MCLA Lacrosse: Colorado State Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Alex Smith Credits Play Of 14 Seniors For Program’s Sixth National Championship

Colorado State Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Alex Smith credits his seniors for leading the way.  “We had 14 seniors and they were really focused from the very start of the year.  We lost to CU in the fall and that really motivated us going into the spring.  Our senior class was definitely the strongest point of our team and they were a really special group.”

Colorado State Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Alex Smith

For Coach Smith, 2013 shall be remembered at CSU for its midfield, a strong, deep group of players that solidified the team on game-days. “Midfielders, Alex Devlin and Tim Taggart were great for us.  They were part of an all-senior line with Braxton Campbell.  Dustin Grybinas was part of our second group this year.  I think we were one of the few teams at our level to be able to go three lines deep at the midfield and that really helps us in those long tournaments and back to back situations.”  That senior line combined for 67 points this season. Coach Smith continued to tout his midfield, “Logan Chandler and Josh Gregg, a couple of unsung guys most of the time. Both are defensive midfielders that really got a lot of the dirty-work done for us.  Josh was great as a clearing mid and wing guy, and Logan is as hard-nosed and smart as they come.”

Then you have the face-off specialist, Dan Warfield.  Second team All-Conference, as well as All-American, winning 65 percent of his draws, including nearly 60 percent in the National Championship game.  “He’s arguably our most valuable player and kept us with the ball on our offensive end in some very key spots.”

For more:  http://mcla.us/news/2013/06/2013-rmlc-season-in-review/

MCLA Lacrosse: Colorado State Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Alex Smith Discusses The Rams Quest For Their Fifth National Championship

This week marks the beginning of our national tournament here in Denver as we continue our quest for our fifth MCLA national title. 

It’s hard to believe, but ten years ago last week, I was a backup goalie on one of the best teams in MCLA history as we won our second national championship in three years over Stanford.  Of course, that wasn’t the “real” championship game as we were one day removed from possibly the best GAME in MCLA history when we beat hated BYU 10-9 in the semifinals of the tournament.  But nonetheless, we took care of business against an overmatched Stanford team the next day and hoisted the hardware.  What a team that was!

TEN YEARS!  Back then, the tournament was at quaint Anheuser-Busch Sporting Complex in St. Louis, MO and we were the big, bad, hated Rams.  We pirated fields, we had too much fun while we played and other teams couldn’t wait to give us their best shot – both on the fields and in the stands, from which they invariably watched us play.  But, as we were quick to remind teams back then, “it’s all good because we don’t like you either!”  And yes, we were pretty damn good.  

I reminisce now on the eve of our national tournament because the memories we forged as a group then are still some of the most powerful during all my time here at CSU.  Flip Naumburg came to CSU in 1997 and turned us from a club in the truest sense of the word not only into a program, but into a FAMILY.  It’s still a mantra we hold on to today, a decade removed from the heydays of Roth, Napi, Davis, Coy, Plonkey, Cale and Kale, Loren, Gemp, Ferrin and Shanley, Matt Smith, Terry and his huge . . . heart, Robi, Joe G., Naaber, Jimmy Jams, Jared the Rabbit (now just Rabbi), dirty Josh, So-Shy Chi, Lambert and Wolper, Jer-Bear, Homey Dave, Ikel-berry Cheeseburger, Tabacchi (YAH!), O-Dog, the Priebes, Dr. Ron and so many others.  I know not all of you graduated in 2001, but you were all part of that very special era of CSU lacrosse.

I am reminded of those times because the 2011 version of the Rams is so much like those teams.  We are a family more than ever and we are going into this tournament with our heads held high and your legacies wrapped around us like a cape.  This FAMILY represents all that is great about CSU lacrosse.  We sincerely hope you will turn out to watch us play at Dick’s Park in Commerce City starting tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4pm.  We play Minnesota-Duluth and we would love to have as many of you out there as we can get!

If you can’t be there in person, you can still follow the action.  http://www.collegelax.us/cl_tv/ will have our first round game aired online.  Pretty cool way to watch the game and cheer us on, even if you can’t be there.  If we keep winning, the rest of the bracket is here:  http://www.collegelax.us/2011/championships/?d1brackets 

Please come out to support your Rams!  Four games in five days is no small feat, but we are ready to put our best foot forward and make you all proud!

Go Rams!!

Alex Smith

Head Coach

CSU Men’s Lacrosse