It’s 5:56am in downtown Brooklyn, and the Lax Breakfast Club is well on their way to attacking the day, and starting it off right with some high caliber lacrosse. That’s right. High caliber lacrosse. At 6am. It’s what the Lax Breakfast Club does!
Led by Mitch Belisle, Craig Bunker, and Chad Wiedmaier (all players on the Boston Cannons), the Lax Breakfast Club is made up of competitive and driven college and pro lacrosse players. The group meets up every week in NYC to play lacrosse, train, have some early morning fun, and get better.
Beyond the MLL guys, there are a number of current NCAA players involved, some of whom are interns at Trilogy Lacrosse (run by Belisle). Others are simply working in the City for the Summer. There are also a couple college graduates who don’t currently play MLL who come down for some punishment and competition. Dave Madeira is one of those guys, but don’t get it twisted, the old man still has some moves and plenty of game!
The only time of day that worked for everyone was the ungodly hour of 6am, so they rolled a post workout breakfast meal into the end of practice (hosted by Mitch’s wife in their nearby Brooklyn apartment)… hence the Lax Breakfast Club name!
The group starts off with some stretching and a quick warm up, then they go into speed ladder drills and footwork drills using cones. Craig Bunker will go off and do some face off work on his own while the rest of the Lax Breakfast Club (Dpoles included!) warm up the goalie, and dial in their sticks. Then the 1 on 1s start, and those eventually turn into 2 on 2s, and 3 on 3s. There is plenty of talk, both in the “communication” and “giving each other a hard time” departments, and it creates a fun but intense atmosphere.
Passers by are few and far between at the early hour, but for those lucky enough to catch it, the Lax Breakfast Club must be a bizarre sight. WHY ARE THOSE GUYS HITTING EACH OTHER WITH STICKS SO EARLY IN THE MORNING?.. is the general reaction.
Video: Lax Breakfast Club
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Check out more great lacrosse video on the LaxAllStars YouTube Channel!
How these guys motivate to play at this level at 6am is beyond me! I swear that when I was in college I could have done this, but right now it seems impossible to my rapidly aging body and mind. To be honest, the MLL and college guys (and Dave) made it look easy!
Some of the guys come in for this training session from as far away as New Jersey, which is impressive. Others have a 45 minute subway ride. While Belisle lives closest, he also brings the goal each week, and then hosts the guys for breakfast afterwards, with his wife, Hannah. Hannah does most of the work when it comes to the breakfast portion of the Lax Breakfast Club, and she swore to me that she enjoys doing it, as it provides a great change of pace to the week, and I trust her. After all, she’s a fantastic person, and makes a great slice of bacon!
[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=n8XX-PQKYQo” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/n8XX-PQKYQo/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Duel In Dumbo: Trilogy Lacrosse Vs Cancer”]
Originally, the group started out small. But with the power of social media, the numbers are growing. Check out the #LaxBreakfastClub hashtag on twitter… maybe you’ve got what it takes to ball out at 6am in Brooklyn?
