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St. Ignatius Boys Lacrosse Head Coach Chris Packard. Photo by LaxBuzz
LaxBuzz recently asked St. Ignatius Boys Lacrosse Head Coach Chris Packard to answer questions regarding his 2009 Wildcat team and prospects for the upcoming 2010 team. He gave some very insightful answers that both confirm and surprise about what it takes to be California’s premier lacrosse program.
LAXBUZZ: Your 2009 season was a great success. How many seniors and starters did you lose to graduation?
CHRIS PACKARD: We lost a host of graduating seniors that played huge roles for St. Ignatius. At starting attack (each guy is playing D1 college ball), the best shut down defenseman we saw play that’s also gone on to play D1, an entire midfield that will be playing college lacrosse (D1, D3 & club), and a bevy of other players that were instrumental in our team’s success. Fortunately for SI we’re used to losing players to graduation and the incoming crop of players is excited to prove that they belong at the top of CA lacrosse.
LAXBUZZ: Could you describe the strengths of the 2009 varsity squad and what do the strengths and weaknesses of the 2010 varsity team look to be?
CHRIS PACKARD: The strengths of 2009 were our experience and our depth. We also had great team chemistry and 2009’s team liked to work. 2010 will be different in that we’re going to have a lot of new faces starting on defense & attack but we’re confident the 2010 squad will share the passion for hard work and will continue to raise the skill level and speed at which the game is played.
St. Ignatius Lacrosse lost All-American Attacker Billy Mattimore to graduation in 2009. Photo by LaxBuzz.
LAXBUZZ: Do you watch NCAA Division I lacrosse teams and incorporate any of their plays or schemes into St. Ignatius offense and defense? Do your teams reflect the talent levels of the individual players and you make changes accordingly?
CHRIS PACKARD: Saturdays are reserved for watching NCAA lacrosse games. We don’t like to schedule games on Saturday afternoons b/c we think that time is best spent by our boys in front of a college game. The boys take many of the individual moves and try to incorporate them into their own repertoire at practice during the week (usually unsuccessfully!). Our program has a very simple approach to the game & we try not to confuse our guys w/ complicated schemes. The boys usually come to me w/ a play or a set they saw on TV that they’d like to try rather than me implementing a new offense or defense.
LAXBUZZ: Do you actively assist your Juniors and Seniors with the college recruiting process? What is best thing a high school coach can do to prepare his players for the next level?
CHRIS PACKARD: The recruiting process is challenging but we are actively involved in helping our student athletes. I think the best advice for a coach is to educate himself & the parent’s of his/her players about the process of recruiting & how early the process is started. It’s unfortunate that it’s gone this route but colleges are selecting players earlier than ever. If your son or daughter is serious about playing lacrosse at the next level its important to find outlets where players can compete against their peers while being seen by college coaches. Right now, that remains predominantly on the east coast although there are several west coast summer camps (California Gold & Adrenaline Shootout) that are attracting college coaches.
LAXBUZZ: Is Strength and Performance Training becoming an important part of the St. Ignatius program? Do you have your own Strength and Conditioning coach or do you hire an outside trainer to assist during the off-season and pre-season?
CHRIS PACKARD: SI is fortunate to have lots of multi-sport athletes playing lacrosse. Through other sports our players have been taught how to properly use a weight room, so many of our guys are comfortable working out on their own in the weight room, and many do so together after school. During the season we use SI’s strength and conditioning coach to keep practices from becoming monotonous, but once games start we don’t have much time apart from the field. We encourage our players to remain physically fit throughout the year & most of the off-season training is done on their own.
Online game play between a created Maryland Terps team and the fantasy squad, the Turtles. The Terps ultimately lost 6-3, this was the first half.
(From a TheOrion.com article) The theme of this year’s upcoming lacrosse season is tradition and first-year coach Charlie Jackson in spearheading the movement.
Balton Stokes (in white) of the men’s lacrosse attempts to run around his opponent Cary Smith to score during the team’s practice Friday.
“We’re trying to bring some old Chico back,” Chico State alumnus Jackson said.
With that comes a style of play and an attitude that has been missing in years past, midfielder Josh Roden said. Last year the team didn’t play terribly but there was a sense of underachievement.
The team wasn’t on the same page last year, but now there is enthusiasm and energy that had been missing at practices, Roden said.
With this newfound energy, the team has its goals set high, Jackson said. In two to three years Jackson wants a national championship berth and in three to five years he wants to win a national championship.
“Our goal for this year is just a playoff berth,” Roden said.
The top four teams from the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League make the playoffs. The league includes the likes of Chico State, Sonoma State, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Since lacrosse is a club sport and not a university-funded team it does not play in the California Collegiate Athletic Association like teams such as soccer, cross-country and basketball.
But there are some big schools in the league, Jackson said. Two Pac-10 conference schools make the division very competitive.
To stay competitive, the team will rely on upperclassmen such as senior goalkeeper and club President Austin Raab and Roden to help lead the team, as well as a large group of freshmen who are looking to contribute.
The sport of lacrosse has grown drastically in California and on the West Coast in general over the last 10 years, Jackson said.
“I remember when no high schools in the Bay Area had teams,” he said. “Now I have been able to coach all star teams at all age groups.”
With this increase in popularity, teams such as Chico State are able to get more talented players and compete and build the program.
Chico State has had a club lacrosse team since 1985, assistant coach DJ Ashby said. When the team originally consisted of 18 to 20 men and dues were about $150.
Today the team’s personnel reached nearly 40 players and dues near $2,000.
“You are able to do so much more with that kind of money, from traveling expenses to purchasing equipment,” Ashby said.
Throughout the season, the team will play each team in its league once as well as many out-of-league games including home games against Boise State and the University of Washington and road games against Colorado State, Arizona State and San Diego State.
Still far away from their first game of the season Feb. 13 against the University of Nevada Reno, the team has already started preparing by practicing three times a week.
They will start double days Jan. 11, which will give them a solid month of practice before the season opens.
While the team’s goal of making the playoffs isn’t out of reach, it’s going to take some hard work and dedication to regain that old Chico State style, Jackson said.
http://www.theorion.com/sports/men-s-lacrosse-eyeing-playoff-berth-1.934023
Sophomore midfielder Gus Johnson receives a pass during an Oct. 24 game against University Nevada Reno at the Arcata Community Fields.
The Humboldt State Lacrosse Club existed for nearly 30 years, but had no head coach until Tony Silvaggio arrived in 2007. He arrived with a plan for Humboldt County.
Born in Syracuse, New York, in the heart of lacrosse country, Silvaggio wants to see this community embrace the culture of lacrosse that he grew up with on the East Coast.
“Back there, kids get born and get thrown a lacrosse stick instead of a soccer ball,” said Silvaggio. “Out here people don’t even know what the hell it is. We don’t have a culture, foundation, or an infrastructure to support it and I’m here to develop that.”
Lacrosse is difficult to describe to those unfamiliar to the game. It is played with a stick (the crosse) with a net at the end, which a player uses to throw, catch, and scoop the ball.
Lacrosse is a game full of long sprints up and down the field, sudden starts and stops, as well as precision passes. It combines the strength of football with the quickness and agility of soccer and basketball.
Since he became the coach of the men’s lacrosse team two years ago, Silvaggio has accomplished a lot. He reinstated the men’s team into the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL) for the upcoming season after an 11-year hiatus from the league. For the previous decade, the Humboldt State Lacrosse Club existed as an independent team, free of any league ties.
“Seeing that we weren’t in a league until this season, a lot of people coming out of high school in California didn’t know that HSU had a lacrosse team,” said senior midfielder Uriah Johnson. “That’s a reason that our team has a lot of inexperienced players.”
Last year, Silvaggio helped found the first ever women’s lacrosse team at HSU last year. In the fall of 2008, junior McKenna Caudill and Japanese exchange student Ann Lee Kadaka were in the Quad looking for the one club sport that wasn’t there, women’s lacrosse.
“We were at the Quad looking for a women’s team, but there wasn’t one, so we ended up going to the men’s table and we found each other and just decided to make a team ourselves,” said Caudill.
With help from Silvaggio as well as Jan Henry of the Club Sport and Intramural Office, Caudill and Kadaka formed the women’s lacrosse team that same semester. By spring they had a full roster and were provisional members of the Western Women’s Lacrosse League (WWLL).
According to the national lacrosse organization, U.S. Lacrosse, there are now over 500 collegiate teams across the country. The game has been dubbed the nation’s fastest growing sport and many believe it to be North America’s oldest sport.
Native Americans first played the game in what is now Southern Quebec and Ontario, as well as in New England and the Great Lakes region.
To Native Americans, lacrosse had a spiritual and cultural significance. Lacrosse was played during harvest time to celebrate the changing of the seasons and as a right of passage for men. Since then, the game developed and standardized in the late 1800s in Canada into the modern game that we see today.
Tristan Carbery, team captain and junior kinesiology major, calls lacrosse a unique and dynamic game. “They call it the fastest game on two feet for a reason,” he said. “If anyone hasn’t watched a lacrosse game they should, because I guarantee they will get hooked.”
| Date | Opponent | Time |
| Saturday Feb 20th | @ Southern Oregon University | 1pm |
| Saturday March 6th | @ Willamette University | 12 pm |
| Sunday March 7th | @ Portland State University | 12 pm* |
| Saturday March 27th | @ San Jose State University | 12 pm |
| Saturday April 17th | UC Santa Cruz @ Humboldt | 11 am |
| Sunday April 18 | UC Merced @ Humboldt | 11 am |
| Saturday April 24th | @ University Nevada Reno | 12 pm |
| Sunday April 25th | University of Pacific @ Redding | 1 pm |
| * tentative |
HOME GAME LOCATION: Redwood Bowl
See http://www.hsujacks.com/sports/2006/10/12/Redwood%20Bowl.aspx
http://www.thejackonline.org/sports/america-s-first-and-fastest-growing-sport-1.2088318
The California lacrosse program signed eight recruits to National Letters of Intent, Golden Bears head coach Theresa Sherry announced on Monday. The incoming class features three players from the San Francisco Bay Area – Lauren Goerz (Danville, Calif./Monte Vista High School), Teresa Li (Pleasanton, Calif./ Amador Valley High School) and Hayley Olson (Livermore, Calif./Granada High School) – two from Colorado – Shelby Barrett (Centennial, Colo./Cherry Creek High School) and Megan McGinnis (Morrison, Colo./Colorado Academy) and three – Paige Gasparino (Darien, Conn./Darien High School), Grace Parente (Baltimore, Md./Bryn Mawr School) and Jackie Pelletier (Andover, Mass./Andover High School) – from the East Coast.
The class includes multiple midfielders (3), defenders (2) and attackers (2) as well as one goalkeeper.
“We are extremely excited to welcome these eight student-athletes into the Cal lacrosse family,” Sherry said. “This class is made up of fast, athletic and mentally tough lacrosse players who we feel will help our program continue to achieve greater things in the MPSF and the NCAAs. We are happy to continue pulling players from all over the country to play for our team, the different personalities and backgrounds adding a significant flavor to the Cal campus both on and off the field.”
Goerz, a high school All-American midfielder who led Monte Vista to the North Coast Section title as a junior, was named the 2009 Contra Costa Times Player of the Year and East Bay Athletic League (EBAL) MVP. She tallied four goals and an assist in the 2009 NCS final.
Li, Olson and Goerz were named to the 2009 all-EBAL first team. A midfielder, Li was selected an honorable mention All-American and, along with current Cal freshman Ana Cyr, was named a US Lacrosse academic All-American in 2009. Li played at Amador Valley with current Cal sophomore Melissa Sheehan. Olson, an attacker, and Cyr were teammates at Granada High School.
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“Our three players from the Bay Area have been playing with and against each other for years, most recently for the BearLax Club run out of Berkeley,” Sherry said. “Teresa Li is fast, smart and tenacious all over the field. Lauren Goerz is powerful and athletic, in addition to being a competitor that will challenge her new teammates from the start. Hayley Olson will be an asset with her speed, her nose for the goal and her work ethic in the midfield.”
A high school All-American goalkeeper, McGinnis comes to Cal from the same school (Colorado Academy) that produced Bears junior Chapin Jackson. McGinnis has also played for the Team 180 club.
“Megan McGinnis is a very talented athlete, and lefty goalkeeper, who will continue to offer a presence for Cal both between the pipes and outside the cage,” Sherry said.
Barrett is an attacker/midfielder from the same high school that produced Cal sophomores Lauren Johnson and Allie Welsh.
“Shelby Barrett is another product of Team 180 in Colorado, playing with Megan [McGinnis] over the past few years,” Sherry said. “Shelby will add a shooting ability to our attack next year and athleticism in the midfield as well.”
Gasparino, a midfielder, and current Cal freshman Clemmy Little were teammates at Darien High School, which also produced former Cal stalwart Ghillie Little, Clemmy’s sister.
“Paige Gasparino will also offer speed in the midfield and we expect her to be an impact player in both the offensive and defensive ends of the field,” Sherry said.
Parente, a defender, was named to the Baltimore Sun’s All-Baltimore City team as a junior last spring. She also played on the backline for the Bryn Mawr School soccer team, which recently won its Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland B Conference championship. Parente hails from the same hometown and high school as Sherry and Cal senior Tighe Hutchins.
“Grace Parente is a tough, quick defender with great instincts,” Sherry said. “She will add an element of tenacity and skill to our defensive end.”
Pelletier was a key member of the stingy defense at Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC) powerhouse Andover High School.
“Jacqueline Pelletier is a strong and smart defender with leadership skills that will benefit our defensive end,” Sherry said.
The current Golden Bears will open their 2009 season against UC Davis, a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opponent, at 1 p.m. on Feb. 20 in Davis, Calif.
http://www.calbears.com/sports/w-lacros/spec-rel/111609aaa.html
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