One tryout weekend remains for Cassese
10/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
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Lehigh head lacrosse coach Kevin Cassese traveled to Annapolis, Maryland during the weekend of October 16-18 to compete in the second of three tryout weekends as he looks to earn a spot on the 2010 U.S. National Men’s Lacrosse Team. Battling top level lacrosse players and a tough weather system, Cassese had a full weekend and upon his return he checked in with his thoughts on how everything went.
It was another outstanding weekend of lacrosse. As a group, we found out a lot about ourselves. There were many challenges that presented themselves over the course of the weekend. Some of which included the weather (a Nor-Easter descended upon Annapolis Friday through Sunday) and the fact that we would be facing outside competition for the first time. I believe that Coach Pressler put it best in our Friday night meeting. He said, "All we have done to date was play against the known. We've played against each other, the same guys we've been playing against for years. But now, we have the opportunity to play against the unknown. We've got outside competition, and we don't know their tendencies, their strengths, their weaknesses." Certainly a unique challenge for this group of 40 and one we were all looking forward to.
Saturday was a successful day in and of itself. We had a mid-afternoon practice in Navy Marine Corps Stadium that included several up tempo drills and some half field settled 6v6 offense vs. defense. For the last 45 minutes of practice, we mixed in with the Navy team for some 6v6 O vs. D on both ends of the field and some full field face off. As Coach Pressler said, it was great to get out there and line up against another team and another colored jersey. I was impressed with Navy's athleticism, especially at the defensive end and in the middle of the field. Our offense struggled to get going in the half field, which was partly because of our impatience and partly because Navy was very disciplined in their sliding schemes. It was a great tune-up for the Sunday scrimmages. Saturday night, we gathered back at Marine Corps Stadium for an alumni dinner in honor of the 1974 gold medal and 1978 silver medal team. It was a very classy event, highlighted by the impressive speech of Army coaching legend Jack Emmer. Coach Emmer is an outstanding coach and an even better man. I had the privilege of playing for Coach Emmer on the 2002 gold medal USA team that went to Australia. It was an experience I often reflect upon and draw from in my current playing and coaching life. Coach Emmer's speech was direct and deliberate. He made it clear that the 2010 version of the USA team would get back to gold medal status if and only if, every man on the roster truly respected their teammates, their coaches, and the game. He talked about leadership; He talked about camaraderie; and he talked about taking every opportunity to be "selfless." It was a terrific message for this group to hear and one that will continue to be echoed for the remainder of this tryout process.
Sunday was game day. Early wake-up grab a quick breakfast, and board the bus for the Naval Academy. The team was split into two groups - USA White and USA Blue. My squad was the USA White squad which was scheduled to face-off against Navy at 10 am and Maryland at 12:30. The Blue squad took on Maryland at 10 am and Virginia at 3 pm. In our first game vs. Navy, our USA squad set a nice tempo early in the game. We came out firing on all cylinders and were able to take control of the game early. A cool side plot in this game was former Mid goaltender Mickey Jarboe squaring off against his former mates. He was impressive, to say the least. Our second opponent, the Terps of College Park, featured one of the best attack units in the country (even without Team USA original tryout participant big Will Yeatman in uniform, who was out due to injury). The Terps came out firing and caught us on our heels a little bit in the first quarter. I believe we found ourselves either trailing by one or all tied up after the first quarter, which was good for us, as it gave us the opportunity to respond to some adversity for the first time as a group. Our response was impressive as we stormed back in the second half behind an outstanding performance at the face-off square, stalwart defense, and some deliberate and purposeful offense. All in all, it was another tremendous weekend of high level lacrosse. We are inching closer to the final announcement of the 23 man roster. One weekend remains on the campus of Stony Brook University during Halloween weekend. We have one final practice and one final intra squad scrimmage for all the marbles. This should be one heck of a game....as competitive as it gets. If you are in the area next Saturday, I highly recommend you come on over to Lavalle Stadium. It should be a fun one!
