Instructional Video of the Week: Shoot off Defenders Hip

Midfield tips from Pete Poillon. Using a defender to hide the stick on a shot. Good dodging tips as well.

Instructional Video of the Week: Overhand Shooting with Chris Bocklet

Potential Big Step for Northern Minnesota Lacrosse

Duluth School Board considers adding lacrosse as club sport

The Duluth Chargers and Nighthawks boys and girls lacrosse players who attend Denfeld and East high schools may be able to earn varsity letters this year if the Duluth School Board approves it next month. By: Jana Hollingsworth, Duluth News Tribune

The Duluth Chargers and Nighthawks boys and girls lacrosse players who attend Denfeld and East high schools may be able to earn varsity letters this year if the Duluth School Board approves it next month.

Duluth Chargers youth player in action

Board members for the Chargers program spoke to the School Board on Tuesday asking for lettering approval for the local club teams and building interest for eventual varsity status within the school district.  Andy Holak touted the fast-growing nature of the sport, noting growth of the boys team from 100 students last year to 142 this year.  Students within the program include those from Hermantown, Cloquet, Superior and Marshall, but the majority of players come from Duluth schools.

“Lacrosse attracts that nontraditional student that might not participate in a team sport otherwise,” Holak said.

The most growth is coming from younger kids, he said.

Board members said they supported the effort but were concerned about adequate funding for another varsity sport.

“That’s the difficulty here,” Chairman Tom Kasper said. “We support this if funding can come into place.”

Member Mike Miernicki said planning needed to involve Title IX logistics, ensuring there are equal numbers and expenses for boys and girls, and getting southerly teams to come play in Duluth.

The hope, said youth lacrosse coach Pat O’Connell, is to have lacrosse sponsored and funded by the Duluth district in 2016. Players from other schools would remain as a club team. The 12-year-old club has wanted to build a varsity program for years, he said. If it achieved that status in Duluth schools, it would probably play against schools already in the Minnesota State High School League such as St. Cloud Tech, White Bear Lake and Roseville.

Mikey Powell's Tips on Dodging

#22 Mikey Powell

By Craig Haley

The hardest player for a lacrosse defenseman to stop is the one coming straight at him full speed.

Imagine when that player is Mikey Powell, the legendary attackman/midfielder.

Defensemen often face this predicament against the Major League Lacrosse All-Star because he is so skilled at lacrosse dodges, which get him free to take shots or make passes.

“My job on every lacrosse team that I’ve ever been on has been to be the main dodger,” Powell says. “An offense can’t be successful unless one of the guys knows how to dodge.”

What makes Mikey Powell so outstanding at dodges is his ability to make every one look the same, including the split dodge, face dodge and roll dodge. A defenseman usually is left to pick his poison and Powell has left many in his wake throughout his career. A four-time first-team All-American at Syracuse, he has filled the nets for the Boston Cannons in MLL.

Powell’s lacrosse tips for dodges is to use explosive speed on the approach to a defensemen and to make the dodge happen at what he calls the “break point.” This is the spot in front of the defenseman where his lacrosse stick would end if he held it out in front of himself.  This timing is critical. The defenseman will be able to drop step if the dodge is performed too far away and he can check with his stick if the dodge is done too closely.

Powell’s favorite move is the split dodge. With this move, the offensive player will fake in one direction, hoping to bait the defenseman into overcommitting that way. The offensive player will hold his lacrosse stick up by his head – to protect the ball from a check – plant with his outside foot, then step with his inside foot and head in the opposite direction while bringing the lacrosse stick across his body and switching his hands on the stick. He could have a shot as he gets past the defenseman.

“A lot of players will do stutter steps and things like that,” Powell says.  “I like to just be real crisp with it.”

#0 Mikey Powell with the Boston Cannons of the MLL

A face dodge looks like a shot at the start and is similar to the split dodge. Unlike the split dodge, though, the offensive player doesn’t switch the stick in his hands. He will swing the stick across his face and tuck it against his shoulder to prevent the defenseman from going for the head of the stick.

“Once I get by him, obviously I have him beat,” Powell says. “This is gonna be tough for him to get back in the play, so I’m gonna finish it.”

No lacrosse dodge protects the stick (and ball) better than the roll dodge. Mikey Powell likes to make this move from behind the goal to set up teammates.

With the roll dodge, the offensive player will fake the defenseman into committing one way, plant his inside foot and then spin around and away from his opponent. It’s important for the dodger to protect his lacrosse stick on the spin and not expose the ball to the defenseman.

“The whole time, my stick is always out in front of me,” Powell says. “I always have a visual on my stick, I’m always looking at it and I know the ball is always in there.”

The Grow Lacrosse Experiment in Minnesota

Like Kevin Flynn, I like maps too.  And, I like Kevin Flynn's idea for growing the game in more remote areas.  Let's take a look at Flynn's idea and see how we can apply it to Minnesota.

Outside the Twin Cities Metro area, where 85% or about 71 of our total of 84 boys teams in the state reside, Minnesota is a big state as well.  With a total of 84 boys lacrosse teams in the State of Minnesota, you could say we're doing pretty darn good here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  In fact, of states with lacrosse west of the Mississippi River, only California with 245 teams (Texas has 82 and Colorado has 66 school sanctioned teams) has more lacrosse programs than Minnesota.  But, with some relatively large cities and towns in Minnesota with almost no idea what lacrosse is, much less programs there, we can always do better.

Let's take a quick look at what Kevin Flynn is proposing to do for lacrosse in the Big Sky country of Montana.  Despite the spread out nature of cities and towns in Montana, Flynn believes if Montana can make football work for these spread out communities, lacrosse will work too.  He sees lacrosse fields everywhere.

By the end of this year, Flynn is planning to arrange and host lacrosse clinics at 50 high schools across Montana.  He'll bring a few well known friends along, teach whoever shows up and hopefully leave one or two people in each community with the inspiration to start their own team.  He'll have a team of game growers from across the state to help and enlist the support of the larger lacrosse community.  He'll bring in some big names, give away some cool stuff and bring the infrastructure to communities so they can get started.  With passion like this, I think he can get it done.

So, now let's take a look at Minnesota.  Where can we most likely grow the game here in Minnesota where it isn't already being played?  Let's first break it down into large (population 10,000+), medium (6,000 - 10,000) and small towns (less than 6,000) where we might be most likely to grow the game of lacrosse in Minnesota.  Let's also break it down into cities North of the Twin Cities and those South (using Highway 12 as the dividing line).

North:

Large Communities (7):  Hibbing/Chisholm, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Cloquet/Esko, Alexandria, North Branch, Virginia/Eveleth (Iron Range)

Medium Communities (8):  Thief River Falls, Detroit Lakes, Little Falls, Crookston, Litchfield, International Falls, Morris, Montevideo

Small Communities (10):  Wadena, Two Harbors (North Shore), Cook County, Ely, Hinckley, Mora, Cambridge, Princeton, Baudette, Walker

South:

Large Communities (11):  Winona, Austin, Faribault, Willmar, Albert Lea, Red Wing, Marshall, New Ulm, Worthington, St. Peter

Medium Communities (5):  Waseca, New Prague, Stewartville, Kasson, Glencoe

Small Communities (5):  Redwood Falls, Cannon Falls, LaCrescent, Pipestone, Fairmont

Some of these communities may combine with other communities to form lacrosse associations and collaborate.  However, especially in the larger communities shown above, these are likely communities with enough youth to support a thriving lacrosse community with the right motivation.  Just focusing on the large communities and a couple medium sized communities in the North and the large communities in the South would be a great place to start.  Pick 25 total in the state and start there.  Hibbing/Chisholm, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, Cloquet/Esko, Alexandria, North Branch, Virginia/Eveleth (Iron Range), Thief River Falls, International Falls, Crookston, Morris, Detroit Lakes, Cambridge, and Princeton in the North and Winona, Austin, Faribault, Willmar, Albert Lea, Red Wing, Marshall, New Ulm, Worthington, and St. Peter in the South.  This would spread the game much further than its current boundaries.  Minnesota Native American communities are also growing the game and are locations that we can look to spread the game of lacrosse across the state.

The hope is that, like wildfire, once it catches on in one community it continues to spread until the entire state is populated with youth and high school lacrosse programs.  Just like the effort going on in Montana, we CAN make this happen here.

The Minnesota lacrosse community is a thriving one.  If any state can make this happen, we can.  With organizations like Homegrown Lacrosse which works to grow the game in Minnesota and provide lacrosse opportunities and the Minnesota Boys Scholastic Lacrosse Association (MBSLA) which helps communities get started with club lacrosse programs before moving up to the state high school league, Minnesota has leaders that can make this happen.  The Minnesota Swarm have also been active in growing the game of lacrosse in Minnesota particularly in the Native Communities.

Let's all say we've got it pretty good here, but we can make it even better.  Here's to growing lacrosse in the Land of 10,000 Lakes!

The Grow Lacrosse Experiment in...Montana?!?

Big Sky, Big State

Lacrosse is growing tremendously all over the country and Montana is no different.  However, Montana is a HUGE state with towns spread far and wide and no large metropolitan areas (think Twin Cities).  This fact complicates things for the growth of the game there.  So, what does this have to do with Minnesota?  Actually, a lot!

In Montana, a tireless promoter of the sport is embarking on an experiment to Grow the Game there and bring it to as many towns as possible by 2015.  Please go read his plan at Montana.laxallstars.com and then come back to this article.   Kevin Flynn's idea is bold, grand, tireless and audacious, and that's why I like it so much!

The reality is, outside of the Twin Cities metro area, where 85% of our state's lacrosse teams are, Minnesota is much like Montana.  There are only 13 teams (which includes 3 from Rochester and two from St. Cloud) outside the Metro area of the Twin Cities, and very few of these teams are located in smaller towns.

Lacrosse in the tiny town of Pablo, Montana

Of states with the most growth in lacrosse West of the Mississippi River, Minnesota is the most "Metro-Centric" of them all.  Look at Colorado with their Mountain Conference and teams in small towns like Aspen, Frisco, Steamboat Springs, Durango, Glenwood Springs, and Eagle to name a few.  Or Oregon, with teams ALL over the state - and they're all club programs!  With teams in smaller towns outside metro areas and spread from one corner to the other in small towns like Sisters and Redmond and from Hood River to Salem to Bend to Eugene to Roseburg, Oregon really is a model for spreading the game throughout an entire state to small towns and large.  Washington and Utah are also good examples of states with lacrosse programs spread out across the state in small towns and large.  Even Idaho with only 19 teams in the state manages to spread their teams out to smaller communities from north to south like Cour d' Alene, Sandpoint, Moscow and Wood River.

Could Minnesota do better?  Yes, I think we could do a better job spreading the game to smaller towns and cities in out-state areas in the North and South.  How could we do that?  Let's take a closer look at Kevin Flynn's plan for Montana tomorrow and how that might be done in Minnesota.