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Rhino Lacrosse Camp: Flagstaff, Days 4 & 5

Day 4 of Rhino Lacrosse Camp: Flagstaff is in the books. Tomorrow will be a half-day session before we send the campers on their way with a boatload of new knowledge to take with them in their lax journeys. Today started off well, the weather was beautiful, and the campers were ready to go.

At the end of the morning session, we brought all the campers together and did the world famous Rhino Lacrosse Goal Celebration Contest. This was by far the best one we’ve seen yet. Just some highlights for you to wet your whistle until we get all the videos up. We had a little cattle wrestling, an impersonation of RP, some bathroom action, a live performance and our own variation of a jack-in-the-box.

This one solidified the victory – Phillip in the bag.

For the afternoon session, we kept things completely competitive after a nice warm-up with the coaches. Fireball, Rhino Drill, Numbers, Coach Cost’s new drill; you name it, we probably did it.

Some static stretching.

At the D1 ranks, we had one of the most competitive Rhino Drills yet, going to overtime.

Coach Fritts leading some Rhino Drills.

On the D3 side of things, we gave the kids a little break from 3 man, 2 ball to really crack down on their passing and catching form. We went through strong hand, weak hand, knee passing, and one-handed passing. After the warm-up, the campers’ passing and catching looked much more fluid.

Some knee passing.

Coach Cost has been doing a great job with the D3 kids, cracking down on them and making them work hard, but also putting them through a ton of fun drills. Today he continued the trend with the Fireball Drill. This is another great drill for campers that puts them into an unsettled situation in the offensive zone and forces them to set-up an offense and start passing and cutting for the ball.

Fireball!

I really love the balance of hard work and fun at the Rhino Camps. Taking the D3 troops for example, we keep on them about all the parts of their form, using both hands, and staying active, as well as everything else. But we also keep them involved, both physically and mentally in all the drills by making them fun and competitive. Coach Cost was talking a little about it today – we are hard on them because we are passionate about the sport, not because we are trying to be mean. Campers respond well every time because they recognize this and immediately become ‘all ears’ to our coaching.

Coach Cost coaching it up.

After the usual break for dinner, we hit the field hard for our last evening session of camp. D1 players got into more Rhino Drills and games, while the younger guys did a couple more quick passing drills and then games as well. It was a great chance for the players to put their new knowledge to work and test out everything they’ve learned. The new skills and fundamentals that each of the campers had learned really started to show and it was fun to observe them testing themselves.

With the D3 guys, we put a rule in place that you couldn’t hold the ball for longer than two seconds  and you couldn’t take outside rips. There was some complaining at first as we figured there would be, but the new rules forced the campers to move to ball (and their feet) and find the inside look. As soon as they figured it out, they looked really fluid on offense and were getting all sorts of looks.

At the end of the night we brought the campers in for one more competition: the Stick Trick Contest. Here are some action shots from the championship of the competition, there were some very creative ideas showcased by the campers tonight. I can’t wait to drop the video footage on you guys.

Billy laying it on.
Our champion Sappy walking the dog.

As always, there are some real gems here at camp. First and foremost, this shirt:

‘Merica!

Second, I’m pretty sure RP has been trying to give these campers every opportunity to win a free chrome Nike Lakota. To help promote everyone participating in ball searches, we bring them all in for the world famous Rhino Lacrosse Bucket Challenge, sponsored by Nike and Miller Paints. Tonight, we had some of the closest shots to date, with one repeat competitor. He has a very unique form in his throw, but it really works for him.

Cameron has been really close several times.

Last but certainly not least, is a young gentleman named Phillip. He and his two brothers are attending camp and have been quite the trio this week. At the end of the afternoon session he approached me with a proposition. For $5, he would get in his bag and I would roll him up to the dorms. Sounds good to me!

Phillip has a new home apparently.

Day 5

The final session of Rhino Lacrosse Camp: Flagstaff went off without a hitch and was a great success. After what looked to be a bit of a rough start for the campers, everyone quickly bought in and began to push themselves to become better lacrosse players. It was great to see.

After a quick warm-up through fundamental drills, we got right back into some solid competition time.

Ground ball action led by the one and only Coach Ryan Powell

As usual with ALL Rhino camps, there is a lot of fun to be had if you look in the right places and work hard enough. Wait for the video to drop of this one!

Get down with your bad self!

Day 5 was night and day from Day 1. This camp had the biggest change in not only skill level, but also in the level of commitment by all the players in attendance.

Rhino Lacrosse: Hard stinkin’ work!

Again, sorry about the lack of videos, but we promise we will dedicate some posts to just videos as soon as we get our ducks in a row. There is some great footage coming your way from Flagstaff!!!