Blog

In a recent podcast, a famous writer, podcaster, and reporter, Malcolm Gladwell, explains how “…I’m astonished at the way American’s agonize about their college decisions. There’s an assumption that the thing that makes an education good or bad is knowable beforehand. I would have thought that ingredients of a good education are largely unknowable.”

Galdwell goes on to explain that “…the most important thing about his college experience was due to someone he met.” The most important part of his experience wasn’t due to the reputation, history, or price-tag of his school. Gladwell’s millions of interactions, conversations, and research with this friend he met made his experience one to remember. Fascinating to think about. Malcolm became a wiser and more interesting person because of this one friend. Gladwell had no idea he would meet his friend Tom when he was applying to schools or doing his research in High SChool.

I tell this story because it’s so important for families going through the recruiting process to understand what’s knowable about your college experience and what’s not. The type of dorms on campus, the location, the price-tag, those are all facts, those are the knowns. Your children’s college experiences, the people they meet, the connections they make, those are not. Just because you go to a school with name ‘X’ on the sweatshirt, doesn’t mean your son or daughter will experience ‘Y.’

This thought process flips the script. Instead of viewing college based on reputation, history, brand, price, and prestige, view your son or daughter’s college decision based on potential experiences, interactions, and interests. At FLG, we do this, so it’s more likely your son or daughter’s college choice will be the right one.

After moving the FLG HeadQuarters to the heart of Huntington’s Village, we had a vision for how to utilize our new space. Some of our ideas included small group film sessions, seminars, photo-shoots for our lacrosse magazine, and coaches clinics. Being that today is Columbus Day and our studletes were off from school, it was time to break in the new space.

FLG on Main is a series dedicated to bringing in young lacrosse players, families, or coaches into the FLG HQ to hear their stories, teach, learn, connect, and grow. Today, we started with our Middle School FLG Select players. They played a game called SWAT, which is designed to teach different lacrosse terminology that is important to their success on the field. Some of the terms taught include:

• Z-Pick
• Climb the ladder
• Re-dodge
• Exchange
• Follow
• Get through
• Slam
• Rocker step
• Clamp
• High side
• Squeeze
• Shallow Cut
• Duke defense
• Top of the box

All of these terms were written on our massive white board at the HQ. One player from each team were asked to step up with a fly swat, and after the coach read the complete definition of a term on the board, the two players race to swat the correct term. This game gets competitive, can get physical, but it’s tons of fun. Most importantly, our FLG players work in teams to think, learn, and absorb these very important lacrosse terms.

After a game of SWAT, players are asked to compete in a little lacrosse chess. In lacrosse chess, our coaches draw sets on the board. Players are then asked to come up and move the the x’s & o’s to the appropriate spots on the field. This is were we put our lacrosse terminology to the test. Players have to talk through their movements using the correct terms, earning points for doing so successfully.

We concluded our first session of FLG on Main with an awesome and timely nutritional talk on sugar. Being that Halloween is right around the corner, Tara Allen, from Tara Allen Health, played a game of Family Feud with our players. All the questions in the Family Feud game asked how much sugar was in specific food and drinks we consume each and every day. Tara gave examples such as Coca Cola, Peanut Butter, Oreos, Yogurt, and Granola Bars. After our player’s learned about sugar, she worked with our player’s to make the ideal snack for a growing and active athlete. Some of those healthy snacks included fresh fruit: grapes, pineapples, and bananas. Players got to each those snacks to learn that eating healthy can be tasty too.

Overall, today was a huge success. A big thanks to Tara Allen, for her awesome lecture on sugar and eating to get stronger & live lover. Lastly, a big thanks to Coach Dunne, Coach Holman, and Coach Christiansen for making our FLG Select players smarter, more cerebral, and more confident in their knowledge for what we do at FLG.

We look forward to seeing everyone at our next session of FLG on Main!

Getting started is the hardest part. Doubt creeps in. Insecurity boils up. It becomes so much easier to just not start.

Procrastinating will only push your goals further away. Thinking you can’t do it will leave you unsatisfied with your work.

Instead, put something down. Don’t judge. Don’t criticize. Just start.

This will be my first post in months. It’s not much, but it’s something. Also, this will be the start of something. More work. Better work. Great work.

In youth sports, the decision to play or not play is a common question. Trainers, parents, coaches, and kids themselves all need to learn when to “step up” or “sit down.” Being sidelined can be a frustrating endeavor for everyone involved. Players feel they are falling behind their teammates, parents fear they are missing out, and coaches are forced to take the field with fewer subs or less talent. Even though injuries can be frustrating, sometimes they are necessary. It’s important to approach a child’s youth sports career as a marathon, not a sprint. Children have brighter, bigger futures ahead of them. Playing through a serious injury at a young age is by no means heroic. It doesn’t characterize toughness. Playing through serious injuries as a child implies ignorance and lack of awareness. Letting a child play through a serious injuries means those involved in that child’s decision making process are losing site of the big picture. Win the marathon, not the sprint. Let your children be at their best, their healthiest, their sharpest when they have the maturity and awareness to make these types of decisions for themselves.

There are 51 High School girls lacrosse programs in Nassau County. Throughout those 51 programs, there are dozens of FLG Select girls competing each year. This year in particular, our FLG Select girls racked up accolades at Monday night’s Nassau County Awards Dinner. Below is a list of all the girls in our program who received an award. Congrats to all the talents and impressive studletes in our program! Keep up the great work.

FLG 2017, heading to Ithaca in the Fall, received All-Conference and the Scholar Athlete Award despite tearing her ACL this season. Congrats Alexa and good luck at IC!

Scholar Athlete Award

• Alexa Ritchie, Bethpage

Fran McCall Unsung Hero Award

• Taylor Keicher, East Meadow

All-Conference Awards

• Nicolina Torchia, Bellmore JFK
• Alexa Ritchie, Bethpage
• Meghan Santina, H. Frank Carey
• Michelle Barahona, WT Clarke
• Gabrielle Piccolo, East Meadow
• Brianna Pota, East Meadow
• Kiera Boettcher, Floral Park
• Maeve McGovern, Floral Park
• Paige Walker, Hicksville
• Sarah Lubow, Locust Valley
• Jamie Maddaluno, Mepham
• Maggie Frankel
• Caroline Scamell

Honorable Mention All-County

• Giana Kapoosuzian
• Megan Keener
• GinaMarie Wilson
• Margo Verschleiser

All-County

• Jessica Losquadro
• Kristen DeCicco