Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
Get Tough!
Fall break is always a welcomed break. The guys are tired after weeks of grueling practices and the academic load begins to really heat up. At Lynchburg College the lacrosse workouts include the “tire workout”. I will spare you all the details of this workout but I can tell you that back in 2004 no words would leave my mouth during a tire workout. I was way too tired to talk! This fall it was common to hear the words “Get Tough” echoing across college lake.
“Get Tough” was something that Junior Ryan Beale would scream during every tire workout motivating his teammates to push through it and work harder. “Get Tough” is something that Ryan Beale will have to ask himself every morning he wakes up. Just three weeks ago during Lynchburg’s fall break Ryan was involved in a serious car accident that has left Ryan paralyzed from the waist down. The last three weeks have been a whirled wind for Ryan and his family I am sure. Last week Ryan was moved down to Atlanta to be placed in one of the best facilities in the country and is showing signs of progress.
My guess is that the first three weeks have flown by and dare I say have been easier on Ryan and his family than the weeks to come will be. I hope and pray that God will give this family strength. More so, I pray that God will make himself so abundantly clear during this time and speak loud and clear to Ryan and his supporters. So many times in life God gives us opportunities to be faithful and declare him as our strength and source to overcome anything. The Beale family will get through this tragedy and they will do it relying on God and they will do it with the support of the greatest community I have ever been involved in!
There are few things I hold closer to my heart than Lynchburg Lacrosse. Simply put, it was the best experience I could have had in a college. Nothing could have gotten better. My time in central Virginia made me a better person and taught me so much. There were so many life lessons that I discovered in those halls or on that field that have shaped who I am today. The greatest of these lessons is perhaps the loyalty we have for each other. There is just nothing like it. We got each other’s back!
What Ryan Beale is going through right now is a nightmare. It is something that no one deserves and no one should be expected to bounce back from. However, I know that Ryan will bounce back. I don’t care what any doctor says and what any diagnosis or test reveals, I believe that through God all things are possible and that with God and his support group Ryan will bounce back quicker than anyone would expect.
I am so thankful that as I visit Ryan Beale’s website (see below) I read so many messages of love and encouragement. It gives me goose bumps to read those that include God’s word and his wonderfully crafted scripture verses. I am very vocal about my teammates and the Lynchburg Lacrosse community and how much I love them. Most of the time I can’t quite put my feelings into words when in comes to Lynchburg Lacrosse. After visiting this website it speaks for itself. The Lynchburg community is one that is built with character, integrity, and care. I am so proud to be a member of that community and to call Ryan Beale a brother.
I ask that each of you will put Ryan in your prayers and ask God to boldly use Ryan to speak to those around him. Ask God to use this tragedy to bring us closer as his children and closer to him as our father. And ask God to use this community to rally around such a terrific kid.
I know that when January rolls around and practice starts for the Lynchburg Lacrosse team the “tire workout” won’t be any easier but those tire workouts will be a lot louder. Get Tough!
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ryanbeale
Ryan Beale’s guestbook is a constant source of motivation for Ryan and his family. I would encourage you to take a look and contribute some words to Ryan and his family.
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
Over the last year I have prayed a lot for my brother. It can’t be easy raising two kids under the age of three and coaching 35 kids between the ages of 18-22 at the same time. His mood is totally dependent on a bunch of kids!
He was also living in Clinton, South Carolina an eight-hour drive from his family and a four hour drive from his in-laws. He and his wife were under a lot of stress. So I figured prayer was all I could do to help.
It is amazing how God can answer prayers! However, I have found that he only does so when he sees it fit in his timing. Duke (nickname from the day he was born) applied to become the new coach at the newest Division 1 lacrosse program in early July. Mercer University in Macon, GA. added men’s lacrosse shortly after the 2009 academic year. Just after that Duke threw his name in the hat. This was the ultimate opportunity for HIS FAMILY! I think too many times in the coaching world coaches put their program and their guys ahead of their family. For Duke, Mercer was a FAMILY DECISION.
If he landed the job, he would be an hour from his in-laws and now a cheaper flight from his family. The Mercer job would open so many doors for him and re-connect him with friends and family that he made when he first moved to the south in 2001.
Without going into too many details this job was the “perfect fit” for not only him and his dreams as a lacrosse coach but for his family and their dreams too.
So, July passed and only a 2 and a half hour meeting was all that had developed. August passed and he had heard nothing. Duke was in limbo and in a time of waiting! The more and more time went on the more and more it looked as though Mercer was going in a different direction. On September 1st Duke got a call and heard God’s calling all at once.
Accepting the job at Mercer was a no brainer. He knew he had to go. However, having to say goodbye to a team full of loyal followers is hard! Duke, is an emotional guy and I highly doubt he kept a dry eye. But, just as the same as we relied on God to open this door we relied on God to be with his former players.
Saying goodbye is my least favorite thing to do in life. I hate it! I can only imagine the pain and sadness Duke must have felt. He had taken Presbyterian College from a club program to a division 2 program then to a division 1 program. It had to be hard.
Despite the heartache and the sadness, Duke did what was best for his family and walked boldly through the door that God opened for him. So praises be to God and thanks so much for this opportunity for Duke and his new family!
I cannot wait to see what Mercer University Lacrosse will do in the years to come. At 6:31 pm on October 20th Duke had seven kids committed to play next spring at Mercer. I list the time because I know by the time I hit submit on this post, he will have another top recruit sign on the dotted line!
http://www.mercerbears.com/news/2009/9/8/GEN_0908093721.aspx
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
Hello from sunny San Diego California. I know it has been a long time since I last posted. Fall Ball has kept me real busy and now that it has ended I wanted to check in. We finished Fall Ball on Sunday at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. It was really nice heading back to Dickinson and getting to see some great people. I was pleased with our team’s effort and excited to see some great individual efforts. To get where we want to go, we must get better as a team. My message to the team after the game was clear HARD WORK! Our guys will be working hard this off season and I am excited about the spring season.
Immediately following the game, I was on a flight to San Diego for some recruiting. I have been actively recruiting the west coast since I arrived in St. David’s and this trip was much needed. I have been enjoying the sunshine and have met with some great families. Most importantly I have been able to get away and really break down our team’s effort this fall. Free from distractions and chores around the house, I have been able to really break down our four weeks together as a team.
With that being said, I can’t wait to get back home and to get to work with some of the new things we are looking to implement for the spring season. This west coast “retreat” as been such a useful trip and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to get away and be alone with nothing but time to work on further developing our program. I have watched our film at least 5 times and have taken countless pages of notes. I wish the spring season started tomorrow.
I have also spent a lot of time out here thanking God for his wonderful creation. Southern California provides a wonderful glimpse of how BIG our creator is! This place is unreal! I am really anxious to get home and to spend some time with my bride and get back to “my boys” (the team)
Lastly, Happy 99th birthday to Coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden is the best Coach this world has ever known and his passion for his team, his family, and his faith is an example for all of us.
I will leave you on a quote from Coach Wooden I read on the plane out here. “Loyalty is the force that FORGES individuals into a team.”
Be loyal to one another!
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Filed under: "The Boring Whistle" With Dan Sharbaugh
Dear Loyal Readers,
(Before I start take a deep breath and see if you can read the whole thing while holding your breath)
Sorry for the lack of posts within the last few weeks, but I would like to start this blog out by telling you that part of the reason that nothing has been written recently, is because I have done absolutely nothing with my life the past few weeks. I sleep, work, sleep, class, sleep, sit around, sleep etc… Needless to say it may sound like I’m very busy, but considering I only have two classes this semester and work maybe 20 hours a week, that means I have approximately 142.5 hours a week to do whatever I want and I have been filling that time with sleep and being worthless. So the other day I decided to retire from my “waste of a life” living style and decided I was actually going to start doing stuff.
One thing that has been on my mind heavily due to the fact that I will be graduating in just 6,480,000 seconds, I decided I need to get my future career figured out. To do this I went to my academic advisor to ask if he knew of any opportunities that I might be able to take advantage of. As I mentioned before, for about the last 22 ½ years I have been quite the slacker. This explains why when I talk to my advisor he always asks what year I am (the only reason he knows my name is because I emailed to see when he would be in). This isn’t to say that the advisors here are bad; it’s just another case of me not taking initiative and going to him for anything other than having him sign my drop a class sheet. Anyhow, he told me about a career fair that was to be taking place down at Villanova. I decided to be the most go getter person in the world and drive the 2 miles to the career fair to try and find someone who maybe would consider if there was only two people left in the world look at me for a job opening.
So I met with this lady that recognized me from my Eastern Lacrosse shirt (hind sight being 20/20, maybe I shouldn’t have worn sweat pants and a t-shirt to a job fair, but the fitted Red Sox hat may have added a hint of professionalism). So I started talking to this lady about how to start looking for a job. Fist thing she asked me was “do you have your resume handy?” This is the first point in the conversation where I felt about as intelligent as a pizza crust. I told her I didn’t have one and she kind of gave me this look that pretty much said to me I was hopeless. But never the less I pushed on. She then went on to talk to me and ask a few questions about career goals and shortly followed each answer of mine explaining why that was an impossibility. Pretty much the whole night I felt like one of those early round American Idol contestants who think they are good and when Simon Cowell they start crying and run off swearing and telling them how good they actually are (All of this was the case for me except the swearing). As I left the job fair the worst part was this deep feeling in my stomach that makes me think that the lady at the job fair was only telling me how terrible everything I did was just so she could blog about how she shot down some stupid college kid today. Now that I think about it, maybe she wasn’t even part of the college fair. I think I may have gotten punked.
So now, instead of getting started with trying to find a job, I have decided that I am going to come up with some more job possibilities that I can start telling people at job fairs just so I’m the one making myself look like an idiot instead of having someone else do it to me. Hopefully someday I will meet up with little miss “you should have started working for an internship in the Christmas break of second grade, then maybe you would have a chance to get a job somewhere” and take away all the joy she got from making me look like an idiot.
Before I share my ideas for careers, I would like to say the only reason these jobs seem ridiculous to me is because I don’t have the mental capacity to do any of these, if you do and decide this is your career path more power to you, I am not mocking you right now. The first job I wanted to tell her was to be a Sherpa on Mt. Everest. I want to lead journeys to the world’s highest point and become a nature expert. I was assuming if I said that to this lady she would tell me I didn’t have a proper internship for that and needed more work experience. Second I wanted to tell her I was going to be president of the NCAA. This may not seem like a ridiculous job to some, but if you have ever been around me when I’m watching a college sports I always explain how I would make the NCAA a better organization and throw out my suggestions. No one ever listens to what I have to say due to the fact that it has no importance so I figure if I became president I may actually get listened to. Just ask Mike Hofmeister about some of my changes to the NCAA. (On a sad note, I have been saying this for probably a year now and this past week the NCAA president died so I really am not trying to make fun of that situation I really was planning on saying this before that happened.) Lastly I wanted to tell her that I wanted to be a professional filibuster. For those none Political Science Savvy readers, a filibuster occurs when a bill is to be voted on, and if a side is completely opposed to the bill being passed they start talking aimlessly until the other side gets so sick of waiting for the vote to occur, they decide to give up entirely. As most of you have probably figured out, I can ramble on about random nonsense for as long as needed. Right now the longest filibuster in history is 24 hours and 18 minutes by Strom Thurman; my goal is to shatter his record.
I tell you this again not to mock any of these goals, but I intend not to tell any “career fair ladies” what my real life objectives are in order not to be shot down at the age of 22. Another career path that I have decided I might want to take up needs help from my loyal followers. I have decided that in order to take this blog to the next step, there needs to be a little more marketing for this blog to get more people to read. That is why I have been researching the possibility of a “Boring whistle” clothing line (and by clothing line I mean one t-shirt). That is right, I am trying to sell t-shirts so everyone who loyally reads this blog can show how awesome they are by wearing a t-shirt that let’s others know what the future hottest website in the world is. If you are interested, please leave a comment. If I can get 20 people to actually do this, there is a price cut when ordering 20 or more shirts so it will bring the price down. If there isn’t 20 people who want them then this probably won’t happen because come on, who wants to pay a lot for a stupid amateur bloggers t-shirt.
Another thing I wanted to tell everyone is since I really don’t do anything exciting, I am opening up my blog to something of a mail bag approach. If you email me a question or topic I would love to honor the best ones in the blog. This causes great danger to me however because I know I’m going to get about 80 emails/facebook messages a day saying “Sharbs you suck” and will serve as not helpful for the blog (I probably would do the same thing to someone else so I won’t be upset). But please try to keep it to a minimum.
Feel free to e-mail questions, comments, and concerns to boringwhistle@gmail.com . There will be college interns working around the clock to select the best questions and comments for future blogs.
Also a few birthday shout outs from the last few weeks: Amy Hofmeister, Bethany Sharbaugh, and Jimmy Clausen.
This blog must see video is a tribute to David Robinson who was inducted into the Basketball hall of fame. “The Admiral” was inducted along with my boy John Stockton (my boy from Gonzaga), Jerry Sloan and some guy who makes shoes I think (his name was Mike Jordan?) yeah I’d never heard of him either. ENJOY THE ADMIRAL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FInsapjeY_M
Please take not on the pink and teal stripes on the Spurs old warm up uniforms….BEAST!
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
Fall Ball has started here and we are off to a good start. I am really excited about the future of Eastern University Lacrosse. We have returners back working harder than they have in the past and they are being pushed by the twenty two newcomers.
The first year guys are getting into the swing of things here in St. David’s and as the weather is starting to change the guys from California are starting to bundle up! It has been great to see the guys from all over the country interact with one another and becoming such good friends.
This year’s team has guys from 9 different states and when it is all said and done the diversity and the culture of each guy will prove to be very valuable to our team! I can’t help but think back to my days in College. When I arrived in Lynchburg Virginia, I weighed about 150 pounds and was very sheltered. For the first time in my life I wasn’t wearing a uniform to school and I wasn’t surrounded by preppy lacrosse players every day instead there were girls in my classes. Spending my childhood playing competitive lacrosse made me just that……competitive. I often lost my cool and was ill-tempered. Perhaps growing up in the northeast had something to do with that as well. Hopefully today I have learned to keep my cool a bit and rely on God to handle the most stressful of situations. Let me be the first to tell you I am still working on this.
As I look back to my development into a man I feel as though it all happened in those 4 years I was in college. I learned so much and not all of that came in the classroom. I can’t help but think of the relationships I made in those four years. My best friends come from all over the county. In fact, last month at my wedding I had college teammates there that came from as far away as Florida, California, and even Puerto Rico. Each of these guys has had such an impact on my life. I’ve learned how to surf, sail, and grill fresh tuna from these guys just the same as they taught me patience, perspective, and kindness. I have the best friends in the world and when I think about what makes those friendships so special……..I can only come back to the fact that our various different backgrounds and how God created each of us so differently makes it so we complement each other so well. (That and the fact that we overcame a lot together) If it was a 6 am practice….it brought us closer. If it was a 7 hour bus ride…it made us closer…..if it was a screaming coach after a loss it made us closer……and winning the 2003 Conference championship made us closer.
To this day, I believe that it was my experience in college that made me choose college coaching as my career. God has called me to give back those same great experiences that shaped my life and made me hopefully a better person. So as I watch this year’s team come together and work hard, I can’t help but thank God for making this calling abundantly clear to me. Every day I go to work I feel like I am the lucky one. Not too many people can say that.
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
I just wanted to take a second during one of the busiest weeks of the year and congratulate a good friend on a new hiring in the lacrosse world. Last week, Colin Bathory was named the head lacrosse coach at Haverford College. This was more than just your average hire. A lot of things had to happen and God certainly had his hand in this move.
In order for Colin to get hired, the former head coach Mike Murphy had to leave Haverford. Mike Murphy has done an amazing job at Haverford and has put Haverford lacrosse in the top 10 in the country. His hard work and great record at Haverford made Murph the center of every coaching vacancy in the Ivy league this summer. As the Ivy positions worked their way down the north east, from Dartmouth to Princeton to Penn, the position became a better and better fit for Murph and his family. To make a long story short, Mike Murphy was hired at the University of Pennsylvania in late July allowing him to return to a school where he served as an assistant for several years. Obviously the Philly based school made the move and transition relatively easy for Coach and his family. Things certainly happened this summer to bless the Murphy family. And it certainly only happened in God’s timing!
This post is not about Mike Murphy and his new position as the latest great hire by the Ivy League. However, this post is about Colin Bathory and how he has been blessed with what has to be a dream come true!
There are several coaches who dream of one day returning to their alma mater and leading them to greatness. This dream is now Colin’s life. These things just don’t happen; in order to turn a far out goal or land your “dream” job, you got to work for it and perhaps most importantly you have got to be loyal.
Colin Bathory Haverford College alum has traveled around the country in his coaching career and has gone wherever the game has taken him. Five years ago his loyalty and his passion for Haverford Lacrosse brought him home and he has been blessed ever since. It is no accident that Colin’s arrival has coincided with Haverford’s recent success. His approach of Haverford first and himself second has not only helped improve the program, but it just landed him a job that he is the only fit for.
I can only think of one answer as to how the crazy lacrosse world and its coaching carousel could have worked out so well for these two great coaches and mentors. That answer is God. God has his hands in all things and he certainly had an invested interest in the Philadelphia lacrosse scene this summer. It may seem to many as if God does not have an interest in such things, but the facts are God has an interest in all things. He certainly has crafted Colin Bathory into a great mentor and has rewarded him for his selflessness.
So congratulations to both Murph and Colin and may God continue to bless you with success.
Filed under: "The Boring Whistle" With Dan Sharbaugh
Ahoy laxers and fans. I have just finished my last EVER first class of the semester and couldn’t be more depressed that I am still in school but no worries, the money I make through this blog should help me make it through. The first week of school is always a fun one, see some old friends, some new faces, and in my case, have random people say hi to you and not know who they are. Usually, this is one of the three types of people. It is either someone that is new or trying to make friends and since I look pathetic and bummed out to be here in the first place, they try to brighten up my day. Although at the time, I may not always seem like I was interested in the strangers greeting, I appreciate the effort. Another type of person is someone who I have met somewhere along the line of my Eastern career but has since not been a part of my life. This includes people who have gone abroad and not kept in touch or friends from freshman orientation week that got a new group of friends or even some Sophomore who I had a class with as a Senior.
But my favorite type of people that I get a friendly hello from are the people that I have my favorite relationships with. These are the people that I once made an awkward moment for or the people around those awkward moments and therefore now are my “friends”. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about I’ll give you an example. Say a lacrosse player, in this case we’ll call him Branford (and all my loyal readers should find that funny from last week’s video) and the girl he has just recently met and started trying to hit on we’ll call her Tom (in honor of Tom Brady’s magnificent return to the NFL.) So Branford has just worked up enough courage to ask a girl to a romantic rendezvous to the Breezeway café. I see that there is a little awkward tension and decide that I am going to go in for a move. As Branford does his best not to make Tom think he is a fool, I decide to give Branford a shout out to try and distract him from his game “YA BRANFORD!” This is an easy one just to let everyone notice that there is an awkward lunch going down. Next after they start ignoring my yelling I may go to the text message where I will text him stupid pick up lines to use such as “did you just fart? Because you blew me away”. (I have many more don’t be afraid to ask.) Sometimes I’ll even ask embarrassing questions such as “Branford did you ever solve that bed wetting problem you had?” As much as it may torture Branford, a lot of the times this turns into Tom thinking that we are all friends. It’s not that I don’t want to talk to Tom, it’s the fact that when they say hi to me on campus I am so surprised that I don’t say hi back. It’s not because I’m too cool for school (obviously I’m not, I’ve been in school for 17 years now), I just have the awkwardness turned around on me and to that I say good work Tom!
Awkward situations are kind of something I live for. I go through phases where I think of new ways to make things awkward. I went through a phase when I would take library books off the shelf and put them into unsuspecting peoples bags. This way, when they left the library the alarm would go off. I also went through a phase where I would purposely trip in the middle of public areas just to see how people react. I even sometimes just stare creepily at people out of the window of my car. That’s just how I roll. However, some people are much more easily embarrassed than I am and for that I feel this story needs to be shared. I have been given another great opportunity to embarrass a friend. So here goes! So my roommate Michael Hofmeister convinced me to go to the weight room to work out. Lifting is certainly not on my list of things to do. So naturally, I try to annoy everyone who is taking it seriously and trying to better their physical image and athletic performance. I do such stuff by hiding one of the dumbbells to a set that only has 2, I will also yell funny stuff when people are trying to lift to distract them and make them laugh. But not even I was prepared for the hilarity to ensue when a man we’ll call Bave Nogar decided to go for a jog on the treadmill.
Since I’m such a trend setter, while I laid on the sit up and crunch mat trying to get some beauty sleep (trust me I need a lot of it), Hof decided to try and distract me from doing what I do in the weight room and threw the big red fitness ball at me. At first, I was enraged that Mike was disturbing my slumber but after a few minutes and a couple tears of anger, I got over it. All was back to normal and Hoff went back to benching his 100 lbs. 3 times. At this point “Bave” was about 45 seconds into his treadmill workout. Again, being the jerk that I am (I’m really trying to work on that) I decided to distract Dave. I picked up the fitness ball and threw it at “Bave” as he was running. I was expecting him to just swat it away or for it to hit the monitor on the treadmill or most likely miss the whole thing completely. Anyway, as the ball was just a little bit underthrown, it went between the monitor and the actual running surface and took out “Bave’s” legs and tripped him badly. “Bave” made a valiant effort to stay on but eventually let go of the handles and tumbled off the treadmill. It was possibly the most terrible thing I have ever seen or done. It was one of those things that looked hilarious in my head but ended up looking like the scene from “Rookie of the Year” when Henry Rowengartner breaks his arm and it’s all in slow motion.
So the reason I am telling these stories is because I understand how awkward the first week of school can be for people. Trust me I have had about as many first weeks as anyone at Eastern (other than coach Mac). Fear not guys, things do get better as the semester gets older. Speaking of getting older, I would like to send a birthday shout out to Daniel Hofmeister. His birthday was August 26th followed by Benjamin Sharbaugh’s birthday 27th. So happy birthday fella’s.
And now a video from my newest sports idols… the Curacao Little League baseball team. If anyone has any information on how to adopt a young Curacao born baby that is prone for baseball greatness please let me know. Pay particular attention to the steal of home plate at 7 seconds.
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
Well classes started yesterday here at Eastern and the Lacrosse team seems really excited for fall ball to start. The freshmen have completed their orientation and the upper classmen have done a great job welcoming them to campus. Move in day is one of the best days of the year here in St. David’s. There are just so many students back on campus. Most come early to help move the first years in to their dorms and the vibe on campus is great.
This year we had a ton of lacrosse players back and a ton moving in as well. It was great to see how quickly the upper classmen welcomed the new comers. As the coach of this team, I couldn’t be happier with how quickly this group has come together and how the work ethic has been thus far. The guys are running, lifting and working on their sticks and I know this is just the beginning. So things are going great here and should only get better as fall ball approaches.
As for the recruiting for the next class, we have had many kids visit campus this summer and now we are starting to invite guys back to campus for their overnight visits. We have a good group lined up, which again features players from all over the country. The coaching staff is really excited about the potential for this class of student athletes.
I hope everyone is enjoying the last few moments of summer and that life isn’t too busy!
Take Care,
Coach Childs
Filed under: "The Boring Whistle" With Dan Sharbaugh
Once again I am very apologetic about the long periods of silence on the blog, but for the last few weeks I have been as nomadic as I have ever been and really didn’t have time to write a new entry, until today. Over the past few weeks I have been all over the Northeast (literally, the only two states I haven’t been in northeast of PA is Vermont and Maine). I have logged many miles and many hours along the way but I finally made it back here to Philly in one piece. Since it’s been a while since I have last updated you on my life, I will start from the beginning.
Last time I told everyone about the weekend getaway that the interns all had up in Point Pleasant, NJ. I honestly had such a good time that I decided to go back and play for FCA in the War at the Shore tournament held right down the road. This tournament could have been one of the craziest things I have ever seen. From the amount of people who were there, about 70 teams, to some of the actual players that were there, Max Quinzani and Jack McBride, to some of the ridiculous team names, Peeping toms and the NJ Playboys, it was just an all around chaotic weekend. Our team didn’t do too hot, we went 2-4 and only beat one team because they were all completely hung over and the game was at 8 am. But hey a win is a win. The highlight of the weekend was after one of our game a team starts warming up and this team consists of Max Quinzani, Ned Crotty, Jack McBride, and a whole host of other DI players so naturally I hung around to watch how good this team was. Little did I realize that a team of no name kids would come out and absolutely man handle the DI all stars. It was actually pretty crazy how badly they got beat. That weekend I also caught a baby duck in the ocean so that was also pretty sweet.
The next weekend was a pretty good one as I traveled home to New Hampshire just to leave two days later for my brother’s wedding in southern Connecticut. Over the next few days there was the rehearsal dinner and the actual wedding. Thankfully this time there were no people ruining dances by not knowing which way to go (Harshaw). And just in case anyone even thought for a moment that Harshaw was right in that I was messing up the dances, let me just assure you of how very wrong he was. The song “hit me with your best shot” came on at one point and I started to break it down to say the least. Before I realized it there was actually a circle of people around me clapping and cheering for me. Needless to say that I am prepared at any point while I am dancing so I did not panic, instead I pulled out a move that most people probably thought was the highlight of the whole wedding (way more interesting then that whole ceremony with rings and all the readings and what not). So as I walked into the center of the circle, to the untrained eye it probably looked as though I was confused and just dancing around. But what came next blew the crowd away. It was in the last chorus of the song and when Pat Benatar screamed the words “FIRE AWAY” I stole the show by spinning around on my butt break dance style. I know that most of you probably didn’t know I had the capability to steal a show like that, but that is why it was so perfect because no one was prepared for it. And that is the story of how with a few spins on my butt I made the Sharbaugh wedding complete.
So this brings us to the last weekend and let me just say that between these weekend excursion my life has been filled with a lot of sleeping and sitting on that same butt that I break dance on like a champ. This past weekend I actually took a trip down to Ocean City Maryland to play in the OC classic with an FCA team. Well we did even worse than the first tournament going 0-4 but I would say our team had multiple wins throughout the weekend. The last game was particularly memorable because we actually stood a chance against the team we were playing seeing how there were no DI all Americans or MLL players on the other team. The first memorable moment was when we decided to have the two goalies take the face off. It was probably one of the more pathetic things I had ever seen so as I ran in as the LSM the other wing guys and I decided we would stand back and let the two of them battle for the ground ball and not give them any help. The second best moment of this game was probably the play of my career and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this tactic earlier. One of the other teams defenders (who was an under armour all American, just FYI) was running the ball down the sideline on the side of the field our box was on. As middie came off so I could go on as LSM the ref was standing right in front of the box, so I had a stroke of genius. As I came onto the field, I ducked down and hid behind the ref as the other teams defender came unsuspectingly closer to me, once he got in striking range I jumped up from behind the ref and screamed. This kid may be going to Maryland, but I guarantee he will never see such an intelligent defensive play in the ACC. As he was startled I stripped him and fed it up field to one of our attack men who scored. Yes, that was the time I stripped an All American and got an assist all in the same play.
Over the summer I have spent a lot of time in front of the computer reading about lacrosse and lacrosse related things. Here is a video to sum up my new personality as a “laxer”….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqg01Nk3SYI
enjoy.
Filed under: Coach Childs' Corner
I wanted to send out an apology to all of the people who follow this blog. In my last post I included a link to an article written by Phillylacrosse.com. It was a great article highlighting this year’s incoming class. However, at one point I was missed quoted and the comment came off way wrong. In the article it said that when I got here I wasn’t given much of a chance. What I really had said was that I arrived here at Eastern in July and so the recruiting was over and I was given much of a chance to go out and recruit. Therefore this year’s incoming guys were my first recruits.
I can certainly see how the quote must have been viewed by the many people who have worked so hard to build Eastern Lacrosse. I never meant anything to come off that way and in fact I am so grateful for my friendship with former coach John Levis and have a great respect for all he has done to bring lacrosse back to Eastern. Also, to the players that I coached this past season; I OWE YOU GUYS THE BIGGEST THANKS OF ALL. It must be so hard having a new coach come in and change so many things. Adjusting to a new coach means a new coaching style, new practices, a new everything basically. Despite all of the great defensive stands and great goals, it was how they adjusted to a new coach which impressed me most about this team. The transition from Coach Levis and me went so smoothly. With all of this being said, I wanted to write a post highlighting my favorite memories from what had to be the best lacrosse season of my life. I had a lot of time to think about it recently and looking back there were so many great memories.
The first one had to be Jimmy Caiola’s efforts at the face off “X” in the Messiah game. Messiah has an outstanding face off guy and Jimmy accepted a challenge laid out not only by his coaches but by his peers to limit Messiah’s advantage at the face-offs. It was an outstanding day for all but, a terrific day for Jimmy. I also, thought about Tim Dempsey’s goal against FDU. Timmy is such a great rider and his hard work all season paid off with a huge momentum shift late in the first half, as he rode the ball back and scored just before the halftime buzzer went off. Everyone loved that moment I am sure. I loved seeing Dan Sharbaugh pick off a pass and take it coast to coast and dishing off to an attackmen for a huge goal. I felt like that play was a defining moment of Dan’s leadership all season. There was a Pat Dempsey goal that stuck in the corner for a second and a half before dropping in the net that was picturesque. Erik Nelson scored what would have been a 2-pointer in the MLL that will not soon be forgotten in St. David’s as well. I remember the way that Paul Macerino led our defense in the Widener playoff game. His communication and his mind for the game were both so important to us slowing down Widener’s potent offense. I will also, forever be grateful for Dillard Brooks and his sacrifice for his team. I recently heard a friend of mine, Mike Murphy (new coach at Penn) say, “Selflessness is just as contagious as selfishness.” Dillard came to mind the very first time I heard those words. Dillard’s selflessness was so very contagious and he always did what the team needed first and what Dillard wanted second. The last great memory I will mention may be my favorite. Late in the last game of the season Nate Trunfio picked off a clearing pass and fired it 50 yards into the empty net. This was a huge goal and it was a great memory for both me and Nate. Trunf worked so hard this season. He fought off injuries all year long and changed from attackmen to midfielder and then back again. He was always willing to do what we asked and although it took until the last 4 games to get healthy he had a great final stretch. That 50 yard goal had to be the defining moment of not only Nate’s season but perhaps his career. It was a sick goal that stemmed from a lot of hard work!
I could go on and on with these great memories. The 2009 Eastern Lacrosse team will always have a special place in my heart. This team gave me so many wonderful memories and taught me so much about coaching. I grew as a coach only because I had 24 guys that were willing to watch me fail and stick with me anyway. So thanks so much to all 24 of you guys. It was a lot of fun coaching you all and my first year at Eastern was the best year I have had in the game of lacrosse.
