Carousel of Coaching Changes Continues (Part 4)

Intro

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's lacrosse. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenzrim, and with me as always is the lacrosse whisperer, Danny Moran. How's it going, Danny? Kev, how's it going, my man? How's it going in Northern Virginia tonight? Like we said in the last episode, it's real really turning into fall, Danny. This is the first night I realized that I was actually, you know, I work from home, so I don't usually see that transition. I was coming back from a conference and I got off the DC Metro 6:30, 6 45, somewhere on that, and it was already almost all dark. And I'm like, here it comes.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yeah, and it was chilly again today. Yeah. Yeah, it was. I took my car and I needed an inspection. The guy said to me, What do you got? Your heat on? I was like, don't make fun of me. It was chilly out, you know. So yeah, it's it's that time of year, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Yeah, yeah. Well, and tonight is another turn because this is the last episode in our coaching carousel, Danny.

SPEAKER_03 1:27

Yeah, yeah. It's been a good one. It's been fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

There's a lot of coaches this year, kind of wow. And and this one is all about the new programs. Northwood Timberwolves out of Michigan and Emery and Henry Wasps out of Virginia.

unknown 1:42

Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:43

But before we go to those coaches, we have a couple of coaching changes we were not able to get on. So the we talked about shorter last week. That was one of them. They haven't named their coach yet, but there are two others. The first is Palm Beach Atlantic. Head coach Jesse Bonata stepped down looking for other opportunities. And his assistant, Brett Bernardo, was named the interim head coach for this year. Unfortunately, we couldn't get Coach Bernardo on to recover with us. So hopefully, maybe we can get him on a later time. You know, those transitions that can always be tough. The other, just like Shorter, has not named a head coach yet, and that is Quincy. And that is a direct result of the former head coach, Eric Ruppel, taking over one of the programs we are discussing tonight.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

The carousel of coaches continues. It's a carousel, it really is. You know what? I'm I'm finding out after four years of this podcast that you know every year we're gonna have a number of coaching changes. Things happen. Uh family, it could be family issues. It's it could be a million different things, but yeah, we we seem to find 10, 11, 12 coaches a year usually. Now we're getting new programs too. You know, you're we're adding the C UIs and the Dominicans of California. And this year we have Northwood like tonight and Emory and Henry. So it's uh the D2 is growing.

Jacob Fredal

SPEAKER_04 3:11

We're gonna start off with the Northwood Timberwolves joining the GMAC and Coach Jacob Friedel, who is their head coach, he was named first ever head coach for them December 19th, 2022. So he's got a little time under his belt being able to try to build the program. Well, let's see what he does. Like we said, brand new program. Coach Friedel was the assistant at Detroit County Day School for two years. And Danny, he's got some D2 pedigree. He was a 2019 graduate of Lemoyne. Oh you think he knows what a championship program looks like?

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Um, I don't know. Uh, if Coach Sheen is good enough to convey that to young players coming in. I'm quite sure he's fine.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

Yeah, it'd be I think it'd be really interesting to bring him in, hear what he has had been building there for the past year or so. And uh, so let's bring him in right now, Coach Jacob Friedel. Hey coach, how you doing?

SPEAKER_03 4:09

I'm doing good. How are you? Good. Thank you so much for coming on and taking the time tonight. We really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Yeah, uh I couldn't be excited, more excited to be here and uh you know, do one of my favorite things talk about our team, talk about the program, talk about the guys.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

That's awesome. We're excited to hear about it. So let's start though, let's start with you. You played at the highest level of D2 lacrosse with the Dolphins. How much does that translate to the other side of the ball and coaching a new program?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Oh, I think a ton. Um, you know, I draw from that experience a lot. Um, we're trying to build something from the start, you know, from the ground up and and not having you know any hills or valleys, it being completely flat, you know, being able to build off of what we want it to be, you know, not having to worry about the past as much with, you know, um, you know, getting basically like a fresh start. Um, our guys have done a really good job of you know making sure that our culture is where it needs to be. Uh, a thing that we talk about all the time is like our highest opponents that we're gonna be playing. Uh, we didn't kind of shy away from anybody this year. We're gonna be playing, you know, three, three top 20 opponents, two of them out of conference. Um, we're excited to get that schedule out. But basically, it's been about building culture, and a lot of that culture, I draw from my time at Lemoyne. I draw from the stuff that I saw that worked, being a part of by far the best team I've ever been a part of in that 26 year, 2016 year. Um, and just my teammates that I got to work alongside, Coach Sheehan as well, um, Coach Max as well on the defensive side. Um, you know, I drew a lot from that time there to kind of figure out what I wanted to create, and then also from some of the guys I got to coach with after graduating uh at DCD, and then even with Cherries and Great Lakes.

SPEAKER_04 5:55

That's great, that's great. So now you I have another question for you, but now I have to go circle back because you teased me too much with two top 20 teams out of conference. Can you tell us who those are?

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, so uh Rockhurst and Lewis.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

All right, love it. All right, yeah, yeah. Some Midwest teams, great the Great Lakes Valley Conference. That's uh two really good teams, those will be tests for you. That's awesome to see. So, what drew you to Northwood? What drew you to the school? Uh, and you started to say what it's like to start a program from scratch. So, why don't you tell us also what drew you to the school and then walk us through that first year?

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Yeah, of course. So uh just the starting, you know, what drew me was the business program, the facilities, um, the support from the athletic department, the AD son playing lacrosse. Um, the the belief of wanting to win, you know, wanting to win now, wanting to build it right, giving us the runway to do that.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Um, you know, that's great.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah, there's a big difference between starting from scratch and being forced into play that first year, and then starting from scratch and getting a year to recruit and get two classes in um while simultaneously working with that freshman group and getting those guys up to speed. And, you know, we got some scrimmages in last year. Um, we practiced every day like we were a division two program, hit the maximum of 15 hours a week in the fall and the maximum of 20 hours a week in the spring. Um, it was a smaller group, start off with about 22. Um, and you know, they worked their butt butts off. Like honestly, they they competed every day in practice, and we're really big on internal competition. And, you know, we had to be, you know, with not competition outside. Um, they found ways to get better. They found ways to get better every day and push each other and challenge each other and then also still support each other. Um, because I know it had to have been hard. I thought it was hard for me. I think as a student athlete, I couldn't imagine what it was was like for them, you know, not to get that, you know, the reward, the reward of winning, the reward of uh going out and playing and getting to showcase all the stuff you've been working on, your craft that you've been working on for countless hours. Right, you know, and and not getting that kind of that spotlight to shine. Um, but they did a fantastic job. I honestly could not have picked and been more lucky to have people throw guys my way and tell me to check guys out. Um class that we ended up with with the 23s and the 24s. Um, it's the right group, it's the right group to win now. Um, it's the right group to build a program with. Um, I always are guys that uh that I'm just the guardrails to the whole thing, you know. I'm not the engine, I'm not the car, um, not even the road. You know, I I just make sure that we stay on the right path.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

And uh kind of making the decision of what the whole thing looks like. Um, and they've done a phenomenal job. I try to give a lot of ownership to them. What are we looking at roster size for our first year of competition? We're gonna be at 37.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Wow, that's phenomenal. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Yep. I'm uh I'm happy with the number. I think that it enables us to do a lot of the things that I'd like to do in practice.

SPEAKER_04 9:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

You know, internal competition. I think I'll use that word quite a bit tonight. That's something that we focus on, and you need guys for numbers, you know, you need to get up and down. Yeah, you need guys to give you a good look. Like we actually have like a scout team this year, so we can actually go ones and twos and okay, yeah, and start to uh you know, kind of worry about load management and uh make things the right way.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

That's where that's where a program makes those steps once they start getting those numbers. That's where a program can begin. But you're gonna have your hands full in that conference, man. It's a it's a blue-collar stack conference. You're gonna be playing in weather, but you guys are used to that. But well, that's good.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

What I love about the GMAC, it's almost like uh changing its face when you look at the teams that have come in Tiffin, Malone, Thomas More, and now Northwood, and yeah, and Davenport really switching from GLBC to G Mac. That's got to be exciting to you, too. It's it's almost like it's a new conference in a lot of ways, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Yeah, I I agree with that. Um it's a strong conference, you know. I think when you think about that middle of the pack, um there's teams that on any given day that I think could beat each other. Um, and I think that'll be a really tough challenge for us in our first year. And you know, that's exciting, and that was a big reason why we wanted to play really strong competition in the out of out of conference. Um our guys were ready to see, you know, in conference important games and and feel like we could kind of expedite their growing up process. You know, we didn't get a lot of transfers in the portal, we got mostly freshmen and sophomores that we're working with. Um, and I will say that they've grown up really quickly. I feel like they're doing a great job this fall. Um, but you can't really substitute game reps, you know, against good teams. And those teams that we see in the GMAC, like you said, you know, blue collar, tough, gritty, they want to they want to win. And uh I think that we got our work cut out for ourselves, and I think we got a group that's excited for that work, though, which is cool.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

That that's phenomenal. I want to ask you, you kind of went back that you were with your 2023, right? Your first recruiting year, you were actually practicing and scrimmaging. How did you keep their motivation up when they like you said, they didn't have any, they didn't have any games that they could look back and say, okay, all this work is going to this. Were you pointing them towards 2025? How I mean for a young kid, that's tough to do at age 18, right? To say, okay, I got you, coach. I'm doing these drills so that we're ready for 2025. That's a big, I think, a big challenge. I'm just curious how you handle that.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Says a lot about the kid, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Oh, a hundred percent. Um, you know, we talked a lot. I did a lot of individual meetings, a lot of individual film, a lot of individual learning, um, a lot of how are you, honestly. Like that was a question that was asked a ton. And I they handled it so well. They were so ready for it, and they were so focused on what was ahead, and they recognized that, you know, in a world where I could I could argue that you know, we're pretty used to instant gratification, right? A lot of different facets in life, um, they were set, their eyes were set on the prize of 2025, like you said. Um, we use a lot of motivation for the teams that we consider to be where we're aiming, you know, where we want to get to the level of play. Um, we talked a lot about that. You know, we would we would bring up stuff like is this was today good enough for us to be at the level that we want to be at? And you know, if it wasn't there, I'd look back and like at five o'clock after we're done, I'd see like four or five guys still playing wall ball. Um they were really, really set on what they actually wanted to accomplish here, and they recognized that it wasn't gonna happen in the first year, and they were completely fine with it, which was incredible. Um, and I think they lot relied on each other a ton. Um, they're really yeah, a really, really close group, and it's it's noticeable, you know. I think going through something like that at 18 years old, um, it definitely builds a bond. You know, it definitely builds a bond. You're with each other every single day. Your real competition is the guy to your right and to your left that you see in the locker room. Right. Even you go back to the dorms. Um and they did a really good job of pushing each other. We would do internal scrimmages, internal sixes quite a bit, and we would keep score, we would separate the offense and the defense, we wouldn't even let them stretch together, they wouldn't do line drills together, and music, trying to make it like as much like a game atmosphere as you could. Don't think that there's only 20 of you guys, you know.

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

You'd hear it though, and you would think there was 40 or 50 of them. Um, you know, when the ball is hitting the deck off of a double team, or if uh someone's ringing a pipe and scoring a goal, both sides were letting each other know. Um that that helped a lot. That kind of goes back to that internal competition that I talked about. I feel like that's great. Yeah, that release, you know, that that sort of like sense of like accomplishment, sense of like winning. And you know, we did uh we did a lot of competition and we try to like have like rewards attached to it and make sure keep guys keep guys motivated. And um, like I said, they did a great job. It was a fun year, actually. Like, I'm surprised that I can say that after going through it. It was actually a fun year, and and think about you know the stress that games can bring to some kids too. I think as freshmen, um, if they would have been thrown into that situation of you know going to play in sophomores juniors, seniors, I think it almost could have been harder on them, I would argue. You know, I think there's a case to be made there. Yeah, um, we got to refine a lot of skills, we got to go back to fundamentals, we got to start talking about stuff that maybe you don't get to talk about because you got a you know, game plan and scout for a Seton Hill or a Davenport or who at Walsh, whoever it is, that week. Um, we got to really focus on the individual and the kid and the and his skill set and and build them up, you know. And I think that was really cool. And I think they got a lot out of that.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

And I think I coach with you coming from Le Moine and having that pedigree of playing championship high level across, gives you even a better, you know, uh what's the word I'm looking for, Kev? It gives you, you know, that that pedigree that, you know, these these kids can look up to you and say, you know what? 2025, man, coaches got us on the right, on the right path. You know, that's how much have you drawn from like Coach Sheehan and brought and brought that into your into your style?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Um, uh, you know, that's that's a good question. I think it's I think it's a good mix. I think I've drawn a lot from the guys that I've worked with recently too. Um, but she and was, you know, he helped me out through a lot. I was a Michigan kid that went to to New York, and you know, it's sometimes all of our journeys aren't they aren't the best when you're going through and playing, you know, like injuries happen, uh being away from home, all that stuff. He was kind of like a father away from home. He was he was awesome towards me, helped me out through a lot of stuff. I feel like I drew from that and my experience and and wanted to make sure that I made sure that the kids had a good experience, you know, that I was building that relationship that I felt like he built he built with me. Um and that I was making sure that they were learning the stuff that I felt like I learned and I got from you know being a part of that program. Um the style, maybe it's the style that I kind of took away from. Um, and you know, I try to try to build off of that and and try and be my own man and you know, find my own identity over here. And I think it's been it's been good. It's it's always learning. That's the way that I put it. You know, I'm always adapting. And I think uh you gotta be, you know, if you're not adapting, you're probably behind.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

Yeah, coach. I coached football for a long time, and I always said I learned something every practice, every game about the kid, my team, and myself, every game, every practice. And constantly learning is that's gonna mean that's you're only gonna get a to be a better coach. You're you're on your way to becoming a good coach. And uh you got this team from and it's a Michigan-based team. Tell us what a normal day for Northwood Timberwolf lacrosse player would be. 6 a.m. uh wake ups and and runs and lifts or what?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

So we actually, I'm a big believer sleep. I I think sleep's great for them. Um, you know, we preach them to put their phones down hopefully by 11. I don't know how much that always happens. Uh, you can't be there all the time, right? But uh they start class at 8 a.m. Most of them have class from 8 to 12. Uh we stack the locker room full of food so they can grab snacks. Then on Mondays, we get out to practice around 12:30. Um we have a little pre-practice routine that we do as a team. You know, offense goes their shooting stuff, defense does their uh their footwork or whatever we're working on that day. Um, and then we get together around 1 p.m. So it's about 30 minutes that pre-practice. 1 p.m. we start and get into our drills, probably done around 2.30-ish. Um yeah, probably done around 2.15, 2.30-ish. And then some guys will have class at 4 and then they go to dinner, and uh sometimes we'll throw a film in there and stuff like that. We've been doing, we're gonna start yoga this week as well. Um we try to we try to get as much out of that 15 hours as possible. I'll tell you that. That's the best way to put up. Uh yeah, but we've uh we've also done some things where like one week this past week, for example, we were uh Monday off and then we went Tuesday through Saturday. Um, and it was really interesting to see the guys' energy when they came out on Tuesday after not playing for three days. Uh, we had an incredible practice. I thought it was one of our better practices we've had all year. Um, and we've had a lot more good ones than bad ones, which has been surprising and and great to build off of and starting to get a little bit more consistent. But they do a really good job in terms of their time management. I feel like a lot of guys, when I talk to them, you know, back to the the how are you in the academic meetings, um they're doing work every day. Most of them are done with their schoolwork by Friday. All of their school work's due on Sunday. Really cool thing that Northwood does. Um, and most of them don't have classes on Friday, so they're getting time to hang out with each other and they're getting time to bond and grow together. And you know, there's 37 of them basically within about 40 yards from each other. I guess 36. We do have one uh one off campus. Um but their their two dorm rooms are are like side by side, and uh, you know, I I think they're having a good time. I think they're able to like to be able to hang out and you know, go study, go get food together. They just pop their heads into their rooms and and check to see what everyone's doing. And um, you know, that kind of goes into getting their work done before before Friday and not having class on Friday.

SPEAKER_05 20:00

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

The Saturday practice was was great too. Honestly, uh, we did a lot of competition on that day. It was great to get up and down, get out by like 11:30. That way they can go watch football, go eat chips, go eat uh wings, pizza, whatever they're gonna eat, steaks, hopefully some good food, but enjoy their weekend, you know, and you know, give make sure they have that time.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

It's great, that's great stuff.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

Yeah, that's awesome, coach. And it's been great having you on. We're really excited to see Northwood join the GMAC, a new program, and see how you can mix it up this year.

SPEAKER_03 20:34

And I'm really interested in seeing the Timberwolves play, man. You know, team's been around for two years, got a couple of classes in there, got 36 or so on the roster. They could make some noise, Kev.

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Yeah, they could. They they definitely could. So, coach, thanks so much for coming on. It's been awesome.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me.

Eric Ruppel

SPEAKER_04 20:54

The other new program this year is Emery and Henry. Yes, sir. The SAC. Yeah, baby.

SPEAKER_03 21:03

Zach, you know how I feel about this.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Oh, yeah, yeah. And but this one, Danny, has a bit of a twist to it. Joe Laird, who was the inaugural coach and was building the first ever men's program since July of last year, left the program before the first official season started. So the administration now has to pivot, quickly pivot, you know, hopefully get a coach in here by the time fall balls going, whatever, and look for a new coach. And they hired in a man who is used to building new programs, and that's Coach Eric Ruppel from Quincy. That's the one we talked about in the intro that now has a hole because this man came here. We'll talk a little about that, but we're more interested in what he's doing for the watch. So let's bring him in, Coach Eric Ruppel. Hey, coach. Oh, how are you guys doing tonight? We're doing great. Great to see you again and talk to you in a in a different uniform.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

In a different uniform. Still got some gold, but it looks pretty good on me.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

It does look good, Coach. It does look good. How you been, man? How you doing?

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Fantastic now. The last few weeks have been a little bit of a whirlwind. This part of the country got hit by a hurricane, and I decided to move during it. But uh other than that, now we've hit the ground running. Um we uh we started practice a couple weeks ago, a little bit late to the party, but we'll still get about six weeks in. Uh, figured out some late scrimmages later on in November, made it all work, and now we're just gonna start building this thing up. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

I love it already. You mentioned the word whirlwind. My question, I have that actually in my first question. I can read it right now, but it's more of a whirlwind because of the hiring process. Was that a whirlwind too? Because Joe Laird leaves, they're trying to did it go fast. What was that like? What was the process for that?

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah, uh we we had we had heard that he had left. I think I saw the posting. Um, you know, full disclosure, got some friends in the South Atlantic conference, uh, got on the horn with the AD, felt that it would be a right fit. Uh, I think from time of first interview to me getting the job, being on campus and getting the job, three days, maybe four days. Um, AD called me up. I said I want to see it, saw it, loved it. Uh, had to wait a little bit patiently to make sure that I had a place to live. And once I had a place to live, we were off to the races.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

That's great. I've heard, you know, I never heard of Emory Henry until they decided to come into Division Two and into the SAC and doing a little bit of homework. I hear the school is beautiful, like a lot of new uh complexes and and facilities.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

Oh I think I got some D1 programs that are gonna be a little jealous of our new facility. Really? So the school, when they so we're we're fairly new into division two as well. We're in right, I think we're fully clear now, or it's year three. Um, but this was an Odak D3 school that did not have lacrosse. Uh, full disclosure for our alumni though, did have lacrosse in the 70s and 80s, and they're people bringing it back, baby. Yeah, bring it up and talk about a supportive group. Man, they they have already gotten a hold of me, they are great people and very, very guys that played back then, that played back then, yeah. Oh, that's awesome. It was like 77 or 76 to 83. Um, but uh they just they were on campus for homecoming, a big group of them.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Did they bring their wallets?

SPEAKER_02 24:48

They're they're helping us, they're helping us. That's good, that's good. That's good. But yeah, we introduced the team to them. Uh, you know, we got 18 freshmen that are all from, you know, close closer to home than what I'm used to. Uh, a lot of Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, uh, Tennessee, North Carolina. So nice to be. Uh, but you know, trying to make those alumni proud because they are one of the reasons we have lacrosse now. They fought very hard for about the last 40 years to make this program happen. And it seemed like a really good time to make it happen when they switched uh going up to Division II in the SAC. You know, yeah, you know, Odak would have been tough. SAC is still tough, but I think adding a new program when you're still in your infancy of D2 is a little bit easier. Now, to go along with that, to answer your question, they spent $13 million on a new facility for lacrosse track and soccer. That's amazing, man. That's awesome. It's it's gonna be, I think, a three-phase project. Uh, turf and track and scoreboard and all that, they're down now. Uh early next year, I think like the parking lot's getting paved. We're gonna have some locker rooms. Um, but I mean the facility overlooks one of the Virginia Highland Hills. They call them mountains where I'm from, they're not mountains, but uh, but it overlooks the mountain. It overlooks interstate 81. You know, all these coming from Virginia, they're on 81. Right when they turn, they see this just beautiful facility right off the highway. Um, Britt, my AD could tell you all about the type of turf he used and the track, and uh he's very excited about it. I saw it and I just said, This is immaculate. Um that's great, that's great. You know, we we go on it. Uh, it's it's everything you probably want out of a lacrosse facility, especially in arguably the best conference in the nation. So, you know, we're coming to bat. Uh, we'll be we'll be a tiny team, but at least from a facility perspective, a school perspective, we're coming to bat regular, you know, just like the rest of the schools. We're gonna be more than fine.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

That's awesome. You started to talk about it, coach. You're used to building a new program because you did it at Quincy, right? But this one, as I said in the intro, is a bit different. You're inheriting a new program that is trying to get brought players in last year, but really, this is the first year where they're really trying to get off the ground with practice, I would assume. So, is it really different? What do you have to do? What are the similarities? Is there or is it still the same kind of build?

SPEAKER_02 27:24

Um, you know, anyone who started a program like like I did will tell you, I won't miss that year of just nothingness where you're just recruiting every kid, known to man, you're just sitting there twiddling your thumbs, hoping to God you can find a lacrosse game on TV or go to one. Um, that that year is rough because you you have everything to do, but nothing to do at the same time, and it can get a little monotonous. Um, we came in, and I mean, that first day we were on campus, we had a team meeting, and we have 18 guys, you know, we didn't recruit them, but uh through now two weeks of practice, man, we've got some dudes. Um great very, very impressed with them. You know, we'll be we'll be young freshmen. Um that's all right, but they they are about it. Um, you know, and they're they're doing it big because for a full month or about six weeks, because Emory and Henry goes to school super early. Uh they're in school August 15th, they're out by Thanksgiving weekend. So you know, we were we were starting our first fallball practice at Quincy when I got the job and had to leave. And then these guys have just been, you know, in weights and you know free play practices for what they could do. So now we've got them in some structure and they're loving it, and they're coming correct, which is very impressive. Um through at least the first few weeks, man. Super proud of these guys and their tenacity to stay. You know, your coach, you before you even go to school, your coach isn't coming. You know, how many kids are gonna go, uh, you know, there's there's a portal that exists, it's pretty easy to access. But these guys said, no, I I like campus, I like school, I like my teammates, let's make this happen. And man, I I think that's gonna give them just uh an upper hand that they don't realize they have yet. There's a grittiness to that that I think that is gonna showcase.

SPEAKER_03 29:20

You know what? Being young in the sack is not a bad thing because these kids are gonna get older, and you know what, when you play teams in the sack, you're gonna get better. You're gonna get better. You know, you're playing top-notch competition you know, in conference.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:34

Yeah, and I like what you said about uh I was gonna ask you how the players responded. You kind of said that that they they they came and they're they stayed, and that shows some tenacity. So I think that's that's phenomenal that they wanted to do that. What did you have to we've talked to other coaches? In fact, one of them one of our re recent podcasts, we talked about a coach coming in and having to re-recruit his players, the players that were on the team still after a coaching change, right? And with Coach Laird leaving, did you have to do the same thing or did were they all already on and and staying?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

They seemed pretty excited and receptive. Um, one of those things that I just I can't speak enough volumes for is our AD did a very good job of keeping these guys together and keeping them in the loop. Um even when I was on campus, I made sure to meet with them and say, hey, I'm I'm coming. This is just be patient. Yeah um and then, you know, I I I'm not I'm not super old, but I'm a little old school. I think, I think in the re-recruiting them is then just seeing what we're about. And you know, our first again, we wasted no time. The day one day one we were on campus. We were we were at we actually had to stay a night in Knoxville. We get to campus a little bit earlier that next day, and we were already in the group chat, which helped, but we we said, Hey, you're gonna meet us here now if you can. We warned them ahead of time, but hey, we're gonna do this right now. We just landed and we're meeting you first. We're not even going to our apartment yet, so to speak.

SPEAKER_05 31:17

Wow, that's wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

And I think that that kind of helped ease their tensions. Um, and then we got them to work right away. We said, Well, we can't wait for anything. We can't, oh, here's the pleasantries. You know, I'm Coach Ruple, I'm from here. We couldn't do that, we had to get them going because time was not of the essence. And I think I think they responded really well to that. There's oh, okay, we're going. And didn't give them time to think about it. Yeah, we didn't really get time to think about it. Um, but that but they're loving it from what it looks like. You know, we haven't gotten into anything super in-depth yet or anything, but I think just that level of care, that level of, hey, we're we're moving here for you guys, we're gonna make this work, we're gonna make it awesome. I think that helped them buy in a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Yeah, well, a chance to make history too, these kids, you know, when you think about it. First real team out in years for Emory Henry and in the sack, first time in division two. That kid that scores that first, you know, who gets the first one. That first ball be saved, you know, that's a big thing, you know, and and that that kid will never forget that as long as he lives, you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And and and you know, you get the young kids to play, and you know, by the time they're juniors and seniors, they're they're good. Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:29

Yeah, yeah. And the other thing I was gonna say before you go to that is I think probably one of the bombs that they received, it's the medicine game, right? They came to want to play D2 lacrosse and they come to campus August 15th, and finally the coach shows up, they're probably chomping at the bit to use their sticks and and actually practice. That's what they came, they get recruited to do, that's what they want to do.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Oh, absolutely. And and to your point, you know, starting a team from scratch, you know, has its early roadblocks, you know. But as I saw at Quincy, by the time they're juniors and seniors, you know, we had a we had a fifth year that just graduated from Quincy last year. And I don't know if it's an actual record, so don't quote me, but I think he had the most starts as a defenseman in NCAA history because he did, you know, he had the COVID year. Right. So these kids, by the time they're juniors, they're gonna have you know, 30, 40 games under their belt, and especially against, you know, the Wingates, the limestones, where they're gonna come correct pretty quickly. And what I've seen in the past is those type of guys are the ones that you want to build a program around because they're gonna know how to do it correctly. But they're also gonna understand, you know, the freshman aspect, they're gonna understand these guys that are a little not used to the division two level, not used to college lacrosse in general, and they're going to be a little bit more understanding and susceptible to that, and it makes them good leaders. And I think that is probably the most important part that they're gonna gain from this. And are they gonna know it today? Of course not. But three, four years from now, they're gonna look back at this and they're gonna go, we were insane, but it worked.

SPEAKER_04 34:13

Yeah. Yeah. Well, like Danny said, they're the plank owners, right? They're the plank owners. That's something they can always hold high that they started the restarted the program. Look at your alumni that kept on begging for 40 years to get something going. If those alumni show up for the the first game, first home game, that'll be so cool.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Oh, yeah absolutely. First home games for Smanavala, February 7th or 9th, I forget which date. That's awesome. That's a good that's a good program. I could not say no to Coach Lang. I I set a schedule. And I know I know our our former well, my former struggles getting games. Now I'm in a part of the country that uh I don't have that problem anymore. And uh, no, it's apparent.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Is so just in conference, there's 10 games, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_04 35:09

Yeah, and and so what is that like going from the GLVC great, great conference to the sack? I um maybe you don't even know yet, but you know the competition, and you and you kind of touched upon it. One of it is you probably don't have the the travel scheduling woes anymore.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Yeah, um, you know, uh and first of all, I a part of me does want to say that the GLVC did have three teams in the tournament last year.

SPEAKER_04 35:38

Let's not even talk about that, coach.

SPEAKER_02 35:40

All right, but uh um just you know, and and and something I'm noticing early on, and I know it wasn't super public, although I have already been to a recruiting tournament. Um the all the GLBC coaches we had to work together to get you know games scheduled in that part of the world because it's just you know, we're on an island, and then the RMAC was on another island, and yeah, right. Nothing nothing was closer, convenient. Um, you know, I've already started to get my buses together for the majority of our season, and everything is a day trip if I so choose. Right. Not the case in the GOVC. Yeah. Um, you know, we had a couple close to home. We could go down to Meryville pretty conveniently. Um, everything else was uh okay, we're probably gonna need a hotel, we're gonna need the charter, we're gonna need this, we're gonna need that. Um I think our farthest game on mileage is Coker, and it's it's the same distance that Quincy was to Lewis. Um, so I'm in for a little bit of a culture shock that way, just because travel is so I don't want to say completely taken care of, but you know, when you're looking for three or four out-of-conference games, it's a whole lot easier than looking for 10. Yeah, yeah. Um and so great. Um, you know, and we we have a a pretty full slate year one. Uh, we we do have 16 games on the conference schedule or uh on the schedule. Um again, I didn't I didn't make that schedule, but we're gonna we're gonna honor it. Um, you know, a lot of those games are against guys that I've known for a long time, and I don't want to take a game away from them when they had already had it scheduled for six months, right? And I think that's a a very important thing to do. Um, you know, our 26 schedule look a little bit different than what our 25 schedule looks like, but all of them were within reason where I could get there in a day and you know, play a game and get back. And then you know, the farther ones, if we need a hotel, we'll get a hotel. But just to have that freedom where I can go, yeah, we can play that game, is um, I've never had that in my life, you know. Before Quincy, we were at Adam State, which that's a whole different beast. Right. Um Go Jostin says hi, by the way. I know he does, I know he does. Um, but yeah, whole different beast there. You know, GLVC was a whole different beast. And here, this is this is a different beast in a lot of ways, but travel doesn't seem to be one of them. And I'm very quickly understanding why, you know, I think it's all but two schools in the sack have lacrosse. Um, you know, why not? So it's the GLVC, it was a constant. Well, what are you know who's gonna go? Who's not? You know, and you know, to lose import last year to the GMAC that we all looked at each other like, okay, play twice, like make it happen. Yeah, um, but yeah, so I'm I'm very excited for that one.

SPEAKER_04 38:38

Um it's how about how about the competition? You you just kind of you just try to throw your your new conference under the bus with what you said for the conference turn NTA tournaments. Let's not even go there again, coach. But I am gonna get shellacked for that comment.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Um now what I will say is uh now with with the expanded tournament and AQs, I think I think on your guys' behalf, justice will be delivered. Um we'll see. But uh no, uh uh. I don't want to say terrified, but uh we have and don't quote me here. Let me let me look up my schedule real quick. Um but in order, we have on a on a on a uh March 22nd, March 29th, and April 5th, back to back to back. We go wingate, Leonard Ryan, limestone. Oh, there you go, coach. We open up conference play against Anderson. Um, you know, and at this point, you know, uh it's good though. It's good, yeah. You know, Katab is good, new band is good. Yeah, um, Coombs is doing great things at Mars Hill. Um, our boys are down in Coker making it happen. Um, Joe's making it work at Lincoln Memorial. Um, what's his name? Mike at at Tusculum looks like they they reloaded. So every single game. Newberry, Newberry. Well, that's no, I said Newberry. I oh did you cotta runs a tight ship, man? Oh yeah. Um so there's not there is not a single week that we're not preparing. And you know, some of these some of these south uh South Atlantic games go Wednesday, Saturday.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:41

We're going we're going war on a Wednesday, war on a Saturday. The perks, the perks to the last conferences. We can make sure everything was just about on a Saturday. We weren't getting the volume of game, but we were we could prep a full week at a time, yeah. Um my biggest worry is the prep time now because we're going in freshmen, you know, each and each team has such an identity to them that you know we're gonna prepare them for team A on a Wednesday, and then team B is playing a completely different style because the one thing that I've noticed, um, the sack that man, there is some identity in those teams, and again, nothing against the GLVC.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

No, GLVC is great, great, great teams, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

But you know, we I don't know if I can make this joke, but you know, we were the Midwestern, you know, six foot two, corn fed 200 pounds. We were gonna bully through you, right? And and all the teams did. Um, but the sack is a different beast, and it's gonna be really cool to see. Um, I'm pretty excited for it. Um, not in the not in the early, but you know, give me two. Yeah, I'll be pretty excited for it. Yeah. Um, and I, you know, but every team being good, every team being a powerhouse, it's just it's gonna be a wild ride, and pretty excited for it. Uh, we've got some again, we got gritty guys that stayed, so I think they'll be able to handle that in the short term, and we'll bring some guys to campus in these future years that are about that level of intensity and make it happen.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

That's I think once they see the campus and then they see the competition that they'll be going against, they'll be playing high high-end quality lacrosse, you know, throughout their career, just by being in the sack. What's not to like about it? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 42:35

I agree. Um, you know, I've already had cookouts, so what's not to like about this area of the country, you know? Um, but but to your point, exactly. You know, the area of the country is beautiful. There is so much lacrosse in the area, uh, as far as college. And even, I mean, this is the first time in my career as a college coach that I can go scout a high school team on like a Tuesday night. Right, you know, yeah. The closest, the closest high school in Quincy was I think Troy or Wentzville in St. Louis, and it was just so hard to get to. You can't just go there and go back and make it convenient. But you know, the Tri-Cities area, Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City, they have lacrosse. Knoxville's not too far away. If I go in the other direction, the next closest city to us is uh Salem and Roanoke, which a lot of our guys are from. All right. Where are you?

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Well, that where that where Emory and Henry is seems to be kind of centrally located. You can get the kids from Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania to come. It's not that bad of a drive. It's not that bad. And then it and then the North Carolina, South Carolina kids can come off. Yeah, you know what? It's yeah, we've gotten far. It's kind of like centrally located for a lot of different areas for recruitment.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

Yeah. I think so. And it's it's just busy enough as a city, you know, that Bristol area, which is you know 10 exits down the highway. Uh it's just busy enough that, you know, these kids will feel like, all right, there's maybe something to do on the weekend in the fall. You know, they can get to VT in 30 minutes and go jump around to enter Sandman. You know, they can go to UT about an hour and 45 minutes away. Yeah. Yeah. There's stuff to do here. But it's nice enough, it's pretty enough that they can feel a little disassociated with the city, which is what works really well at uh Quincy. You know, those kids from a major city, maybe I want to relax a little. I think you get a I think you get a good sense of both here.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

Yeah, that's that's great. So let me ask you this. Let's kind of switch. What are your immediate goals and prior priorities for this first year?

SPEAKER_02 44:56

Goals and priorities for the first year. Um, we're going to we're gonna kind of give them some stats that we care about. Uh, you know, we're not gonna, we obviously we want to win, uh, everybody wants to win. You wouldn't be doing this if you didn't want to win. Uh, but with 18 freshmen and just, you know, going up against 23, 24-year-old guys, we're gonna look at some stats a little bit deeper in the metrics that showcase what a good game for us will or won't be. Um, you know, we learned that at the last university, what to kind of look for. And I don't want to call them moral victories, but hey, this is how we can prove your progress. And along the way, if that if proving your progress and hitting those metrics cause a win, awesome. Uh, but we want to do it in in those regards because you know, something that I think every level feels is it's it's great to win, but if you didn't do it right, it maybe it doesn't translate into future winning. And so we're gonna try to get them on the right track with just a couple stats that we focus on. Um, you know, you know, worried about clear percentages, worried about ride percentages, worried about um, you know, like for us, something that I've done forever is the hockey assists. You know, how many hockey assists did we get in a game, how many, how many, you know, transitions, slow breaks, stuff like that. You know, how many shots did our freshman goalie save from maybe inside 10 yards, as opposed to, you know, great, he had 16 saves, but 16 of them were for eight from 18 yards, you know. Yeah, not all saves are created equally. So we're gonna do those metrics and those stats and and kind of just try to do a little bit of advanced stats with them so they feel like they're progressing, or you know, seeing that they're not whatever have you, because you know, win wins and losses are great, but those come from you know, a systemic system that uh that builds it on top of each other. It's great to win, but if you didn't do it the way you wanted to, or maybe the way you think you can, was it worth it? You know, everybody wants to do that. That's an interesting tack.

SPEAKER_04 47:05

Uh that's very interesting. Yeah, it seems like to me, those are those metrics are the building blocks to success in wins versus losses, not your first year, but your second year and your third year.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

Absolutely. Because they're gonna come in this year knowing the learning it, learning it, knowing they're figuring out, and then next year it's an expected, right? And that's a big thing with with my coaching staff, because I did was able to bring my assistant with me. Um, and my assistant for uh the last two and a half years at Quincy. Um, that's our thing. What is an expected outcome and what is a hopeful outcome? And so we have, you know, our non-negotiables have expected outcomes. And maybe it's not a win or a loss. Maybe it's, well, we had six fast break goals off of nine opportunities, or you know, maybe we were down by one and had the tying goal as a fast break. Um, those things we're looking for, like, you know, important goals, so to speak. Right. We actually call that one important goals. Um, you know, it's great to have a fast break score in the fourth quarter when you were down by 10. But did you have a fast break in the third quarter when you were down by one? And how did you get it? And just we would just break it down in that way. Because once they start to understand those concepts, then by year two and year three, again, they're expected outcomes, and now we're expecting that of ourselves. And then it just builds upon ourselves because then we can advance them a little bit, right? You know, year one bar is here, year two, bar goes here, year three, higher. And so we can crank those as the season progresses, and then as the year progresses, and once we get it to those metrics, and then they're you know, they're off to the races.

SPEAKER_03 48:52

That's really interesting. I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_04 48:56

Yeah, that's fantastic, coach. And I'd just like to say it's great catching up to you in a new uniform, same gold, new blue. It was great to have you on the podcast again. And and to be honest, I think it's great for Emery and Henry that they able to get you pretty quickly and and help bring the program, you know, start it off, get it going, right? Those kids are chomping at the bit. Now they get to play, they get to practice, and you get to bring them into the first season. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 49:24

Oh, absolutely. We're very excited for it. We wouldn't have we wouldn't have done it if we weren't. I think Emory and Henry has a lot to offer, uh, you know, these athletes and prospective athletes. And it's just, you know, coming to the East Coast is a little bit of a different world, uh, but I'm starting to see why. And this school has been just, I mean, so attentive to us and what we need, and just the way they handled everything and the way they're starting to handle what we need as coaches, um, specifically as the lacrosse coaches, because there's things that we, you know, we've been D2 forever. Um, you know, going from D3 to D2, there's maybe a little bit of a different level of expectation that we were bringing in. And for them to be receptive of us and what we need and what we need to do to be successful is just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Well, coach, you sound phenomenal. You were a great guest tonight. It was awesome having you on. I wish nothing but uh all the best for you up at uh Emory and Henry. Welcome to the East Coast, welcome to the SAC, you know, and hey, we welcome Emory and Henry into Division II. It's it's great. The game just continues to grow, um leaps and bounds. And I I couldn't wish more luck to you than right now. I just wish you all the best. You were a great guest tonight. Thank you so much for taking the time tonight.

SPEAKER_02 50:48

Oh, it's great. Thank you for having me on.

SPEAKER_04 50:50

You two are the

Shout outs

SPEAKER_04 50:51

best. Danny, what do you think? I think it's pretty exciting to see two new programs again joining the D2 ranks and hearing from their coaches.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

Yeah, tonight was a good one. I mean, some two good coaches. They seem both enthusiastic about their programs. Um, Northwood up in Michigan, you know, it's gonna be, I bet you it's cold there tonight. Yeah. So give everybody Friedel a call. Coach Coach Friedel has been.

SPEAKER_04 51:17

I bet you he had his heater on his car going on.

SPEAKER_03 51:20

I I bet you he did. I bet you he did. Don't make fun of me, I'm not. My head came on too.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

It was on auto. I'm like, ah, it's warming up in here.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

You know what? But I think he's got a little bit of an uphill battle. He's out there in the Midwest. It's you know in the GMAC, yeah. Yeah, you know, he's gonna be a little bit of an uphill battle for him, but I think they have a good coach there. He sounds like a great guy, and I wish him nothing but the best.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

Well, and he's competing against a lot of schools in the GMAC that are fairly new as well. Tiffin, Thomas Moore, and Malone. True, true. So I think that's really interesting to see what what they can do and and and where that conference goes this year.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

It should be interesting for him and for Coach Ruffel. Emery and Henry sounds like an amazing new university there in Virginia, and uh great facilities. And it seems that there's money going into there and good facilities, and uh they're centrally located, like we spoke about on the on the uh podcast tonight. You know, they can get those kids from Jersey and Maryland and get those kids from North Carolina, South Carolina, the Knoxville, Tennessee's area, and and and that type of thing. So I think that that university has nowhere to go but up. Um, I think they're gonna they're gonna struggle because they're in the mighty sack. Uh, coach spoke about the gauntlet he had to go through. Uh, that's quite the gauntlet, man.

SPEAKER_04 52:41

I would not want to be any remember when Newbury Newberry had to do that, I think, two years ago when we talked to Coach Goddard, and they were in a better position than I think Emery and Henry will be there.

SPEAKER_03 52:52

That's right. And I tell you, I again, I wouldn't want to be any team and go through that three-game gauntlet. That's right, you know, topic. You want to spread those three teams out, yeah. And especially if one's on a Wednesday and then another one's on a Saturday, it's almost like doom. But you know what? Division two, Kevin, it continues to grow. I mean, every year we're adding more programs, and um, this game is just and our division in division two is just growing. I think it's a fantastic thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

And that gets to our shout-outs tonight, Danny. And I think you and I both agree we've got one shout-out tonight, and that's to we've got one shout-out and one ask. And shout out is to all our great listeners that have been with us, you know, and we hope to grow more. All those freshman parents and freshman players that are coming in. If you're a listener, here's our ask if you're a listener and you are have someone in D2, share it with the new D2 players and families. And if you're not in D or you don't even have anyone in D2, start sharing this as much as possible. Like, share, leave a comment.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

Yeah, like high school coaches. Hey, high school coach, coach, did you hear this podcast on Division II Lacrosse? Chances are it probably didn't, you know, or maybe he has. It's it's a possibility. I mean, we're getting out there a little bit on social media now. So if people like and share our podcast, it'll help us out, help division two out because you know, we're just positive about Division II lacrosse and uh keep the DMs coming in, keep the suggestions coming in. We love it. We love the banter and the back and forth with our listeners. We have a lot of really, you know, a lot, what I call good listeners that you know come every week and and and make comments and say stuff, and just it's good to see it. We just want to see that continue as we continue our podcast into the 2025 season.

SPEAKER_04 54:54

And with that, very well spoken words, Danny. That's a wrap. That's a wrap, yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Stop the presses. That is not a wrap, Danny.

Mike Brisbin

SPEAKER_04 55:13

Our crack research team failed us again. Yeah, there is one more coaching change we missed, and we were just lucky enough to catch it before we dropped this episode. The Tusculum Pioneers switched coaches mid-year last year, and we didn't catch it until now. Coach Mike Brisbane was named interim head coach in February, and then named the head coach just two short months later, and we totally missed it. So, why don't we just bring him in? Hear what that was like, and what he has the where he has the program headed now. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 55:52

Let's bring him on in.

SPEAKER_04 55:54

Hey coach, welcome. How you doing tonight? I'm doing great, great.

SPEAKER_03 55:57

Tusculan pioneers, what's going on, my man?

SPEAKER_04 56:01

How are you tonight? I'm doing great. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah, well, first, congrats, coach. That's awesome to see you. I and I have to ask you this what was it like to take over a program mid-season as the interim? Obviously, you've been there, you were the assistant, so you took over as the interim. So, what was that like? And then what's the transition like to go from interim to head?

SPEAKER_01 56:25

Uh, initially it was like drinking out of a fire hose. Um, and I I just stepped back and I I kind of filtered out, and my dry erase board that's next to me uh in my office got fully erased, and I just started writing everything down on it. Any any uh brain dump that I had, I I put on the board, and that those were all the things that that was my checklist, that was my working list of what we were gonna do. Uh, number one was to make sure I could do what I could to make sure the guys had the best rest of the season that we could. Um obviously, anytime that there's a coaching change mid-season, um it's gonna be a challenge. Um so, really for the seniors, we had 11 seniors last year trying to do whatever I could to make sure we could get something out of out of the year. Um, and then really like shift gears on to uh okay, how how do we set this program up for future success and how do we do it in the quickest way possible? And that dry erase board probably had 150 items on it and uh just cross them off one by one as as we did it. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 57:47

I I because we've talked to other coaches, and when you're the assistant, you're probably working X's O's and probably a few other things, but now you've got more meetings, you've got to make sure that everything's going right, right? The the buses are on time. You know, it just I can't imagine more hats to wear. Yeah. Yeah. So you just talked about it. You talked about setting up the Tusculum Pioneers for success in the future. And if you look at your roster, we were just talking about this off podcast, really young roster, but it seems like you still had a really good class coming in that you were able to get in. I mean, you have double-digit uh number of freshmen coming in. So talk about uh your your roster and what you're doing there.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

Yeah, so first first task was retention. Um what what do we want to keep? Uh how do we keep them? Obviously, how do we uh get them to re-engage right after all the chaos during the season? And we returned 18 guys from from last year's roster. Uh then then move forward. How do we how do we bring in the class so we can actually go and compete this year at some level? Um and you know, Ross, uh Patrick, who was my GA prior, uh, he he did a ton of recruiting, and he and I every day just finding video, sending text, sending emails, calling. Obviously, in season, you're not getting to that many recruiting events. Right. So we we worked as much as we could through the the different recruiting tools that are available to us, and we're we were able to bring in 16 guys, obviously recruited hard over the summer, uh, really primarily focused on getting 24. We had one uh apply on July 31st, and that that's we're working it right down to the to the final whistle before our guys started class. Uh so we were able to get 16 in in the fall. We've got another five coming in in the spring. Wow. So, you know, that that's it was fun. I I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the the challenge. Um we've got another big hurdle, right? Like we've got to bring another 20 or so guys in in the 25 class. The the difference is I've got a whole year just about to do it instead of uh three months, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:16

That that is amazing. I what so we've kind of seen it, right? There's been a little turnover in coaches, you talked about it in the university. How are the players responding that you were able to keep 18? What's keeping them there at Tusculum?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

I feel that the last two or three months where I was interim, and then obviously I was an assistant uh going back to November, uh, I I think the guys realized that if they wanted change as far as just the overall culture of what we were we were doing here, and they knew that that was going to happen. And when we did exit interviews uh going into the summer, you we had a slew of questions that we asked them. And one of the most important questions was do you want to be here? Do you want to be at Tusculum? And why? Um and the why was the important piece to me because I want guys that are not just lacrosse guys, but they want to be part of the community, they want to be part of everything that we're doing. Like I want guys that want to go to football games and support that and go support volleyball and everything else that we do here. And we had that. Um, not from everybody, and the those guys weren't part of the A team. Um, right, you know, that's a tough decision, but if you want to get where you got to go, it's sometimes tough decisions have to be made. Um, you know, and then with the incoming guys, for me personally, uh the the challenge was not to just interview the kid, but I by the second or third call, I always tried to rope the parents into that conversation and to see what the parents are looking for in the school. Um, you know, we've got two kids from Arizona. We've got a kid from Cali, we've got a bunch of international guys, New York. Like you're sending your kid a long ways away from you, and you're not used to that. So I wanted to make sure that we had their buy-in as well. Um, and I feel like we did a great job bringing in the right guys, and it's shown this fall. The the guys are having a lot of fun, um, a lot of work. We haven't had to do as much accountability level uh items, uh tasks as that I thought we would as a coaching staff, um, which is good. That that means we're we're moving the right direction.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:39

That's great. How are the the the freshmen and sophomore class bonding? You said they seem to have a lot of fun. I'm part of that building that team and that culture is the right bond, right? For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

So it's you can't tell really without knowing who is a freshman and a sophomore. That we're we're such a cohesive unit. Uh today, down in the cafeteria, there was about two tables, three tables of guys sitting together, and it was mixed sophomores, freshmen. Um and and they're not sitting with the roommate, like the roommate sitting at one table and the roommate sitting at another table. And when I look back at that, and some of the other stuff, we one of our freshmen over the summer had all the every time we announced somebody on Instagram and their signing, he was going out and Snapchat and adding them to a group that he created that we didn't even know about. And these incoming guys were already talking to each other and figuring out and all this. Uh it tells me we got the right guys, right? Um, and we we gotta build on that.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:42

Yeah. So obviously, young team kind of taking over the reins for your first full year. Yeah. What are your goals for this first year?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:56

So we we've got obviously some statistical goals, if I could talk, uh, for the year. And that's more each game. Um, some some minor things that we want to achieve. I'm not gonna share those, but um, but there's minor don't give away your secrets, coach. But really, for us, the the big piece is the buy-in from the guys. Um, like we're gonna face challenges this year. Like, we're not gonna go out and go undefeated and shock the sack and win it and be playing on you know championship weekend. And and the guys know that. Um, they've all got a list, they've looked at the the roster and the schedule that we've got going, and um, they've all thrown out numbers. And to me, the wins and losses this year are not really relatable to what we're trying to do. Um the measure of success is continued progress, uh, continued buy-in from what we're doing, and the coaching staff building on what we're doing now. Um, you know, you can't get far into the playbook if you don't build out the the skeleton of the playbook first. And we've done a good job of that. And like even now, we're we're gearing up for a scrimmage Saturday, and with us not being here for two weeks because of Hurricane Helene, it really put us behind in our planning. Um, so this week we're kind of cramming a little bit, but uh the guys have bought in and they're locked in, and it's it's pretty awesome to see that. So I don't know if I answered your question directly. Uh I kind of went all over with it. You you did, you did perfect.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:34

I think you hit hit the nail on the head. I did not know that you guys were that affected by Helene. So were you shut down for a couple weeks and two weeks, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

We we sent our guys home uh because of primarily so we we were fortunate. We didn't have the devastation a lot of the areas around us did. Yeah. Now we did five, ten minutes down the road, like bridges were washed out, houses floating down the river, like really, really bad stuff. Here we were impacted mostly because water there was an access to water. And obviously on the campus, you know, with 1500 students. Um, so a lot of this, a lot of guys were sent home, especially spring sports. Um, and then the fall sports, they were kind of shuffled between some schools in the area and whatnot, so they could finish what they could of their season. Um, and then we also delayed our our return because we didn't want to put a massive flux on the infrastructure here as everything was gearing back up. Um, so you know, we we kept our guys home for a little bit, and they were online obviously for classes, but right, right. Um so yeah, we we got back and right to the grindstone again.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

Wow, wow. So putting yourself so that's and we just talked, you just talked about it, coach. So, first of all, I want to say I'm glad you guys, your team is safe. The the school's uh kind of gone through it and you're you're getting back to normalcy. That's great to hear. But you talked about it, right? You talked about the conference you're in, the sack. Right. And I like your attitude, I like your goal setting, which is not it's not about really the wins and losses, it's about other things this next year. But what I first of all, what do you think about the conference? And then what do you think you need to get to that level to really be competitive?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

Yeah, so biased maybe, I don't know, but conference is the best conference in in D2. Um, I agree. Yeah, it it from the top to the bottom. Like um every team is is competing. Uh so for us to to get there's no there's no days off in this. No, there's not. There's not. It's a gauntlet, you know, March 1st when we play Catawba as our first conference game, we start our gauntlet. Not that the teams that we play before that are any easier, but right um, like that's our conference gauntlet starts March 1st for us. And it's so the approach, we've got two approaches. Our motto this year is stack wins, and it's not in the win-loss column. It's everyday, all those small wins. Uh, but we also don't lose sight of the losses. Um, you know, the goal is to have more wins in the day than the losses, and we talk through that. I ask them why they're doing you know their static stretches. I'll go around and I'll pick out five or six guys at random and just ask them like how many wins you got today? What was your biggest win of the day? What was your biggest loss? Um that's that culture that we're trying to build of like, hey, like we can have small wins within, and the more small wins we get, we'll get big wins. Um, and then as far as just attacking the conference, uh, we're using the the phrase one rung at a time. Like we can't, you know, your LR limestone wind gate is at the top of that ladder. Right. And you can't just jump to the top of the ladder. Like you've got to climb each rung. Right now, we're not on a rung, right? We haven't proven that we can win in our conference. Um don't quote me, but I believe by the time we get to Catawba, we're somewhere around 1100 days without a conference win. Um, so we haven't earned a right to discuss us moving up the ladder until we prove we can't. Um, so you know, we again we can't we can't put the cart before the horse and go out and be like, oh, we're gonna make the conference tournament this year. Like that's a goal. It's that'd be awesome. But uh one rung at a time and then show the consistency that we can maintain that, and then we build. And to your question about how we get there, um, you know, obviously the guys that we have here are crucial. Uh, they they are the foundation to the culture that we want to instill going forward. And then really the 25 class, in my opinion, is what rounds out us making that run. Um the next year when they come in as freshmen, we unless we get uh transfer, something we won't have any seniors. So the junior class, the not then sophomore in that freshman class is gonna, that's where we make our push. And that freshman class will actually have some guys to look up to and start learning from. And you know, I I believe on the last episode, somebody was talking about well, there's cultures that they didn't even know about. I think it was Lance talking about that. Um and right now there is no, there is none of that, right? Because we've where it's all new, everything is new that we're doing, so they'll have that. So the 25 class is gonna be really what propels us uh going forward, and then obviously feeling behind that and creating creating some excitement at Tuscan.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:38

All right, right. Hey, you know what? I always think I always said, you know, when freshmen and sophomores get on the field, they make better juniors than seniors. Yes, you know, they become they become sharp, they become, you know, good players, they learn the NCAA game. You know, these freshmen that get on the field for you this year, by the time they're seniors after going through four years in the sack, you're gonna have a good squad. Correct.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

You know, because you know, iron iron sharpens iron, man, you know, and you're in that stack.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:07

Again, there's no days off. It's a tough, I agree with you when you say it's the you know the best conference in division two. And you know what? When you're playing against the best, and the best, the you know, the better of the better, you're gonna get better as well. So I can I only see Tusculum getting better. I can't see it trending anyway else. I see it trending upward.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:28

I think you're building it the right way, coach. I think when you say get to the next rung, and that's part of like what you just said, when the class of 2025 comes in, and now they've got the class of uh 23 and 24 that, oh, by the way, now, as Danny said, have a lot of experience playing in the sack. They're gonna be able to bring those freshmen in and say, okay, this is what we need to do to get to the next rung. Not to the top of the rung, but to the next rung.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:53

Right. Yep. Look to eliminate mistakes, those little wins that you know you're talking about coaches, like maybe a little bit percentage better on the ride this year, or you know, a little bit better percentage on the you know, the turnover ratio this year. If you can, if you can bump those percentages up, those are wins. Those are wins.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:13

I'll give you a little insight to what I guess I was talking about earlier that I said I wasn't gonna talk about. Well, we've got some numbers uh as far as face-off and save percentage that if if we hit these, we're gonna be in games, right? Like that's yeah, that's that's where we need to be, and that's our goal. And they're not unrealistic, like it's not I'm not asking us to go be 60 uh at the off x and 60 in cage, and we're gonna go win games. Like if we do that, then you know we'll we'll be a number one team, but we're not ready for that. Like, we haven't proven to ourselves that we can win yet. So let's to your point, let's increase some of these percentage points and get better and get film and get that IQ and uh just be thrown to the fire and we'll we'll figure it out. And the biggest thing is the guys' expectations around it, like they know this year, like we're we're not gonna go win the sack, right? They they know that the expectation is to be better than we than we have been, uh, to do things better as a unit, to make less of some of the bonehead mistakes that that we've made and get better each day. The wins and losses column will take care of itself eventually. Um as you know, myself and my coaching staff are doing the things around to support it, the guys are with their buy, and we'll we'll get to where we want to go.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:31

Interesting. That's that's great, coach. I uh I'm really glad that we were able to figure this out and get you on. I would say we would fire our crack research team, but then no one would be running the podcast and be on the podcast because that's us. So I appreciate you coming on, coach. This has been great. It's been great to hear what you're doing down at Tusculum.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:53

Yeah, I appreciate you guys, and it's an honor to be on and share what we're doing and represent D2 lacrosse.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:59

Uh coach, you are a great guest tonight. We really appreciate you taking the time. And uh good luck to you and the pioneers this year. You know, uh, like I said, I think that I think it's trending upwards. It's only gonna go upwards. Really appreciate you taking the time. Coach Mike Brisbane, Tuscalum Pioneers. Thanks a lot.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:17

Thank you. And now, Danny, with that, that's a wrap. Now that's a wrap. Now we got it.