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DOWN THE ALLEY is a weekly podcast focused on Minnesota Lacrosse that is aimed to provide coverage of the MSHSL High School season and exposure for MN’s top lacrosse athletes. You can support our team by subscribing to our channel and following us on social media!
For opportunities to get on the field with us: www.36Lacrosse.com
36 Lacrosse Store: https://team36.secondslide.io/
For the coaching software check out; www.LacrosseLab.com/DOWNTHEALLEY and use the coupon Code "DOWNTHEALLEY"
That will save the coupon in their browser cache until the proceed to the buy screen. The coupon is for 10% off your first 3 months of use.
For all the Down The Alley content go to our website; DownTheAlleyPod.com
www.oldsouthernbbq.com; ODTA15 - gets the guest 15% off anything on the site
For Team and Corporate Apparel: https://www.36threads.com
Team36: https://36lacrosse.com/teams/
Lacrosse Training: https://36lacrosse.com/sdp/
And welcome to down the alley. This is P Mac and Ted T S Brady's, and Another week here, another special interview, and I messaged back and forth with this guy. I'm not sure when this episode is going to drop. This is breaking. This is breaking news. You know, as of right now, as of November I just had the Instagram up. I lost it. So, as of you know, mid, you know, mid, early November, breaking news out of Rochester mail really unique opportunity for coach Gibson. You know we're gonna let him talk about it, but I I'm not seeing the film. Oh, he is on. I'd like to welcome Current but now becoming former head coach of the Rochester mail Boys lacrosse program, adam Gibson. Welcome to down the alley. How we doing nice to be back. Yeah, welcome back. You know, lucky you. You know we don't have too many people that have come on two times.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, nice, well, I thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I appreciate that it's a short list to short list and you know, with the news, you know that we're gonna be breaking here. I think it's well deserved. You know, just I, you know from my point of view. You know I was ripping through, you know, instagram on a random morning and and Obviously, the Rochester mail boys lacrosse post comes up and I'm like whoa, this is, this is kind of interesting, this is kind of weird, a little left field and I'm like wait, rochester. I know this guy like what's what's going on. So I'm gonna let you kind of break the news. You know what's what's going on. What's the big move? You know what's what's happening. What do you? What's your move here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So everything kind of started on Reddit. There's a lacrosse subreddit and there was this program and I actually want to kind of plug this too, because it's kind of a cool thing called team Glees Glees it's an opportunity for Americans who graduated college may be used of all their NCAA eligibility in many sports, lacrosse being one of them, and you can sort of become an exchange student and get a master's degree in England and also play for their lacrosse teams. So that was sort of where all the conversation started was on this reddit thread, and then another person commented like hey, you know Germany likes to. You know, try to hire coaches for a lot of their club teams. They've had a lot of Americans do it over the past.
Speaker 2:So I just started messaging with that guy. It's like hey, can you give you a little more information on this with? You know love to do this? And Connected me with a website for the Deutsch lacrosse league, deutsches German for German or Germany, and so there's kind of going through all the different pages. I'm a big foosball or soccer fan. I'm, dortmund being one of my favorite clubs. They got a lot of Americans that have played there over the years and the Dortmund lacrosse club was trying to hire a coach. So I figured you know what the heck? I'll just send him a note. You know took German in high school, you know just, you know single, no kids Just wanted to kind of, you know, change things up a little bit and experience another. You know, culture, continent, you know, and all of that. And just started talking with them and, you know, was offered a contract to Come over to Dortmund and run their club lacrosse program for a Dortmund unreal, unreal.
Speaker 1:Obviously. Going to dive into some of the the details, I have a few questions. Obviously, you know, in terms of culture, german Sounds like you took a German. You know class, are you? Do you have like a German descent? You know what, what? Any connections Other than you know, maybe your class that you took?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. My great-grandfather on my mom's side was born in Germany, immigrated to America, met my great-grandmother In Minnesota. So he's from the Hanover area, kind of up near Hamburg. He's from a small little hamlet but yeah, so that whole side of my family, actually even my mom's dad, was from you know his family goes back to Germany and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:So just always kind of had a fascination with that. I kind of always said during high school and college that you know, if I had a bucket list of Countries I wanted to visit, that you know Germany was probably on the top of the list. You know, like I mentioned, I really love soccer. You know the Bundesliga has some of the best soccer out there and yeah. So just kind of things lined up and I'm taking some online German classes now to kind of brush up and do things. Got babble on my phone To kind of get everything rolling. But you know, luckily all the players speak English, so that portion of things won't be difficult. But but yeah, you know to to work or or live there and everything I'll have to pass, you know, like a you know a German competency test for for the language and different things like that. But yeah, so that's kind of where when that came from and why I'm maybe kind of trying to pursue this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely want to dive into, you know, the league and different things that you're gonna be coaching in. But one thing I noticed it looks like maybe you're gonna be coaching men's and women's, maybe some different ages, you know what. What are some of the specifics in that regard? Yeah, absolutely great questions.
Speaker 2:So sports in Germany and for sure in Germany and Europe, are a bit different than in America. There isn't sort of like a like an independent. You know Rochester youth lacrosse or a Rochester youth hockey or a Dortmund youth hockey. You know they play, you know other other cities and stuff in that regard. What they do is Sort of like an athletic club, maybe similar to like a big LA fitness or lifetime fitness. Or down in Rochester we have this place called the Rochester athletic club giant facility. Tons of you know sports, tennis, basketball, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:In Europe specifically I know for sure Germany, but I think most of Europe sports are played through these clubs. You don't have a high school team, you don't have usually you don't have a college team and all of that sort of stuff. So these opportunities are played through these clubs. So the club I will be working for is Tia's C Eintracht. They've been around since like 1860, something, so super long. You know organization. They do everything from fencing, lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey, basketball I was seeing you know they put on dance organizations and classes and gymnastics and all these different things are all sort of put on through this club. So it's a pretty big organization and so that is sort of how the organizational part of it works. So you'll play other clubs in the area, so there's a club from Frankfurt, There'll be a club from Cologne or Cologne Different places in the area and then the main sort of I think from what I've seen in red exercise that a lot of people in in Germany specifically do is sort of these organized sort of group or team sports or activities, even post high school, post university, all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So this is a big thing over there it's going to be adults, there's kids, you know different teams, different levels, different genders, all of that stuff. So rules are a lot different. So I've kind of had to learn on the fly. I've been watching film that they've been sending me, breaking down notes, sending them tips, things that I see on both the boys and girls side. So yeah, one thing in your You're starting to get, you know, dive into it.
Speaker 1:Maybe you know what. What is the history of lacrosse in Germany? Is it? Is it big? Is it new? Has it been there forever? You know what? What? What is the state of the game in Germany? Yeah, I'd say there may be 10 to 20 years behind Minnesota. So I think it's a great thing to be able to do.
Speaker 2:That I'd say there may be 10 to 20 years behind Minnesota. So in the, I think, late 80s, early 90s, box the Cross became really big. In the Czech Republic, specifically in Prague, they have probably the best Box the Cross team outside of the continental US, you know, being candidate probably number one, the Haudenosaunee number two, america number three. The Czech Republic plays a lot of Box the Cross and so that has sort of spread throughout the rest of Europe and specifically the club in Dortmund, I believe 20. 14 or 13 was the first year that they had field lacrosse and they joined the Bundesliga. So just like the, the soccer league there in Germany it's also called the Bundesliga and they have four regions in. That will be in the Bundesliga West. I think we have seven or eight teams in that and the really cool thing there that they also do is soccer or foosball. There's relegation, so we're in the A division on both the men's and women's teams and the highest league level. If we are the bottom table at the end of the season we get relegated down into the second Bundesliga league. So a lot of kind of differences there. You know, a little bit of pressure per se. They've never been relegated, from what I've seen, looking at everything.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the cross in Germany, I think you know late 90s, has started to pick up. Early 2000s it was really big and in some of the bigger cities you know your Berlin's and different things like that I think box early on was sort of the biggest thing. But then you kind of seen in America too, the last 20 years field kind of taking over, getting more and more prevalent. As you see, the team USA is going back to, however, long ago when Rable started or the gates were playing internationally for Canada. That was sort of when lacrosse got picked up internationally and that's sort of the same track. I guess that they've done over there. It just has been a little bit slower. But yeah, I mean late 80s, early 90s, lacrosse was in Europe. You know this particular club I'm with late 2010s, mid 2010s. I think that's kind of on par with most of Germany, I think. Again, I think the further east you go, closer to the Czech Republics of the world and that area, I think they've played lacrosse longer, just not as familiar with that per se.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, no, super, super interesting.
Speaker 3:Oh, go ahead, ted, sorry so is this club that obviously you said you're gonna coach a lot of different ages but, is this specific club that's gonna travel and play in this league with the relegation and promotion, all that? Is this like a like college-aged men's program or like what's that group that? Maybe that main team? Yeah?
Speaker 2:it could be some college kids. For the most part the the men's and women's teams are gonna be post collegiate. So I like one of our players that I know plays for the German national team on the men's side, timo Sander. Me and him have been talking a lot. He came to San Diego this last summer, represented Germany in the world championships, unfortunately broke his wrist, didn't get to play.
Speaker 2:But the men's and women's side will be mostly post collegiate, maybe a couple collegiate age, and then they have a 16 and under boys and girls, and then at the men's and women's level we have both an A and a B. The A team is just made up of Dortmund folks. The B team is like Dortmund and a couple of the other smaller cities around it, kind of you know, it's really a newer team, the B team. So there's a lot of new players, first-time players. So it's a good way for them to kind of get the experience, get the game time in. You know you almost kind of look at it like a, like a JV varsity, right. You know that would kind of be sort of my comparison here or you know different things like that. So yeah, that's gonna be kind of the age for that.
Speaker 2:And then, like I said, the youth is 16 and under. So interesting there, right, you could have a 10 year old guarding a 15 year old I mean in theory. So that's kind of a little bit different there. There's just not quite the the numbers in this particular club at the youth level. I know a little bit further south of Dortmund, frankfurt, I think they have close to like 200 people and in their boys, girls and men's and women's program. So we're a little bit smaller than them at this point. But those bigger cities tend to get the the more Americans and, and you know, more coaches in their first and then they kind of make their way into Dortmund or you know the other places.
Speaker 1:Maybe you were starting to answer this, and I'm also interested on the imports situation because you're saying you know, maybe other other clubs get more Americans. You know is maybe your club or clubs in general, are they getting players from the nearby, like a certain area, or you know, a couple of different cities or region, or you know what is your? What is the recruiting piece gonna, you know, look like for for your club?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean for the most part it's gonna be in this league. I think very few like Americans, but more so like Americans coaching. Or you know people that played the cross, maybe in America or England coaching and things like that. You know they do a lot of the same things that you know we do in America to recruit in this in the sense of, like youth lacrosse, you know putting on free clinics, you know having stick programs where kids can come in and try it out and do all these things. So there's a recruitment you know.
Speaker 2:More internal, I think for the most part in in the league that I'm in and what I'm aware of, there are less imports.
Speaker 2:There's the and I've alluded to this, I mentioned to it earlier.
Speaker 2:There's the Czech Republic has the probably the biggest lacrosse league outside of America, the NBLL, and they have a lot of Americans and most of them, I think what I've seen are East Coast types of kids. So the kid I mentioned earlier, timo Sander, he played for part of Bucci or part of BJ in the Czech box league and they had a kid who was doing a study abroad from like a D3 school in New Jersey and he was just absolutely lighting everybody up. I mean it was incredible how much better his skill had been, as you know, at 19-20 year old. But for the most part it's gonna be, you know, citizens of the area. I mean I think you can sprinkle in a few Americans, but there's a lot of rules just in Germany in general, including in this lacrosse realm and space, so there are rules on where you live, who you can play for, who your elves will to be a part of, and different things like that. So I think that has a big part of it as well.
Speaker 3:Sounds like the MSHS all runs it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, I mean luckily we. So their season is kind of interesting in the sense that they have games in the fall. So they've already started their 2023-2024 season. They'll play, I think, four or five games in the fall. They kind of take a break around what would be like our Thanksgiving. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving and then after the new year they kind of kick things off.
Speaker 2:A lot of that, I think, has to do too with like weather and snow. Like all these fields are outside. You know there is some snow there. It is gonna get cold not as bad as it is, you know, here in Minnesota but and then in late February, early March, the second half of the season kicks off. If your team qualifies for the playoffs, you make the playoffs and that's usually held at a neutral site in one of the clubs in Germany and that usually season ends like late June and then you pick back up again in September.
Speaker 2:So that's a little bit of a different time frame, but you know there's gonna be the same MSHS rules in the sense of you know like I can't do this and that during these times like it there's it's pretty much as long as you can get people to show up. I think that's the biggest thing for them is, you know it's not gonna be as serious per se, is like a high school team here or a college team. You know we're gonna have, you know, people that are working, they have families, you know they do all of that stuff. So and I've been kind of told that you know, hey, you know, do what you can with people that show up. That is gonna be something that you'll have to fight against. But you know the guys that are showing up, or the girls that are showing up, you know, that want to play for the national team or do all these different things, you know should be there every time, but it will be a lot different, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was my big question. You know you're getting you know some post-grad, you know age players. You know is this, you know, once you get to that top team, is it a pay-to-play or are they getting paid? Do they have day jobs? You know what's a. You might not know, you know and it might be player-to-player. You know, with the new age, even in college, the NIL deals and things. I don't know how that translates to Germany lacrosse, but you know what's maybe a day in the life of a young, you know post-grad player. You know, in this league.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, good question. So the practices with the teams that I'll be doing are Monday nights, wednesday nights and they've started to do a Friday nights now. So you know most of the people you're going to wake up, go to their 9-5, whatever that looks like, you know it could be a doctor, it could be a banker, it could be a checker at Aldi, it could be a stalker at a warehouse. You know all these different types of just jobs. You know they're just kind of normal people. They do pay a membership to be part of the gym or like the club itself, and then you elect to join a different team or sport and then you do pay as a part of that to participate and then so they're not a pro by any means or anything like that. So don't, you know, want to make that impression or anything? But you know a lot of them have aspirations to play on you know the national league or, you know, do different things like that.
Speaker 2:So there are people who take it a lot more serious, you know, are working out a lot more, are working for extra time on the field. You know they're playing box in off season and different things like that. So, yeah, that's kind of the makeup. You know you're going to. You're going to go home after the end of the day, you know, maybe eat dinner, come to practice, we'll do our practice. They have film nights. They just did one the other night. I kind of annotated a whole game for them. They watched it all with the team and and yeah, so you know they're doing a lot of the same stuff you know our high school kids are doing. You know they're going to school for eight hours a day or whatever, going right over to practice, going home, you know, hanging out with their family doing homework, whatever that looks like working out, hitting the wall hopefully hitting the wall and going from there, so it's just like the PLO of today.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I mean you could say that, yeah, they have your nine to five and you go play on the weekends. All the games are only on the weekends. So yeah, I mean that's. Yeah, it's probably a good, you know, comparison, except for the they're not getting paid part, but everything is accurate.
Speaker 1:No, no, you know we're making, we're making jokes. You know PLO, mshs, you know whatever, but no, no, no, no. This is really. This is really cool. This is really enlightening. You know, I've had, I've had conversations with people about, you know, box and senior men's. You know there's there's senior kind of, there's a senior league in Canada. You know it's starting to, you know, maybe gain some traction here in Minnesota. You know it sounds like this is what it is in Germany. You know this is, this is cool.
Speaker 1:You know what I guess what was. Was there a couple of different things? You know, obviously, you know being a full-time coach and you know being able to do this and go to a different country and experience. But you know, was there a couple of specific draws to be like I'm doing this? You know, because obviously, you know, one doesn't just wake up and say I'm going to go to a different country and take a, take a job and and whatever, and even if you're not married and don't have kids, you know it's still, it's still a step. So you know what were, what were a couple of few things that you're like okay, like this is sick. You know I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, great question. So I think for me the the the first part was just kind of like getting a new environment. Not that I was like unhappy here for any any saying or any means, but sometimes it's just nice to kind of change things up. And, like I said, I had some, you know, family lineage that goes to Germany even not that far back, just a few generations, so always thought it'd be cool. I've never left the continent actually, so like been to Canada, mexico and America and that's about it, so just thought this would be kind of a cool opportunity. You know, coming worked out pretty well for the most part. You know I I, you know, can work my job through the end of the year, do all that stuff, move over there and all of that. But yeah, I think the biggest thing was just trying to challenge myself, do something new. You know I don't want to call myself a program builder by any means, but we've we've done a lot of good stuff the last six, seven years at Mayo and really hoping to maybe bring some of that same, you know, knowledge, experience to this club. They've never won like the championship or anything like that in the Bundesliga, so I think that's a big part of it. And then just kind of as well, there's, you know, if you look at calendar next year, there's tons of massive sporting events. A huge sport fan, obviously, you know, I've talked about that already, but the Olympics are in Paris. That's just not that long way off of a plane ride or, you know, a day on a train. The Euros, which is the competition of the greatest football countries in Europe, off play each other. It's being held in Germany. I've already applied for tickets at the game being hosted in German in Dortmund, and if Germany wins their group, the tickets that I applied for through the lottery would be the German national team. So like hosting that in Dortmund, like all of these things would be really cool. So that all was a big part of it as well.
Speaker 2:And then I think to just you know again, like I don't have a family, you know in terms of wife, kid, all that stuff. You know, I figure you know why not? Now let's just give it a shot, try it out. I've always wanted to try to, you know, learn another language a lot more, become fluent at some point, challenge myself and just kind of explore too right, because you know, if you don't know. You know, in Germany, I believe, it's like 21 or 24 mandated vacation days a year, and that's work days. Most companies give you 30. So that's six work weeks off a year that you get paid, and so there's lots of opportunity to just, you know, hop on a train and go to France, you know, go to, you know, all these different countries, belgium, in the area, england, do do all these things. I figured, you know, just give it a shot, do it now. There's never going to be a perfect time, but I figured, you know, why not now? So that's kind of the way I looked at it and yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:So one of my best friends from college did this exact same thing. I read. I just texted him to see where exactly he did his. It was in Germany, but it sounds like there's multiple clubs in Germany.
Speaker 2:So tons yeah.
Speaker 3:And but he, he same thing where someone said, hey, we need a coach, and he maybe was probably around your age, maybe a little younger. This was a while ago, but he still talks about it as like one of the best experiences of his life and a funny story, I guess, just to prep you, I guess they they're Germany's notorious for like speed traps, oh yep, like they set them up to try to get like if you're speeding, you know they don't have speed limits and all that kind of stuff on the freeways, but they they call, they call them Blitzers or, and so he always used to say octoon Blitz, which means like watch out, there's a speed trap up there. Like he didn't know what they were saying to him. So he's just driving and he's getting pulled over and getting these tickets and they took him a while to like they didn't. You know, he didn't, like he knew the language, but not like you know.
Speaker 3:Again, you're trying to. There's probably like a lot of slang and this, I guess is like a slang term, but no, he he still talks about it said it was a great experience and, like you said, you know, it was kind of like mixed skill levels, mixed ages, but it kind of felt more like like that true purist of, like the love of the game kind of thing, You're trying to build something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can win a championship, but it's like you know, maybe some of the I don't know the downsides of high pressure trying to win all the time will cross Like. This is more of like the beautiful game, right. So he still talks about his. It's exciting opportunity and super cool that you're doing it. I think it'll be a really great experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think a lot of that too. Like you said, you know just the love of it. I mean, these are people that you know could do anything with their free time. And to pick a sport that has only been in their area for, you know, less than 10 years, there's not even a word in German for lacrosse, it's just lacrosse. Like that's how new it all is and everything. So to have that, you know passion and fire, and to see, you know the men and women that both want to compete at the national level, as well as just the person who wants to come out and maybe get some exercise on the weekends, right, like that's, that's what we're going to have on these teams and everything. So it'll be really interesting to juggle all of that. But yeah, I'm really excited. And the speed traps thing I don't think cops pull people over, they just have cameras everywhere and then they just find you if you speed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I looked it up. You're right, they're like a little.
Speaker 2:yeah, they're just like cameras and you just like find in the mail or something yeah exactly, yeah, and so luckily I probably well, not probably I won't have a car, so I'll just use public transportation. It's infinitely better there. That's another big thing I'm going to save, you know, on a car payment, insurance for my car, gas maintenance, and I can pay 49 euro a month to ride unlimited trains and buses within my city and get pretty much anywhere I need to within a few, you know, 10, 15 minutes at most. And in Dortmund is like the sixth or seventh biggest city in Germany, like there's 650 something thousand in just the city itself, and then, kind of like your Minneapolis St Paul, there's millions in the area surrounding it. So you know, there's a lot of cool stuff, lots to do.
Speaker 2:And and that's the other thing, like as a 30 year old single male in Rochester, minnesota, you think that, oh, there are nurses everywhere, there's doctors everywhere. They're already wifed up or husband up, they live in the cities and they rent a Airbnb for three days to come, work their three twelves in a row and then they go back to the cities. Or, if you're not in the male bubble the male clinic, not the male high school if you're not in the male clinic bubble, it's hard to meet those types of people. So there's literally no light nightlife here. Like we were talking to some of our coworkers like what am I going to do, like, on a date if I meet somebody in Rochester? I'm like the options like go to a movie or eat dinner somewhere, that's, that's it. So those are all things that kind of went into it.
Speaker 2:And you know this is something that I started talking to them in early August. So like this is like a long process. I've thought about it a lot, pondered a lot. You know there were, you know, and lots of hard decisions. And you know, watching the male film from this spring was tough to be like, hey, I'm not going to be part of this for the next year, but you know I still, I'll still be doing stuff. I'll break down their film. You know I'm not bound by the MSHSL rules anymore so I can do whatever I want. So that'd be good.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you've alluded to it kind of in your two, you know, last, not rants but lack of a better term rants. You know you've alluded to the male and you've been there I don't even know how long, but I know you. You know from your post and and from everything right. You know male is what you bleed. Looking at last season, I know we talked to you. You know we had an episode. If you want to, you know, hear his whole history. You know, go back and listen to his last interview. But just looking at last season specifically, you know what. What is what is season here? Unbelievable record. You know, in the games you lost super competitive. You lost a Ted twice. That's a tough luck, but but but speak on, you know, speak on last season and you know what. And you did say like how hard it was to get to the last season. I did say like how hard is it going to be to. You know, walk away from from, you know, the program that you truly do bleed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah Was on the first team we ever had. Technically, I'm the longest coach we've ever had for the program. That's existed since 2009. So, yeah, I mean the the group that just graduated was was really special. I coached them. Since they're eighth graders, you know, as ninth graders they go through the COVID pandemic, missed their entire season. They were slated, in my opinion, in 2020 to be even better than we were last year.
Speaker 2:We had a bunch of kids that were seniors that lost out on all of that. These kids are going to be ninth graders, get some varsity time is going to be really great. And then we just kind of had a slump for a while and and and. Going into their senior year, they really wanted to change things. I mean, we won three games back to back seasons and they just said, after our section loss at Lakeville North in 2022, they're like we don't want to do that again. We don't want to go out there and lose by 15 or whatever it was in that game, win three games and be like, oh, that's it. See a male. So you know, they all hit the weight room, they hit the wall.
Speaker 2:We played winter league, we did all the things they showed up to all the stuff that we asked them to show up to and there was, I think, 14, 15 seniors last year, 15 if you count the foreign exchange student and they just all bought in and they brought everybody up with them and made everybody better. I mean, like you said, good season. Last year we went 11 and two in the regular season Most wins may have ever had in a regular season. The two teams that we lost to both, I believe, lost in their section finals Farmington and Wysetta, both great teams, I think.
Speaker 2:If you looked at the signing day post today, wysetta's goalie, I'm pretty sure, went D1. They have a poll or poll, that went D1. A goalie went D2 and another poll that went D3. And they I mean they locked us down. He had a 90% save percentage of that game. It was crazy. But yeah, that group is special. I'm going to grab something quick because it's right next to me, but these are. These are all the guys. They all got a nice picture. Oh, it's gonna be fuzzy. Of course it's a little fuzzy if you're watching on YouTube.
Speaker 1:If you're not watching on YouTube, flip over to the YouTube subscribe, follow and like. This is a great pic.
Speaker 2:Those are all my senior boys, you know, battled with them for for five years with the program and they did a lot of things that we had never done before. I think we had four kids. I scored 50 points, which is a program record. We had two guys score over a hundred points in their career, which I don't think it ever happened. Our fogo was robbed of all state. I will be honest, there Goes 75% on the year, has almost 200 ground balls, 45 or 50 points has. I mean. Just he's not a fogo, tore Pappin foes. He was a win the face off, go down, score the goal on you, come back to the face off, win it again and go score again. Um, the fact that he wasn't all state. Still don't understand how that happens.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these stats are ridiculous.
Speaker 2:They're absurd.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I'm not in your guys a section, or was I a part of these, these votes? But, holy smokes, I had. Ted, you can speak on this, maybe a little more than I can, but wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, um, it was a nightmare dealing with him. He's a like a freak athlete too. That too it's like a, just a, I like brick shithouse, and I say that with Um, that is a term of endearment. Um, it's just, you know, just a guy that was hard to play against.
Speaker 3:And Um, no, I mean male was a different story last year. You know we, you know, yeah, obviously we won the game, but I mean, it wasn't we, we knew it was gonna be. Uh, it was gonna be 48 minutes and a couple bounces. You know, here and there it could have been a different story. So, um, yeah, definitely really impressed with what you did there, with the resources that you had and really being able to get that group of kids bought in To say, hey, like this our last year, like we're gonna be different this year, um, and, and you did that and you know, luckily, through titan I was able to get to know a few of them, Um, a little bit, and they're just, they're great kids, hardworking kids, um, and they're they're gonna go on to do great things, um, and I think, like this, like you got to, you know, like p-max talked about what went into the decision for you to to do the the germany thing.
Speaker 3:I I looking outside and I don't want to speak for you, but I feel like you were able to hang your hat on the things that you wanted to do with that group. Sure, you could have said we want to win the section, we want to win state, some of the bigger goals, but the reality is only one team gets to do that. Um. But, like, you can be really proud of what you did with that group of guys that you stuck with the whole way. This is, honestly the perfect time to go to germany, um and and and do something new. And then you can always come back if you want and continue with the next group. So, um, yeah, no, like I definitely, as someone who competed against male Um for two years now, lash this past season, completely different team, tons of respect for your program, um, and we knew that it was going to be an absolute Um Task to just get through that game and those games that we played.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we got another fogo that's going to win every faceoff again this year. Nolan Schneider he said 2025, uh, uh, when apples to apples with Quinn at the unreal showcase made the all star team and uh, not the, the brickshit house that tour is, but he can run all day and uh, we'll win every faceoff again, so that'll be great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I don't know about great, but uh.
Speaker 1:Hey boss.
Speaker 3:Yeah great for you guys.
Speaker 2:You got will, though will is great too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's only a ninth grader, yeah he is yeah, no, we we're, we, we find I think we have someone that can we'll be able to match up and um, it's uh. But yeah, no, I mean, nolan also plays Titan too. So I get to, you know, see him, and it's just like all right, you know, like, you're like hey, I'm proud, I'm happy that you're on our team in the summer, but I don't really want to go against you in the spring. But you know, that's the beauty of it, that's the beauty of club and high school and being blended into balls. So, uh, it's all good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and uh. You know if I can shout out, maybe one more player from Mayo would be we got a 20 27. So freshman Uh started for me for two years on varsity as an attackman. Has already or uh Amassed 37 points going into his ninth grade season. Max ericsson, that kid is. I thought Reese Ackerman was the best player that mail would ever have who just graduated. I think max can surpass that. He's uh just hit a gross worth this last year. Just absolutely filthy mitts, picks every corner, not afraid of anything, starting running back on the ninth grade football team, starting wrestler on the varsity team. I mean, just that is another kid. When september 1st of 2026 comes, people need to know him because he is going to be uh a menace and my contract in germany is only two years, so he'll be a junior when I, when I have my contract run out.
Speaker 1:This kid, as an eighth grader, put up 26 goals yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's not just like you know, little quick stick dinks on the crease or anything. He's picking corners and and doing it.
Speaker 1:You know 80 miles an hour already he's not scared of anybody and he's doing it in tight games, like it's not just against you know, you know Teams you blew out. You know these are. He's putting up multiple goals against you know one goal games. So um Max ericsett 2027, you have my attention. I'm gonna write that one down. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, I mean, like Ted said, you know, um, I definitely wanted to see this 2023 class graduate. That was, without a doubt, there was no way I was going to do anything differently before then. Even you know, during the covid pandemic, it was tough to be a lacrosse coach or do anything athletically as a coach in any sport. I mean that was a. That was a rough year, year and a half. You know. You come back in 2021.
Speaker 2:You have to wear, you know, masks at practice while you're outside and like all these weird things. I'm creating bus seating charts, contact tracing and there were times where I was like I do not want to do any of this, like let's just have everybody drive on their own, or like that, just me not do this. But I was like, no, I need, I need to see these guys out, and you know, and and so I do agree that. You know it was decent timing in that regard that I got to see that group through and and they all played and and stayed and ended a lot for us, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Had any finals for Adam.
Speaker 3:No, I'm excited for you, I'm happy for you. I'm going to miss, obviously, coaching with you at Titan and seeing you in the spring. But it's a couple of years and then we'll see what happens. Maybe you'll come back, maybe you won't you never know, but we'll definitely be make sure to let us know how it's going over there. We definitely want to follow and promote what you're doing and I'll definitely be watching from afar and cheering for you, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I plan on doing some vlogging. There's a couple other big sporting events the Cross related that are coming up here in Europe. If you've never heard of it and I'm probably going to butcher this name, but it's a Czech name so I shouldn't know it it's like Alice Herabesky or Herabesky Tournament. It's in Radityn, just Google that if you want to. It's A-L-E-S and then H-R-E-B-E-S-K-Y, but it's this Memorial lacrosse tournament that they put on every year in Radityn, czech Republic or Czechia it might be called. Nowadays it's the biggest lacrosse tournament outside of America. Teams come from all over the world. They play in this three or four day event. There's lots of beer drinking, lots of food. Everybody makes.
Speaker 2:The city of Radityn built a state of the art box facility in the middle of this picture-esque Eastern European town. It is just absolutely amazing. If you ever get a chance, look at it on YouTube. It's something I want to go to. It starts in March this year. There's American teams are in it. The Haudenosaunee played in it last year for the first time ever, I believe. If you know Nick Middboe, he's the big box guy in the area. He was a farm eating grad. I believe I played against him in high school. He got to play in the tournament a few years ago. I just remember everybody talks about how it's such an awesome, amazing deal, hoping to capture as much footage as I can in Germany and at that tournament and all these different things Get stuff up. Maybe do a third podcast, maybe, who knows, when that time comes.
Speaker 3:Look at the pictures of this box rink here. Pretty sweet actually.
Speaker 1:I remember when Nick went over. I remember seeing the pictures. It was ridiculous. I was like we need to build something like this here.
Speaker 2:The city just fronted it all. They were just like, hey, let's do this, they're playing it, let's do it Now. It's the biggest tournament in the cross outside of America. They have an opening ceremony, they march all the teams out there, it's a whole party for three or four days. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Unreal. Well, let's stay in touch. Also, my final question is when do I get to release this episode? Because we were chatting and you're like, yeah, my employer doesn't know yet when do I get to release the?
Speaker 2:episode. My plan is to put in my two weeks on December 18th. I would say after that date I get a bonus if I stay till the end of the year I got to start it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got to put in my two weeks. My last day will be January 1st. We're closed, so I don't even have to do anything. But I'll get the bonus Help me when I get over there and all that stuff. So I'd say December 18th at the earliest, please. Otherwise I mean, who knows who finds it? But that would be an awkward encounter.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, happy New Year to our listeners. Yeah, happy New Year. Awesome, all right. Well, coach, thanks for coming down the alley for a second time. Obviously, we want you to stay in touch. We'd love to have you on it a third time, when you're deep into this new experience and you can share more with DTA Nation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe just a quick message to my German team, because I'm probably going to send this to them. Just stick with me here. It's going to be a little rough German, but my German is not so good, but I'm learning German. Hello on the Dortmund Cross Club. I'm happy to be here. I'm learning German. I'm a coach, a coach, a trainer, a coach, a coach, and I'm learning German. So my German is not that good, but I'm learning. Hello to my Dortmund Cross Club. I'm looking forward to meeting you. All Need to become a coach and help promote the sport in Germany. I got to get better at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that sounded good to me, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but no, yeah, no, awesome and congrats on this opportunity and good luck. And yeah, we can't wait to hear more, as obviously experienced us.
Speaker 2:Yeah actually thanks for having me guys Take care Thanks.
Speaker 1:And thank you to Coach Adam for coming down the alley. Congrats on this new opportunity and we can't wait to touch base again soon and hear more about how it goes. I think I know who you're talking about. Do I know who you're talking about? Who went over and experienced something like this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was Kevin White. Oh, White did this.
Speaker 1:Oh, I didn't know, I was thinking somebody else. I didn't know. I didn't know that White did something like this before.
Speaker 3:And maybe other Duluth people have done it.
Speaker 1:I was thinking of Offerman. I think he went to Italy. Offerman went to Italy. Yeah, so I knew. I knew about Offerman and we we've talked about you know me and him, have talked about you know his experience there. I did not know White's went over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I don't know if it was formal. Like I said, I texted him to see if he'd reply. He hasn't replied to me yet, but I don't know if it was as formal as Adams, where they're like we are hiring you to come coach lacrosse, or if he, like just went there to travel and then was like hey, I'm a lacrosse coach and they're like we need a lacrosse coach and then did it. But I know he did some coaching out there when he was in Germany and then he still like he talks about it all the time and it was a huge impact on his life and I mean it's, it's.
Speaker 3:It's got to be cool to be able to go, like go to a new country and then be able to coach lacrosse, where you're like all right, this is like the one shared thing that I can like go and do. That kind of not necessarily reminds you of home, but you feel like all right, I. You know, once you get inside the lines, lacrosse is lacrosse and you're it's. It's the same language, it's the same, the same feelings that you would have inside the lines and you know Rochester, minnesota, or Farmington, minnesota. So it's got to be cool to be able to do that, whether it's lacrosse or any sport. But yeah, super unique opportunity and you know like glad it worked out for Adam that you know in his particular situation he's able to go and do this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me is just how interesting. You know, again, it's not really a thing out of beer league hockey, right, you know people still play hockey when they're adults. But like competitive sports, unless you make it right, quote, unquote, make it you know those opportunities are few and far, you know between in America, or at least in Minnesota. So you know, I think it's just interesting. You know, hearing about Canada, they have senior men's. You know, in Europe there's these men. You know men's league competitive opportunities. I think it's just, you know, kind of cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, for sure it's. Um, yeah, it's. It sounds a great opportunity and we wish them the best.
Speaker 1:As we close out here, um any I know we had a couple of a couple of chats this week any, any restaurant, any restaurant chatter. Any, any food chatter.
Speaker 3:Oh man, I don't think so. I don't think I have anything today.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, I want to go. Uh, well, I was going to go to Schuylers today, but we didn't end up at Schuylers today, so I was hoping to be able to review that today and, uh, you know, I don't get to. So I guess I'm just going to tease three months later that we have some interesting, interesting things in the pipeline in terms of interviews and we're putting together, you know, hopefully some details on the coach's summit. So hopefully by this time it's it's been released, by the time this episode's released. So I guess that's that's all I have to say. Yeah, sounds good. All right, thanks for coming down the alley and we'll see you in a week or so.