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.
