Leadership Literature: Coaches’ Book Club

Coaches Book Club

Part of professional development as a leader and coach is working through the professional literature of leadership. That can take the form of a good, old-fashioned book, podcast, or web-based article. Here is my recent collection of resources: Leadership Literature: Coaches’ Book Club The Power of Team Captains We hear so much about culture and how […]

Parents in Recruiting: How Should a Parent Behave?

parents in recruiting

Your son or daughter is a high school lacrosse athlete with dreams of playing in college. You’re a proud parent who is thrilled to support your child in whatever way you can, but you’ve never experienced college recruiting before. And even if you did play lacrosse or another sport in college, times have changed quite […]

Developing Leadership to Mold Captains

developing leadership

There is a difference between choosing captains and developing captains, even though maybe in the back of our minds we assume that if we pick the right captain, then leadership will take care of itself. The best dudes may get chosen, but they may have no idea what being captain entails and have very little experience […]

Why I Coach, The Short and Long Answer

Why I Coach

Why do I coach? The short answer: love it. The long answer: “How do I love thee, let me count the ways…” Elizabeth Barrett Browning We hosted a camp this summer, and I swear that those younger kids learn in their sleep. They go home after day one and come back the next day able […]

2023 Lacrosse Recruits Begin the Process, A Coach’s Reflection

2023 lacrosse recruits

According to the voluminous NCAA rulebook (257 pages for DIII and 464 pages for DI), Sept. 1 is the first opportunity to contact juniors in high school, as the country’s 2023 lacrosse recruits found out last week. Prior to that, there can be no correspondence between a DI head coach and a PSA – that’s the […]

Lacrosse Recruiting Video Tips: How to Cook Up Highlights

Lacrosse recruiting video tips

Highlight films have become an integral part of college lacrosse recruiting. But making a video isn’t necessarily an intuitive process if you don’t have any experience. These are some important tips for putting together a video that can help you in your lacrosse recruiting process. Lacrosse Recruiting Video Tips Quality Competition: Make sure the clips […]

Recruiting Do’s And Don’ts: Communicating with Coaches

Recruiting do's and don'ts communicating with coaches

College recruiting can be overwhelming for an athlete. You can be hit with messages from places you never knew existed, you have to monitor your athletics and academics at all times while building relationships with coaches, all the same time as trying to enjoy being a kid. To make a bit easier to navigate, I’ve […]

Six Lacrosse Recruiting Tips from a College Coach

Lacrosse recruiting tips

I have more than two decades of college coaching experience, and I’ve also had multiple children go through the lacrosse recruiting process, so I have some tips on the subject. Lacrosse recruiting can be a hectic time for a young person, and it can be especially difficult to navigate without tips and help from those […]

Play Lacrosse, Even When You Practice It

Play lacrosse

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns “Coach, these guys don’t want to drill, they want to PLAY.”  – Wade Hoag Play Lacrosse, Even When You Practice It Wrapping ourselves up in our professional pursuit is our magic feather. If we feel like we have done everything possible […]

Hope College Men’s Lacrosse – A Week in the Life

Hope College men's lacrosse head coach Mike Schanhals takes you through what the last week has been like for his DIII program.

Last week, we saw what a game week looks like at a DII program. We continue to build on that by showcasing the men’s lacrosse program at DIII Hope College this week. Hope COllege Men’s Lacrosse – A Week in the Life Wednesday A night game in which we came out kind of flat. One […]

Return of the Rivalry – The Passion Is Real in DIII Lacrosse

With the 2021 Division III men's lacrosse season in full swing, the return of the rivalry is one of the best things after missing out in 2020.

It has been way too long since we have been able to play rivalry games.  Full Disclosure: I may, or may not, drink my coffee each morning in a mug that is the colors of our rivals just to fire up immediately. Return of the RIVALRY – DIII LACROSSE For many of us in DIII, […]

Division III Lacrosse Navigation of the Pandemic

Division III lacrosse is making its return to the field after the pandemic ended the last year early. What will this weird season look like?

Division III lacrosse is the largest division of lacrosse in terms of the number of teams and athletes. We are fortunate to bring on Hope College coach Mike Schanhals to help us navigate the Division III landscape. As a Division III lacrosse coach, Schanhals has an inside understanding of how the level has been affected […]