ground-up. During our visit Coach Kelleher said, “we can’t focus on beating other programs until we can beat Manhattan College. There are still so many things we have to learn about our school. We as coaches need to learn more about our academic programs, history of the school, and athletics, before we can start focusing on defeating other schools.” In order to learn the ins-and-outs of Manhattan College, Coach Kelleher and co. started networking with other athletic programs, connecting with Manhattan lacrosse alumni, meeting individually with players on the team, connecting with faculty/staff, and much more!
The Jasper Men’s Lacrosse Staff is a passionate, enthusiastic, and positive group. Their kindness and generosity is straight contagious, spreading through all walks of life on campus. From getting to know the on-campus chefs to holding doors for students, connections between Jasper Men’s Lacrosse players and everyone else on campus are being made every day.
Coach Kelleher explained how “…people are going to start showing up at Manhattan Men’s Lacrosse games because of how our player’s represent themselves on campus. If we support other programs, students, and staff at Manhattan, we hope they will support us too.”
Not only is the Men’s Lacrosse Staff at Manhattan looking to build a winning tradition, they want to enhance the studlete experience for everyone at the school. Last night, the coaches had their entire freshmen and senior classes to show up and support their Women’s Volleyball Team. Not only did two classes of Men’s Lacrosse players show up at the game, but the coaches showed up as well. Coach Kelleher said, “We’re not the type of staff to tell our kids to support other programs and not do so ourselves.” Coach Kelleher made it very clear that the Men’s Lacrosse staff was in the business of supporting other Manhattan Athletic Programs, not just Manhattan athletes. Supporting other programs includes coaches and anyone else who helps Manhattan studletes become the best they can be. Tonight, the Men’s Lacrosse Staff, the sophomore class, and the junior class will be attending the Men’s soccer game vs. Lehigh to show their support of Jasper Athletics!
Our meeting concluded at the Riverdale Diner, located next to Gaelic Park, home to where the Jasper Men’s Lacrosse team plays their regular season games. During our conversation at breakfast, Coach Hodgson had some great points about High School studletes meeting with college coaches during their recruiting process. (Please see the FLG Whiteboard for the best of those tips!) The one tip that stood out was the importance of speaking for yourself. For example, if you’re on a visit to a college campus and the coaches ask you a question, don’t have your parents answer. The coaches want to hear you! They want to learn about you! They will one day be coaching and communicating with you!
A big thanks to the entire Jasper Men’s Lacrosse staff for dropping some knowledge on getting recruited, on what Manhattan College is all about, and on their plans for building a winning tradition. The FLG Staff looks forward to watching the Jaspers play during the 2016 season!
#GoJaspers #JasperNation
Update :: 1/27/16 6:30pm EST :: Jasper Nation
After checking in with the Jasper coaches this week, I asked, “How’s the team been looking this winter?” They responded, “we are sticking together, working together, and growing together.” In the last 2 months, the Manhattan Men’s Lacrosse Program has been extremely active off the field. The coaches launched the inaugural Jasper Cocktail Night, which brought together over 100 Manhattan Lacrosse Alums, fans, friends, and family. This night successfully helped the Program spread the overall message of this program is moving in the right direction, join us, and be proud to call yourself a Jasper.
As a team, the Jaspers have been actively doing off-the-field activities to develop team chemistry. The Jaspers had a movie night to introduce the freshmen to the classic film, Dumb and Dumber. Also, they did a buddy system where the coaches paired each freshman or newcomer with a junior or senior and they sit together for every meeting, meal and call each other by assigned nicknames that were given by the coaching staff. Lastly, and by far the best activity the Jasper Men’s Lacrosse team aka The 6th Borough did was suit up in forest green classic style Manhattan sweaters and attend the Manhattan vs. Monmouth basketball game. Thanks to the support of the 6th Borough, Manhattan pulled off a huge win against the MAAC conference top seed, Monmouth. At the time, Monmouth was 14-4, with the 16th best RPI in the country.
See video of the Jasper Lacrosse team celebrating a crucial free throw towards the end of the game.
All in all, the Jaspers are doing pretty good. Looking forward to checking back in this Spring. The Jaspers open up against Bryant next Saturday, February 6th. #Jaspers #JasperNation #6thBorough
