Today, myself and a group of our FLG coaches were travelingup to Ithaca, NY. Our FLG middle school teams are competing in a one-day tournament tomorrow, so we figured it would be best to head north a day early and settle in. Personally, I’ve been to Ithaca several time. I visited Ithaca while going through the recruiting process, I’ve been to Ithaca during my college days, and I’ve been to Ithaca to coach youth lacrosse tournaments. Ithaca, NY is home to Ithaca College and Cornell University, two great schools. Being that I’ve seen these two schools on several occasions, I wanted to see somewhere entirely new.
A big part of our job as Club Lacrosse Directors is building relationships with College Lacrosse Coaches, learning about different schools, and seeing different campuses all over the country (pretty awesome, I know!) Reason being, it’s our duty to help guide and educate High School studletes through the recruiting process. The more people we know and schools we’ve seen, the more knowledge we can relay to our families. It’s sort of like how guidance counselors within High School’s help match specific students to one specific school.
Today, we had the pleasure of stopping by at the University of Scranton. Most people recognize Scranton, Pennsylvania from the hit television comedy “The Office.” Now, after visiting the city and touring its streets, I think of Scranton, PA as the town with that magnificent Jesuit University. Not only did we get the opportunity to tour ‘Electric City’, we got an opportunity to do it with the Head Coach of Scranton’s Men’s Lacrose Team. Coach Doug Sage took us through campus buildings, the newly renovated campus center, and into the heart of the city. Coach Sage just finished his fourth year as Head Coach and is taking the Men’s Lacrosse Program in one direction, UP.
The best part of our trip was talking X’s and O’s with Coach Sage at lunch. FLG coaches Eric Dunne, Brandon Mangan, Mike Wink, and myself talked about the FLG methodology, the concept of using multi-colored lacrosse balls to represent different rules in drills, the purpose of playing small area competitive games in practice, and much more! Coach Sage was very receptive to learning about FLG’s coaching methodologies. We spent some time learning how Coach Sage has worked to build the Scranton Lacrosse Program and why he really enjoys the University. I was very impressed with how he ran his program. From the importance he puts on keeping his studletes’ grade up to how hard he makes his kids work. It’s no surprise Scranton is now competing for Conference Championships and NCAA Playoff births.
A big thanks to Coach Sage for giving us an opportunity to meet up with him today and show us around Scranton.
We all have an impact on the recruiting process of High School studletes. The more we can learn as Club Coaches and High School Coaches and the more Colleges and Universities parents can show their kids, the less pressure High School studletes will have during their recruiting process. Also, this will allow recruits to make more educated decisions on where to attend.
Make the most of your road trips.
See somewhere new.
Learn about the places you go.
Make the right choice and it will be a great choice.
