Grow the Game®

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Lax Evo Camp: Ocean City, Day 1

JULY 5th!!!

I could barely sleep last night because I was so anxious. I had made sure all my gear was together, my clothes were laid out, including my GTG shirt, PSU shorts, LAS socks and a sweet pair of brOakleys. All I needed was for the time to fly by so I could head down to Ocean City. After all, I had been stuck in the house for the past week or so recovering from a tonsilectomy.

Grow the game lacrosse helmet sticker
Practice What you Preach.
First Day of Camp =D
First Day of Camp =D

When I arrived at the Tennessee Ave Fields I was the second one there. Waiting already with everything set up was Denver Outlaw Middie Ryan Cranston.  Shortly after Mike Busza (former Penn State and Boston Cannons player) showed up fired up for the camp to start.  Then a player I coached at the Wings Lacrosse Camp last summer was the first kid to show up.  Right off the bat I knew I was in store for a fun camp and was anxious to get the ball rollin.  Sure enough the cars started unloading laxers with bags full of swag.  The players registered and then quickly suited up and started throwing around with whoever they could find.

lacrosse fields
It's a beautiful sight!
lacrosse camp field
More awesomeness.
lacrosse camp field
Getting ready!
lacrosse camp field
Time to get those sticks warm!

Next Coach Busza, aka Coach Buzz, addressed the campers about what they could expect for the week. He also introduced the highly skilled and well qualified counselors for the camp… and me.  The counselors included Coach Buzz, Ryan Cranston (Denver Outlaws), Niko Amato (University of Maryland Goalie), Matt Mackrides (Penn State Attackman) and Peter Schwartz (Harvard Attackman), Jason Orlando (Former Duke Defenseman) and myself.

Next Matt and Jason led the campers in stretches.
Next Matt and Jason led the campers in stretches.
Next Matt and Jason led the campers in stretches.
Seriously, stretch it out.
Next Matt and Jason led the campers in stretches.
And... Breathe.

Yes yes, all hail LAS.

Then we went into line drills, which covered the basics such as passing right and left, groundballs, over the shoulder etc. You know, the essentials for any great laxer.  Next we moved on to station work which included dodging and shooting and those are where you got to learn a bit more about the kids. Me and Peter Schwartz taught the kids about dodging, and I’m not going to lie… the youngest kids had us in stitches. We said something about split dodges and one of the kids goes “Split dodge? Like a banana split?”

And then there was my personal favorite… the money dodge. One of our kids goes “Have you ever heard of the money dodge?”  Me and Peter kind of just looked at each other confused and go no whats that? The camper replies “That’s when you pay someone else to do the dodge for you and you do nothing…” These kids were nuts. We then moved onto some groundball wars for the younger group, big shout out to Marty for representing my group of laxers and winning it all.

Next we covered fast breaks and finished with a scrimmage.  An incredible first day in the books, and that was only day 1. We’ve still got 3 days to go.  I’m very excited to see how these kids grow as laxers and see what Coach has in store for these campers.  I’ve taken plenty of video that I’m gonna edit into one big video, but it will go in order of the days, so keep an eye out for that!

Below are more pics and keep an eye out tommorow for Day 2!

Lacrosse Camp line drills
Line drills!
South Jersey Swaggage.
South Jersey Swaggage.
Dodge hard lacrosse camp
dodging hard! Like!
lacrosse camp 1 on 1
Lacrosse camp 1 on 1 - battlezone lax.

If you missed registration for this amazing camp thats gracing the south shores of Jersey then be sure to sign up for the Stone Harbor camp which is about 20 mins south of Ocean City so not too far off from the camp were having now. Do it now! You’ll learn plenty of lacrosse knowledge and have a blast while doing so. You can register for the camp here!