The heat is on in Boise, ID! With today’s high in the 90’s and the players responding to the coaches’ challenge of buying in and working harder, Day 2 at Rhino Lacrosse Camp: Boise was on fire.
Campers hit the field hard this morning, jumping right into the Rhino drills and some 3-man, 2-ball to warm-up their sticks. Drills that get a ball in your stick and give you a lot of touches – as many as they could handle. As soon as the campers finished that, we threw them into Numbers, a fun drill that gets the players thinking about how to react to man-up and man-down situations.
In Numbers, the coach calls out a number (1-6) and that many offensive players go into the drill, the defensive side sends out one less than the offense. They then set up a quick offense and try to score. This drill challenges players to react on the fly and adapt to different situations as well as teaching quick ball movement on offense and quick slides on defense.
After the morning drills, we split campers up into three teams and got them into games to work on their new skills. Things were a little shaky at first, but as soon as the campers relaxed a little you could see them picking up on the 2v1’s and 3v2’s in the offense. The coaches’ handiwork in action!
Since there were three teams, the third team worked on stick skills and staying loose between the games. One of their activities today was the Bucket Contest. We lined the campers up 10 yards away from a bucket and let them try and use some finesse to make the ball into the bucket. Winners moved on and got a chance at winning a sweet prize from Rhino Lacrosse.
After a very successful morning session for the young ones, RP gave them a little gift to take home for all their hard work at the camp this week.
The afternoon session began with fireworks – it was awesome to see how much the campers wanted to get better. Campers busted through the Rhino drills with great intensity and focus. As a coach, this is what we dream of (among other things) – players buying into your system and giving it 100% at all times. When players’ eyes are locked on your every word and their motions follow all of your teachings, you know you are doing a good job. That was the environment at Rhino Boise today.
One of my favorite parts about Rhino Lacrosse Camps? The relationship between the campers and the coaches. By now you’ve been able to see how hard the coaches push the campers to become better and how quick the campers are to respond to any challenge. This is possible because of the coaching staff at Rhino Lacrosse. They are here for the campers and for that reason alone. Coaches are hard on the campers during drills and games, but they are very approachable and laid back outside of that.
One of those coaches is Nate Fritts, or as the coaches like to call him, “Showtime”. Why Showtime? Well, we let him play Boise Summer League last night as an honorary guest and he scored between the legs!
Coach Fritts is a great example of what hard work and dedication to your craft will do for you. He is also a great spokesman for Rhino Lacrosse. He attended the camps as a kid, played on the Rhino Elite teams and now coaches for them and plays at Bowdoin College, an NCAA Division 3 school. Bowdoin was actually one of only three teams that beat Tufts this in 2011. Impressive, right? I was able to have a little chat with Coach Fritts this morning – check it out!
Come back tomorrow to check out Day 3 where we will head into specialized drills and break down the parts of each position for the campers. Until then, enjoy this little highlight of Ben Gaebel’s 18 save performance in Cortland State’s 2006 Championship win!
