Get The Lax Scoop

S1 E43. The Most Humorous & Shocking Revelations of Season 1, Part III

December 27, 2023 Jay McMahon, Ron Dalgliesh, & Steve Gresalfi/Ric Beardsley, Marc Riccio, Bill Tierney, & Sean Kirwan Season 1 Episode 43
S1 E43. The Most Humorous & Shocking Revelations of Season 1, Part III
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Get The Lax Scoop
S1 E43. The Most Humorous & Shocking Revelations of Season 1, Part III
Dec 27, 2023 Season 1 Episode 43
Jay McMahon, Ron Dalgliesh, & Steve Gresalfi/Ric Beardsley, Marc Riccio, Bill Tierney, & Sean Kirwan

We’re very excited to bring you our final episode of our first season of the Get The Lax Scoop podcast! Over our first forty episodes we’ve learned a lot from our guests; some of the biggest names in the game and we hope you have too. 

For this next series we wanted to shift gears so we've put together a number of the most humorous and surprising answers we received from our guests this year. 

Co-hosts Jay McMahon & Ron Dalgliesh really enjoyed cueing up each clip and then providing some commentary and we think you’ll enjoy it just as much. 

We want to say to all our listeners and our prior guests, thanks so much for a fabulous first season!  You’ve asked for it so you’ll get: next season we will have some SWAG as well as a Patreon page available! 

Please enjoy the episode & Happy Holidays Everyone! 

All the best, 

GLS

NEW BOOK!
Inside the Recruiting Game: Insights From College Lacrosse Coaches
-available for FREE on the JML Training App at:
https://jay-mcmahon-lacrosse.passion.io/checkout/79608
-And available on Amazon.com as an Ebook and paperback

Link to the FREE JML Mini Course-now with a FREE defense course taught by Lars Tiffany and a FREE Mini goalie course taught by Kip Turner- on our own App: https://jay-mcmahon-lacrosse.passion.io/checkout/79608

Check out our Patreon page with the link below:
patreon.com/GetTheLaxScoop
And take a look at our new virtual storefront here:
jml-online-store.company.site

Link to Video of the Week:
Master The 5 Best Dodges From the Wing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_7LDOcQQ6Q&t=88s

Blazing Shots... on the Run!
https://youtu.be/XiptPlM63oQ

Check us out...

On YouTube @jaymcmahonlax23
On Instagram @jaymcmahonlax23
On Facebook @: facebook.com/jmcmahonlax23. Page name: Jay McMahon Lacrosse

SuccessHotline with Dr. Rob Gilbert on Ironclad & Apple Podcasts

Brian Cain Daily Dominator on Apple Podcasts

Jon Gordon Positive U. Podcast on Spotify

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck, PhD on Amazon.

Show Notes Transcript

We’re very excited to bring you our final episode of our first season of the Get The Lax Scoop podcast! Over our first forty episodes we’ve learned a lot from our guests; some of the biggest names in the game and we hope you have too. 

For this next series we wanted to shift gears so we've put together a number of the most humorous and surprising answers we received from our guests this year. 

Co-hosts Jay McMahon & Ron Dalgliesh really enjoyed cueing up each clip and then providing some commentary and we think you’ll enjoy it just as much. 

We want to say to all our listeners and our prior guests, thanks so much for a fabulous first season!  You’ve asked for it so you’ll get: next season we will have some SWAG as well as a Patreon page available! 

Please enjoy the episode & Happy Holidays Everyone! 

All the best, 

GLS

NEW BOOK!
Inside the Recruiting Game: Insights From College Lacrosse Coaches
-available for FREE on the JML Training App at:
https://jay-mcmahon-lacrosse.passion.io/checkout/79608
-And available on Amazon.com as an Ebook and paperback

Link to the FREE JML Mini Course-now with a FREE defense course taught by Lars Tiffany and a FREE Mini goalie course taught by Kip Turner- on our own App: https://jay-mcmahon-lacrosse.passion.io/checkout/79608

Check out our Patreon page with the link below:
patreon.com/GetTheLaxScoop
And take a look at our new virtual storefront here:
jml-online-store.company.site

Link to Video of the Week:
Master The 5 Best Dodges From the Wing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_7LDOcQQ6Q&t=88s

Blazing Shots... on the Run!
https://youtu.be/XiptPlM63oQ

Check us out...

On YouTube @jaymcmahonlax23
On Instagram @jaymcmahonlax23
On Facebook @: facebook.com/jmcmahonlax23. Page name: Jay McMahon Lacrosse

SuccessHotline with Dr. Rob Gilbert on Ironclad & Apple Podcasts

Brian Cain Daily Dominator on Apple Podcasts

Jon Gordon Positive U. Podcast on Spotify

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck, PhD on Amazon.

Jay:

It's time for get the La Scoop, a podcast bringing you all the people and stuff you should know. In the game of lacrosse, we take LAX seriously, but ourselves, not so much. Join hosts, big Dog and Jaybird, and the biggest names in the game. Brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's J M L Skills, mindset, and LAX IQ training. Ron Doish, the big dog, was a collegiate football and lacrosse player at Brown. He was also an assistant lacrosse coach and the executive director of the sports found. and Jay McMahon, the Jaybird, a three time All-American Midfielder Brown. He was a captain of the US Junior National team and is the founder of J M L. Brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's J M L Skills, mindset, and LAX IQ training. Helping the next generation cross players. Get to the next level.

Hello again everybody, and welcome to a special holiday edition of Get the Lack Scoop. Very special, Ron. Well, Jed, I see you're in the holiday spirit with your little. Red, white and green outfit there. Very, very holiday spirit of you. Very festive. And what are you, I see you're wearing the same old pullover. I mean, did you even watch that thing? You wore the same one every episode. Jay, this is supposed to be a celebration. Jay, it's an athletic podcast. Under Armour, Adidas, for Christ's sake. This isn't a show about the North Pole, Jay. And little Irish elves. You are the epitome. Epitome of athleticism, Ron, so I'm glad you're really on board. You're damn right, Jay. Uh, Jay, so I understand you've done some crack editing of perhaps the most surprising and humorous Snippets that we've gotten from our guests throughout the year. So many great little snippets, so many things to be happy for during this holiday season, Ron. And one of them at the end of our first season, is to just say thanks to all our guests, to all our listeners and let out this hilarity and some of these surprising answers. And this was the legend Rick the Beast Beardsley talking about what it was like in practice. He'd be going up against a lot of these top players from Syracuse. And he's a great guy, but he's funny how, um, confident he is, Ron. Let's just say he's super confident. Definitely not lacking in confidence. So this clip really highlights that, and then we can discuss afterwards. Let me get this queued up for us here, and here we go.

Ron:

So I played against someone who was a positional player of the year every day. Right. I played against. Tom Marachek my freshman year, Matt Ryder was the attack when a year as well my sophomore. So think about my two guys Now, how would you do covering those guys? Would you chew those guys up or what? Oh my god. Are you shitting me? Of course? We'll have to get Marachek on Listen to me go right ahead I am going to say this, and it's not arrogance, it's confidence. We're, I'm on this like my helmet's off, alright? Guys, if I got beat for a goal, it was only because I made a mistake. It wasn't because I was good enough. I owned everyone I played in my mind, and I did do a pretty good job. In practices, there were battle royales, absolutely. But yes, how good could I have gotten, right? And how good could I get? Practices were hard, games were easy. That was it. And then, you know, my junior year, Dom Finn, midfielder year, Hall of Famer, Roy, I mean, think about it. Roy Colsey, senior year, Hall of Famer. Like, Marachek, Hall of, I played against three Hall of Famers just in practice for a myriad of time. And, you know, no one wanted to guard Tommy because they didn't want to deal with it.

Classic. Jay, I mean, I know you and I were talking after the episode, um, you know, Rick kind of reminds me of the two guys we know well, Andy Towers and David Evans, uh, and the similarities to me are, you know, beyond. Rick's clear confidence. He also talked a ton about how hard he worked at the game, right? He didn't become that good just because by walking out in the field, he cared about being good and he worked at being good. Um, and w when I, I was just actually. uh, talking to Lars Tiffany just on the phone and mentioning how much I've been thinking about Rick's three principles for great lacrosse, being a great defenseman. And, um, he talked about the balance of your hands, which is something I'd never even thought about. And, and Lars, you know, who's coaching at the highest, he goes, Oh my God, he goes, I got one guy right now who I think that would actually help. So again, guys like Andy and Dave and Rick. Didn't get to be this good one by not working at it and two by not really knowing their craft and so With all the bluster and and I love rick I I really came to appreciate rick because he's clearly authentically him just like andy and dave but don't mistake all that For him not really understanding the game at a very high level, right? Absolutely You know, you got some of this bluster and it might seem like overconfidence at times, but I agree when you talk to these people, you know, it's, I don't know that you could find anyone who worked harder and spent more time working on their game and even researching their game. You know, he would go to these camps to meet D Tomaso and who was a lot older than him and Pat McCabe and all these guys, and really just digging into the details to make himself a great player. So he, he deserves his greatness. No doubt. He'd talk all about the fundamentals, right? Footwork, hips, just the fundamentals. Yeah, the stuff that, you know, people might think is boring. I mean, he was one of the greatest takeaway check, one of the greatest takeaway defensemen of all time. But when you really get into it with him, he talks about the fundamentals. Like you can't go anywhere without that. And he wouldn't have been anywhere without that. So yeah, pretty cool. One other thing Jay is thinking about, you know, cause you and I played in an era with those unbelievable Syracuse teams. And, you know, when he, when he talks about. playing against Marichek or Tom, Dom Finn every day, you just get, you get reminded of how good you become when you play against great players every day in practice, you know? And so again, for young players, finding those Places and spaces where you can play against everyday people who are better than you and how much that is going to make you, you know, those Syracuse teams, God, what those practices must have been like, you know, and so how much they challenged each other every day and practice and just got better and better and better. Right. Absolutely. Good stuff. Now, uh, we have a clip here of Dylan Malloy talking about what it was like as he was a recruit and how much it meant to him to get recruited by Brown and a handful of other schools. And, uh, we'll get that going and then we can talk a little bit about that. So let me get this queued up for us. And here we go. Going through it was definitely intense. And, in the sleep wake camps and stuff, and you're all against each other trying to get the coach's eye. So, it definitely was cutthroat. I think I did like, had to be like six summer tournaments going into 11th grade, and like four camps on my own. it definitely wears you out. It's definitely challenging but you know when you do meet that right coach or have the opportunity to kind of have a Conversation that's a really big time to show your character and kind of You know, just be yourself. You don't want to fake who you are or have any sort of mismatch there. Like, these are guys who are basically committing to a relationship. And then hopefully it's good enough to, you know, be friendly the rest of your lives. So it's definitely a big moment in your life when you get those. But at the same time, you know, there's a school for everyone. I think it kind of, it all works out for itself. And just knowing, like our families want, you know, the best education you possibly can get. So, you know, getting into Brown was like a dream come true on that front and lacrosse was an extra piece that, you know, I was able to enjoy and hang out with the boys. Nice, good stuff. A lot of work for your, for the lacrosse nation out there, getting to play at the next level. And we appreciate that. And that's why we, we started this podcast to try to give you guys an inside track. And one of the things we're going to do as our season is winding down, season number one is put together all this great advice, uh, into a manual that we're going to provide for free. So excited about that. And, it's going to be something that I think every, you know, boy and girl out there and their parents can utilize, to really make the most out of recruiting opportunities. Yeah, it was Jay. It was so interesting because as we think back, whether it's players, or coaches today at the highest level, division one, division three, there was a consistent theme about not over committing yourself in the summer as a recruit, right? Absolutely. And making sure that you're taking care of your body and you're, and you're developing your skills. So really picking your spots because, you know, you never know if the school that you want to play for. That you really love is going to be there on your ninth, you know, summer event when it's 95 degrees and you got nothing left in your legs and, and that's the impression that's going to be left with that coach. And I don't remember who it was, but they said once that impressions in your head. No matter what anybody else says, no matter what's on film, it's hard for them to get that impression out of their head. So those spots of the tournaments you're going to play in the showcases, you're going to go to, so you make sure you're putting your best foot forward. Absolutely. Yeah. I remember that statement. It was like, once you see it, you can't unsee it. Yeah. You want to be fresh. And if you pick a handful of these events, um, these coaches are going to pretty much all of the big events and there's a handful of those and we'll have them in the manual. And, uh, you just, you want to be fresh. You want to be able to be playing your best when you're being observed by these college coaches. So good stuff. We had a little sage advice from coach Tierney and so many great pearls in his interview with us. And this one not so humorous or hilarious, but just some good standard advice. And it kind of shows you how much coach Tierney cared about his players and cares about all of lacrosse. So we'll cue this up and run that.. We'll have a little commentary.

Bill:

But the ones that, I like telling young coaches about is those other ones. The ones who don't get it until 10 years, 15 years after. I had a young man walk in my office this year, quit our team eight years ago, nine years ago now he's 30, 31 years old, unmarried, but has a daughter. And he, just came in and he said, Now I get it. Now I know why you said the things you did and you made us act the way you did. And, I wish I had listened to you. They said, well, you are listening to me because now you're here and you're getting it and you still have 50, 60 more years to, incorporate that and, mm-hmm. So it's really,, those are the, those are the guys. And reminding guys that those relationships and reminding you guys your relationships with your children are more important than your relationships with those 700, 800, a thousand kids you've coached over the years, that aren't your kids.

True, true words there by Coach Tierney. Yeah. And Jay, it's, it goes back to what I think we were talking about with coach Tierney earlier. You know, if all you see is, um, his, uh, treatment with the officials on the sidelines, you're not really getting the true picture. And there's, there's when you hear him. talk about how much he cares about his players there, you get a clear sense of why he had so much success, right? His, at the end of the day, when you hear that, you know, his players knew how much he cared about them. And, um, and, and then it becomes no surprise why he built just incredible teams. Yeah, it is amazing. You know, you think some of these coaches, obviously they can get a big ego. Um, I don't know that coach tyranny really is like that at all, but some of these other coaches and they think it's all about them and their coaching expertise. And then when you really get a chance to talk to coach tyranny, like we did on this interview and dig into what it was, I mean, the guy won seven national championships. Princeton was easily. The worst Ivy League school, when we were looking at schools, as far as their record, obviously a great academic institution, but lacrosse wise, I mean, unbelievable that he went in there to the worst team in the Ivy League, literally, I think they were like 1 11 the year before he gets there, and wins six national championships? I mean, it's just preposterous. And in fact, his first year, I think he had a 1 11 season as the coach. But just believing in himself, he told the team they would win a national title in five years, and they did. I mean, it's like, unreal. But it comes, and why did it happen? Obviously, he's good at the X's and O's, but it's because he cared about the players. And I think as a, they were great teams. I mean, they were really tight. They bonded. They were, you know, you know, the whole cliche of going to war together. They probably literally would have gone to war together, you know? So just amazing, amazing stuff. Yeah, Jay, I remember, you know, you talking about that. I mean, our freshman year, that was just a W. Uh, period, but by our senior year, when we were undefeated at number two in the country, that was, that game was a total battle, and we beat them, but man, it was a tough game. We were planning, we changed, we really changed everything around us. We schemed to win that game. It was like the Super Bowl. And meanwhile, the year before, they had beaten us. I mean, that was a shock. As a junior, we lost to them in overtime. And it was like, what? We lost to Princeton? I mean, unbelievable. And then the year after we graduate, they win their first national championship. So, I mean, within four or five years, he completely changed the complexion of Princeton and really the Ivy League. He did. Absolutely. It's just amazing. Well, Jay, it's nice to leave on that positive high note, although I don't know that talking about Princeton lacrosse is necessarily a high note for us, Jay, but how about if we leave it about the, the impact that coaches and the relationships of teammates has not just on the four years, but on our lives yet. Absolutely. No doubt about it. And we need to take the higher ground on this podcast, Ron. Once again, here I am leading the charge, seeing the big picture. Princeton was great for the game of lacrosse, which I think you even just said. I don't know that I said that Jay. I mean, coach Tierney. You said it was good for the Ivy League. I appreciate you coach Tierney, but I'm not going to sit on this podcast and get out my pom poms for Princeton ever, Jay, ever. Oh, they're a heck of a program, no doubt. And here we have newly minted head coach from Dartmouth college. Sean, Kerlin talking about his discussion to head over to the big green. So let's transition a little bit to you guys finding your way to hand over New Hampshire and Sean, take us through what must have been a really exciting time for you, because obviously Kind of the pinnacle of coaching is to get to that division one head coaching, level and in a, in one of the conferences that has proven it can win national championships. Yeah, it's, something that's been on my, on my mind for, you know, a handful of years now, knowing that, you know, when I got into college coaching, my number one goal was to be a coordinator at an ACC school. That obviously happened a lot quicker than I ever expected. And so that really shifted my. Whole mentality and my goals of like, what was next? You know, I think it's been just kind of ingrained in me from all my coaches in the past, just never being complacent. And so when you have a goal achieved, so it's like, okay, what, what is the next step? And so, For me, it was, all right, I got to start wrapping my head around being a head coach. Um and so, you know, one of the biggest things for me was, you know. Kind of based on who I was as a player, who, you know, and who I've coached is, you know, it needed to be a place that was a high academic institution. You know, obviously Dartmouth and the Ivy league checks that box in spades. You know, and I felt I've fallen in love with this league so, you, it's a league that I always told myself there was ever an opportunity to be a head coach in that league. You know, I had to explore it and that included Dartmouth. Right. A place that has had some success, but never consistent success. So this was one that when it popped, it was like, okay, like now it's time to do my homework, right? And make sure this is a place that I knew it was a high academic institution. I knew the league it was in, but you know, the next big thing was, as I've alluded to, I'm a pretty competitive person. And so I needed to make sure that there was a roadmap to success. I didn't need it to be successful right away. But I needed to feel confident that, by putting in the work and surrounding myself with great people, that it could be successful consistently. And so, you know, very quickly through that whole process, that was one that it's something that I needed to flush out and ask a ton of questions about. And as you can tell, based on the shirt I'm wearing and, and we're taking this This call from it's, you know, obviously it felt very confident in the vision that this, the school has for the athletic department and the lacrosse program. And here's a great portion of our. Our question and answer session. With mark Rickio, CEO of USA lacrosse. Mark had such a unique career and it's really interesting to hear this diverse background and how it helped. Create the great leader that he is. And just a great spokesman for the sport of lacrosse. So let's listen in.

Ron:

So, so Mark, one of the things you know, we try to focus on is, uh, in the game, as you alluded to, is, you know, as Jay and I, here we are all these years later, still connected through the game. What, what are a couple of important relationships maybe early in your career that really shaped your passion for the game? You know, who were the people that influenced you most as you were kind of coming up through the game of lacrosse,

Marc:

you know, really around this game? Well, you know, this is a bit cliche, but it's true. It's my mom, you know, my parents were, you know, mom in particular always there to support, you know, win, lose, go out and get shelled, go out and have a great game, you know, uh, always there. And you learn how to deal with perseverance. My mom gave me a great quote after a really tough game in high school once where it basically said, Life is vol or sports is life. With a volume turned up, the highs are higher and the lows are lower. Mm. That's great. And to this day, here I am all these years later, I still remember that. And I share that on to my kids, uh, because that is truth, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. But when I got this job, the two people I called first, besides my mom, was my high school coach at Canada Academy, uh, Johnny Johnson, who I still communicate with, and my college coach, John Danowski, who is Wow. Also head coach at Duke. And, and the men's US men's national team coach, right. Coaches have such a profound influence on certainly me, but on every athlete. And I was, and still am, incredibly grateful for those coaches, for all they provided. And many of my high school football coaches, quite frankly, um mm-hmm the same, just they teach you things that you don't even know you're being taught, right? And then one day you wake up and Wow, I learned a lot because of those coaches. So those two in particular really influenced me.

Jay:

That's awesome. Awesome. Now, just, uh, you know, reading about your career, uh, after you graduated from Hofstra, your first job was at your alma mater there and you were working in fundraising and, as well as marketing for the university, but it was athletic fundraising. Much like our co-host Ron Doles. He did that at Brown University for a good stretch. Now tell us a little bit about those first years. Entering the working world there where you have that proximity to university life as well as athletics and how that may have influenced your future career. The great thing that

Marc:

I, um, experienced at Hofstra is when you work at a university or an institution of higher education, you need to be correct. And what I mean by that is you need to be grammatically correct. Your form needs to be on point. You can't send out information that is, uh, substandard or schlocky or not professionally done. So I learned a lot about even the simple things about how to communicate effectively and efficiently because in a university environment, you're an institution of higher education, and if you can't get it right and what message are you sending your alumni, right? And so that was one of the great lessons I had. The other was being in the, in the development office and alumni relations office instead of the athletic department. I think that what that taught me is really understanding stewardship. Relationship building, working across an organization. You know, when you work in that environment, you're dealing with board members, you're dealing with, um, you know, provost and academics, right. And so understanding the difference between the two gave me a really good understanding to how an organization works. And there's a lot of great things about a university environment, and frankly, there's a lot of inefficiencies in academia. Mm-hmm. Things move slower and they're li sometimes a bit more politically challenged than other environments. Right. But that's life. You gotta figure out how to navigate through that and learn that. And I, and I was very fortunate to learn that at a young age. And the other thing is I worked for a fundraiser most of my career there for a guy by the name of Matt Ek. Mm-hmm. That was a, um, great athlete in Long Island. Went on to play football at University of North Carolina. Was a very good fundraiser, but he was incredibly competitive. Yeah. Probably even more so than I was at that point in my life. And he can, he instilled this real competitive fire that even post co college that. I really put into action on the job, right. I became very, I became much more competitive in my professional career. Um, and he really stoked that, uh, at the university environment. Plus I got a chance to work with a lot of coaches ad uhhuh. I worked with John Danowski for, for many years after that. And both as as colleagues. And that was a great learning as well to understand the demands of a coach.

Jay:

Right. That's great. Now, thinking about having those diverse experiences, a lot of lacrosse coaches will always be saying, go ahead and play multiple sports. And then, in your case, running an ath a different type of athletic organization in the New York Jets, that was your next job after Hofstra. And I was looking through all these responsibilities you had there and it was really, something else where you were part of strategic planning for the organization, business development, even the monetization of MetLife Stadium. So, I mean, that must have been quite an experience and wanted to. Tell us about some of those days back with the Jets and that, you know, organizational experience, how that kind of informed some of the things you're doing with U S A Lacrosse, if you could.

Marc:

Sure. Well, you know, the Jets was a great run. I had 17 seasons at the Jets. Wow. And that is a long time, particularly in the N F nfl, like the N F L, we have this saying, you know, N L N F L stands for not for long know, nothing really last for long in the nfl. So I, I was pretty fortunate. The other thing is I was around really good, smart people, uh, and nobody, as we all know, success, you know, has, you know, many fathers, if you will, and I just worked with some really great teammates and colleagues through the years. So my, you know, a lot of props certainly go to those folks. What really worked at the Jets is I went from. Being in an organization that was relatively small, a mom and pop shop organization under the ownership of Leon Hess to a much more commercially savvy organization under new ownership with Woody Johnson. So I went through an ownership transition, which is a big thing to go through, and not everybody survives that. So that was a great learning. But also the concept of trying to build a stadium in New York City on the west side when we were trying to get the 2012 Olympics to that, failing to building a training facility in New Jersey to building a new stadium and being joint venture partners with the giants as opposed to a tenant. And all of those experiences, you just learn, there's no substitute for experience. And the and, and a lot of those are relatable today. So when I look at our headquarters in our training facility today, that's in Sparks, Maryland. Mm-hmm. I put it under context of what it was like to build a training center for a. F L Athletes Training Center for N F L athletes is just as much an educational facility as it is a training facility. You're there to learn. Mm-hmm. Right. Just as much as you are to train. Huh. And so I look at that today is like, how can we ensure that our current facility is in the best position to serve our athletes? Not just what happens on the lacrosse field, but what happens in wellness in training. They have careers outside of lacrosse as well. Do we have facilities for them to work when they're on site? If they mm-hmm. So you just look at it through it, through those lenses. But my greatest learning was actually watching coaches like Bill Parcells. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't work on the football side, I was on the business side, but I learned so much from watching great leaders and coaches and some maybe not so awesome, right. Their leadership and coaching. Uh, and that was my greatest takeaway cuz I've applied many of those learnings to how I lead and how I manage today. Right. Yeah.

Ron:

Mark, let's, let's pick up from there. So I'm thinking about. You know, John Danowski and Bill Parcells. Right? What, what could you take from your relationship and what you, you know, learned having been coached by Coach Danowski and watching Coach Parcells and how those experiences have shaped sort of some of your 2, 2, 3 keys to leadership and, you know, and how you lead today?

Marc:

Yes, I can. Two crystal clear examples. First one, coach Danowski, um, never forget to this day, he's, and he would say it's when you, it's on your bad days. You have to have your best day. And the takeaway to that was it's easy to go out and play when the weather's nice. Your team is winning, you're on a roll, you're getting playing time. Everything's kind of clicking. It's a lot harder to go out when it's cold early in the season. Um, maybe you're not playing real well. Maybe you're not seeing the field as much as you want. Maybe you feel like not great. Maybe you're stressed about a class. Like that's when you gotta bring your best, right? And because it's easy on the other day. So it's harder on these days. And I've learned from that is that, um, you know, and I, and I took that into, into play when I was at the Jetson leading folks, is that yes, everybody has a story. Everybody's got tough days, but you, you, you do have to bring your best on those most challenging days if you wanna be consistent, if you wanna achieve long-term sustainable success with coach, nice parels. Again, I call'em coach, even though, again, like I, I was on the business side. I didn't, you know, didn't work directly with him. But his greatest, I think one of his great gifts is he clearly understood the negative effects of distraction. And the number one enemy of performance on the field is distraction. If you're, you know, you don't know the playbook, if you're, you know, you've got problems at home, if, um, you know, you know, you, you're not feeling well, you're having a bad day and you're distracted, you're not gonna perform well. It's the same thing on the job. If you're not communicating well, if you are, have internal conflicts that aren't allowing you to just be able to do the job, it's the number one enemy of, of business performances, distraction. So I look at my job and my staff will tell you that part of my job is try to eliminate distractions. Yeah. Right? And let them play fast. Let them go fast in terms of what they do day in and doubt day in and day out in terms of their subject matter expertise.

Jay:

Those are two great points. Excellent.

Ron:

So Mark, let's transition now to your time at, at U S A Lacrosse. I, I was just thinking you talked about, I, I'm, I'm, I'm laughing at thinking about an N F L franchise as a mom and pop operation, but I'm gonna go there. All right. I'm gonna go there. Um, so if, if the Jets were a mom and pop operation when you found it, how would you describe, or what did you think you were walking into at U S A lacrosse and the evolution of that organization and now, you know, a couple years later or more, where are you today? Um, and how have all these experiences sort of helped shape your understanding of, of where you are and where you're going?

Marc:

So, um, God, there's a couple ways to go with this one. So here's the first thing. Yeah. So part of my mandate at USA Lacrosse is some level of change management. Yep. Meaning that, You know, there's a great book and there's, there's a saying, I often invoke what got you here does not get you there. That's what is really important to recognize though, is I just rolled out our long range plan to our staff last week, and it's been through a process going through the board, um, many staff leaders, and then I rolled it out to the, to the entire staff last week and it's a new,

Ron:

so you're gonna share that with our viewers, the day view of your strategic Marcus, that that was your plan right. On the, uh, be public, just Yeah, yeah. On this gigantic podcast to lay on your strategic plan.

Marc:

Yeah. It's not public yet, but I'll start sharing it. You know, this is part, the next step is, is circulating that, but what I communicated to the staff, and I wanted to be very clear to everyone when we start to communicate this more publicly, is that what got us here was really darn good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. There was some really great leadership. And volunteers and staff members and players and coaches that have helped put U S A lacrosse frankly, on the map. We celebrated our 25th anniversary this year as a governing body for the sport. That didn't happen by accident. That came from a lot of good, hard work, uh, from people like Steve Sanderson, who is my predecessor, like a right, an enormous amount of credit goes to, to Steve for the work that he has done and the board before him in terms of building the organization to where it is today and, and, and basically shepherding the sport to where it is today. My job is to try to figure out what's next, how do we get there and what is there? And so for us, there's very much gonna focus on growth at the youth level in particular. But what does growth mean? Grow the game is an overused term, um, that I don't frankly love, um, because it doesn't mean a lot. Our job is to put meaning to it. Define what it means to be a player and what can we do to. Get sticks in kids' hands, but more importantly keep them in their hands and have a great experience in doing so. And that's what our long range plan is, is certainly going to focus on. So to that point, USA Lacrosse was not a mom and pop. We were, we were financially stable, uh, well run. Um, we are more sophisticated than a lot of other governing bodies and other, a lot of our sport entities. With that said, what's next for us as an organization and, and as a sport? And do we have enormous upside? The answer is yes, we do. We have a lot of upside, but we couldn't get that upside if we didn't have that great foundation that we currently have.

And now a little bit of what our listeners can expect in season two. But yeah, all in all, fantastic season. We've got some exciting things coming up in season two. Some great guests, but on top of that, Ron, we're gonna have some swag. We're gonna get your big mug on a sweatshirt and a t shirt, and uh We're going to have Jay, this is, this is hot news, Jay. This is hot news. We're going to have swag. Are you going to put my giant head on some swag, Jay? Well, only on the XL outfits. And it'll only fit on the giant sweatshirts and giant t shirts and hats. Me and Steve will probably be on the smaller items. But that'll be exciting. We're going to get a Patreon page. So I've had a number of listeners say, Why don't you have a Patreon page? You know, we put in 5, 10, 20 dollars, uh, what have you to Support the podcast. So that'll be coming. That'll be exciting. And um, we just got a bunch of guests lined up and we're going to restart again when the next season starts which would be like late january february and it's going to be fun Well, jay, it's been a blast You know, I've got to give some credit to our, the third member of our team, Steve Grisolfi, who's brought, um, quite a bit of level D. We might, we might need some outtakes just of the, the, the silence from some of our guests. When Steve asks his questions, right? Yeah. We get into the Mark Riccio and the chicken riggy, I mean, that might, that was. That was great.

Marc:

The question number one begins, uh, you know, we get right to it. So, um, which is better? New York style pizza or chicken Reggies. New York style pizza cuz I have no idea what a chicken rig is. Uh oh, that's enough. State deLacy. It's chicken rigatoni. Do not, I guess it didn't reach the Finger Lakes region. No, it did not. You unfortunately. Sorry, Rochester, I can tell you that we, we get the thick crust pizza and chicken wings up there. Uh, but New York style pizzas better. Sorry. All right. Nice. Alright, we're off to a good start, Ron. Um, yes, clearly, clearly tear the ladies. I guess not even recognizing your question, but Steve No, it's going great so far. Absolutely. Good research on the chicken rig. Trust me, it's a thing. Should have gone with the buffalo wings,

Got to go back and check out that episode. Thanks so much, Steve. Steve couldn't be here today. He was traveling and we wanted to get this episode out to you guys. But absolutely, Steve will be back for season two. And a lot of those clips were from Steve's questions. I mean, it's just great. I love the hilarity and the levity. All right, guys, we'll have a great holiday season. And thanks so much for being a tremendous audience. As far as numbers, we really did well for a first year podcast. We're like four times The average of a first year podcast. So we, we thank you so much for that. Jay. We're decidedly above average, decidedly above average. That's what we strive for. Happy holidays, everybody. And I can't wait to see you back at get the lack scoop. Happy holidays guys. Take care.

Ron:

until we meet again, here to, hoping you find the twine. We're signing off here at the Get the LAX coop. Thanks again so much. We will see you the next time.