S2 E11. Chemotti's Web: The Spider's 2X Conference COY & His Iron Lattice of Consistency, Part II.

In this second installment of our interview series with 2X Sun Conference COY, Dan Chemotti, the head men’s lacrosse coach of the Richmond Spiders, tells us what inspired him to pursue the coaching profession. One factor was the coaches he had learned through over the years and he admits to having had coaches that anyone in the game of lacrosse would envy: Mike Mesere of West Genesee HS (91% Career Winning Percentage), Mike Pressler of Duke, Bryant, and the PLL, Joe Albericci of West Point, and Charlie Toomey of Loyola to name a few. 

He also describes what it was like at his very first college coaching job, which Mike Pressler helped him attain, with Coach Rick Sowell of Dartmouth. And how this man had a profound influence on him along with his powerful tenant of absolute truthfulness. He was someone Coach Chemotti would follow to St. John’s before taking a position at Loyola College in Baltimore.Next, we hear how Chemotti, who coached at Loyola over a six year span, helped generate and was witness to, one of the most transformative seasons in the history of D1 men’s lacrosse. In 2012, under head coach Charlie Toomey, the Greyhounds, who had not made the NCAA tournament in four years, despite having recorded four 10 win seasons, went on to an 18-1 record and won the Men’s Lacrosse National Championship in 2012, the first and only in school history. 

And finally Coach Chemotti gives us the details on how he transformed a club program to a legitimate conference and NCAA tournament contender and has continued to experience success over an eleven year span. This is a jam packed episode that you won’t want to miss. Sit back, enjoy, and take it all in!

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Transcript

Jay: 0:00

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. And joining us in the studio, Steve gfi, who's collegiate lacrosse career statistics equals one goal against Dartmouth. 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.

0:59

Hello everyone. And welcome back to the show. This is the second installment of our interview with two times sun conference, coach of the year, the head coach of the university of Richmond men's lacrosse program. Dan Shamani. If you've not heard the first portion released last week, we highly recommend going back and giving it a listen. It was a beaut. You will find this interview in progress. Now, are there some things that you took from, certainly with Coach Messier that you took with all those notes? But were there some things you took from Coach Alberici and Pressler into your practice? Oh yeah. I mean, you know, I mean, you name it, you know take a little bit of everything from all of those guys. And you know, those are the guys I still call when, I need advice or even if I need to figure out, how a new ride or clear or whatever it is. I mean, that's, you know, that's, that's my group and that's the, I'm just really fortunate to have. been able to work with you know, such great people to be, so, you know, little bits and pieces of, of everything, the loyalty and the you know, intensity certainly, from coach Pressler from coach Al Barisi, just, you know, the relationships piece, just how important, the relationships are and just, he, is really lucky to have, that kind of relationship with him down there he gave a speech I asked him to, give a talk at my wedding, so like we're, we're very, very close. We're very much cherish, that relationship. And then you go and you learn from coach to me or, then I, started right with coach soul that was up at Dartmouth, Dartmouth. And then, went the year after his, my first year at Dartmouth. He went to St. John's. I stayed at Dartmouth for a year. Then I went down with him and you just saw the impact on young men that he had. in terms of honesty and just like how important honesty was and, getting things done, not being, not, having to sugar coat things, but just, the way that guys responded to honesty. So that, that was, I, I still many times think like, what would coach soul do here in this moment when things happen? And then of course, you know, you think, it all your four years into coaching, and then you come across coach to me. And, I remember watching the players at Loyola and I'm like, man, these guys would absolutely run through a wall for this guy. And, I remember watching the players at Loyola and I'm like, man, these guys would absolutely run through a wall for this guy. Like, what is, what is he doing? What does he have? Like, I want that, you know? And it was just, it was again, like he cared about them so much, he created this incredible family environment, they're Loyola and, here I am like some, young punk, has been in the profession for four years and it's, I'm thinking, all right, things have to be done this way all the time without exception, no excuses, and, he's, I'm watching him and, and just, Like, you know, these guys care about him so much because they know how much he cares about them. And it's like, I kind of rethink some of my philosophies here. So I like a little bit of a softer touch type of thing. I wouldn't say softer touch per se, just you know, kind of more like yeah, just a prioritizing just the relationship in each guy, and then if those players know that he really cares about them, they're going to be doing everything by the book. Probably, right. They're going to be doing everything. 110 percent type of thing. he can demand, you know, greatness from them because they know like, Hey, he, this guy cares about me. He's not, you know, He's not just yelling at me to yell at me or to push me, he's, he's pushing me because he wants me to break. I know that that guy, I know that coach Toomey cares about me. So like if he asks me to run faster, I'm gonna run faster. Right, right. You know what I mean? Yeah. So he's challenging them, sounds like, to be their best. Yeah. That's awesome. To be able to, you know, to work with people like that, I've certainly been very blessed. And then, looking at your bio kind of, as you're just saying, went right into the coaching right after Duke. And was there a point in time when you had decided, was it at Duke before Duke or when did you decide to go into college lacrosse coaching and that would be your profession? Yeah. I did it a lot during the summer times, coming home and staying a part of like the show park program and, like the West Genesee summer. You know program and, worked a bunch of camps all across, everywhere that I could find just kind of working camps and stuff like that. So I probably always knew it's some somewhere in the back of my mind. You know that it was something I wanted to do, but I still remember, going up to coach Pressler and kind of telling him that's what I wanted to do and asking him for help. And it was definitely a different profession than a lot of,, people who go to Duke. You know, getting to, you know, by graduation. So certainly you're there and a lot of your friends are, studying to go to wall street and doctors, you know, all that stuff, engineers. And, so you're kind of like feeling a lot of that out. And should I be a brain surgeon? Yeah. Yeah. So meanwhile, I've told my players some of this, I could find, I would find myself sometimes skipping class to go shoot on goal, I think, sometimes I knew, when that was happening, kind of, you know, what I really wanted to do. Right. with my, with my future. So that's great. And then, so then you're finishing up your senior year and you're like, all right, I'm, I'm applying for some jobs, so I'm, I'm going to go for it like that. Yeah. That was pretty much it. Yeah. Yep. So I went right up to Coach Pressler and Coach Albrecy and asked if they could help. And, Coach Albrecy was tight with Coach Soule. And I was, I was just like, yeah, I'll go wherever I'm, 22 years old, you get in, I understand like, how this works, you got to pay your dues. I remember having a conversation with Mark Van Arsdale, one conversation, he was, I think, he was at Penn conversation with, coach at Lafayette, I believe. I can't even remember all the conversations, but, I remember clicking with coach soul going up there. And just being like, yeah, this is great. I like this guy. Trust this guy. Certainly have learned. It's not, going through the coaching ranks. It's never been for me about like the name of the school. It's been about the, the people who, you're going to be working with and just learning, like, if, if these are people you trust, good things, good things are going to happen, whether even if that's good, even if those good things are just job security, do I trust this person, does this person have my best interest, as a part of their process here. Yeah, that's, that's somebody I want to, you know, I want to work with. I want to work for. So that's always been a big piece for me. So Dartmouth was great going up there. I mean, coach, I still to this day, they had some great players. my first year, coach sold an incredible job recruiting, him and the other coach, Pat Finn there who is now a college official. But I think to myself all the time, man, I wish I, I wish I had a chance to coach those guys now,, I knew so little then. Not that I know a ton now, but there were some great players there. And, we were fortunate enough. We went to the NCAA tournament of that year in 2003. It was Dartmouth's only NCAA tournament. Appearance first Ivy League championship in like 38 years, something like that. I may have statistics incorrect, but we had, I think we're winning, we're beating Syracuse by two, maybe, with only a couple of minutes left, only had scored a goal in the game. It was just incredible. Coach soul gets recruited to go to ST john's. When that season was over, they had, Dartmouth had a great year. So, he gets, the opportunity to go there and start that program. So he goes and he's like, Hey, take you with me, but we're just, we're all, we're going to be doing is recruiting, you know, and so I was like, well, let me, you know, stay here and see who they hire. And, maybe I can advance up the ranks a little quicker, whatever, who knows, you know? So, right now I ended up coaching the offense my second year. I remember our first game was against Ruckers, playing Ruckers at St. Paul's School in Baltimore. Like, alright, I got this. I'm coaching the offense. And it's like, we're running the first offense, you know, we're not scoring or like running the second one. We're not scoring like all right Well, I got two things here Like like, so kind of, I learned, you learn a lot by by failure, All right, like this is not as trial and error. Yeah, right. So, you know learned a lot that year reconnected with coach soul was like, the way lacrosse is exploding here You Starting a program might be a good thing to have on my resume. Right. I really like coach soul, and now they have a team. So like, I'm going to have to be really buttoned up. They've got a bunch of freshmen, I gotta be a better coach. And there, there was talent there at Dartmouth, during that time so so yeah, I went to Queens for two years, enjoyed that I had friends on Long Island. I had friends in Manhattan lived with a couple of college You know, college buddies during that time, learn how to start a program. Again, coach soul gets lured away to go to Stony Brook. And the Loyola job was open and I'm kind of, and I'm just thinking to myself, like, I know a lot about Loyola, a bunch of my college, a bunch of my college or excuse me, high school teammates went to Loyola. I took a visit there. I was like, I'd rather go to Baltimore than further out on Long Island, no offense. And I was so, so thankfully coach to me, gave me a shot. Yeah, pretty amazing looking at that time when you were there. It looked like the team had had several, maybe leading up to that national championship. I think it was maybe three, 10 win seasons, but like hadn't made the NCAA tournament. And then that your fifth year, they go, you guys go 18 and one. And that is just amazing. So what, what was the big thing that year? I mean, gosh, you must've, must've been a lot of things, but what would you say based on those teams, that were good, but not great. And then, talk about some takeaways. What was that like that 18 to one run? And what was the big difference in the team? Would you say the biggest, biggest difference in the team was the senior leadership. I mean, that is and always has been I, I, those guys were that was a special group. It was, it was not a big group. But it was a it was very special group. So the way that they led allowed the coaches to coach and There wasn't a whole lot else to worry about because you knew that, they had been there. I was looking at some of the names like on the all american list that were kind of being repeated year after year. So it was a good size class of guys that had played for, that was their fourth year, right? Yeah, those Paramount that were the, the most talented group on that team was the junior class. Junior class was very talented. I would say that was where the majority of the All Americans were. Okay. You know, Eric Lusby was a true senior. He was probably the most accomplished senior. He was, he ended up being MVP, I think, right? Yeah, he was the most outstanding player in the, you know, NCAA tournament. Yep. J. P. Dalton was a second line middie and faceoff guy. He was He was the heart and soul. And, I still would, name him our MVP if I had a vote, you know, just his leadership, in, in his role on the team. And then Dylan Grimm was a starting defenseman. And then I think our second longest committee was a senior. There were not many seniors but, but it was their leadership, you know, that was, was something pretty special. And we had You know it's really good players. We have some good players too, you know, guys like Mike Sawyer, guys like Joe Fletcher, you know, guys like Scott Ratliff, you know, Josh Hawkins you know, we've, we, we were able to as a staff figure out like how to utilize like some of the, most athletic guys on the team, which were the rope unit. Scott Ratliff, Josh Hawkins, Pat Lacone, Kyle Duffy, like, how do we, you know, use these guys to, be more dangerous in transition? That was, that was fun kind of, exploration process. And certainly helped to have guys like Mike Sawyer and Eric Lesby. Catching and shooting the ball in transition. I remember Mike used to just shoot the ball and coach DeJuan and I would just look at each other and laugh. Yeah. Smile like that. Like I've never seen the lacrosse ball move that fast before. Like, I mean, it was, it was a, you know, true reflex. He would shoot it and we would just start chuckling. Like what, like how, how does he do that? Like that. That was something we ridiculous talent definitely helps when you stay right. So it was Billy Dwan was was an assistant on that one. Oh, Matt Dwan, Matt Dwan, who's still there. Yeah, right. That's right. Now now as a coaching staff, you guys were relatively young, right? Facing all that high pressure and, semifinals to the finals. I mean, Jimmy's a year older than me. I played against him at Brown and I've talked to him a couple times. But I guess you'd been at a few stops then you'd been there, I guess it was your fifth year, so you're, you're probably starting to really, so that was pick up the coaching game. So that was, I was there for, so I was there for six seasons, so 2000, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Okay. And then the next, the fall, you know, I was there as well, so about six. And so I mean yeah, I would, I finished there at 32. Started there at 27 or started there at 26. So yeah, kind of felt young, but, luckily had, some, you know, some experience. And like we said, kind of, learned how to fail, learned how to. Improve through trial and error. And still did that plenty at Loyola. That's for sure. Still doing that every day here, as well. Right, right, right. And then after that season, just looking at the bio, I guess you had kind of a year of transition. Was that right? Was Richmond's deciding to put a program together? And so what was that whole situation like? They had a club program, right? So, yeah, this is always a fun story. So, Kind of, again, I just feel very lucky here. I've been Richmond was another destinational opportunity, you know, here. A close friend of mine growing up who I played basketball with and against played basketball here. So I had familiarity you know, with this campus and the school to a certain level and always kind of asked myself, like, I don't, they have a lacrosse team. There's a lot of teams playing at a level. Like a pretty high level and Richmond seems to be to offer all of the same things those other schools are offering. So like that would just be a natural fit. Plus it's, it's not far from places like Virginia and Duke and North Carolina, et cetera. So I still remember the first time it was actually coach Pressler told me, you know, he's like, Hey, I heard Richmond's going to start a program and I just remember thinking, man, that would be awesome. You know, I hope I hope I'll be able to compete for that job when that, if and when that happens, right? And then thankfully we win the national championship then, That always looks good on the resume. Yeah, that was helpful on there. You know, there there were a couple opportunities this summer After the championship because richmond announced in the fall that they were going to start the program. So thankfully I was You still an assistant coach looking, because when I heard that, when that news popped, I was like, oh man, this is, you know, I would love to be here. And I walked across the hall to coach Toomey's office and he made a phone call to David Walsh. And you know, I came down for an interview and the, the rest is, is history.

Jay: 16:42

How about if we transition to. J m l and let's do that.

16:47

we're so glad you're joining us for season two of the, get the lack scoop podcast. Due to popular demand. We have put together a Patrion page for the show. This will allow those interested in supporting our efforts. To do just that and to get exclusive access to unedited interviews. Big discounts on JML online courses. And merchandise from our new online store. Big additions to the JML course catalog. Now we have a defenseman's course taught by none other than UVA head coach, Lars, Tiffany, and a goalie course taught by former two-time All-American and UVA assistant coach. Kept Turner. You can check out our Patrion page with the link that is listed in the description, as well as taking a look at the online store again, with the link listed in the description. We're super excited to get back to our interview and you will find that interview in progress. So yeah, this is honestly a destinational opportunity for me. I knew I could be for a really long time, you know, be a great place to raise a family. And then I was like, that's, you know, if, if you go there and don't screw it up, like you could have, you know, something pretty special there. So, right. You know, thankfully you've done our way. You know, I've been able to, surround myself with great people down here. It started with David Walsh, hiring me again. It was one of those, like, I trust this guy, kind of thing. Like I did a lot of maneuvering to get the funding for the team. And they, they showed significant commitment right from the beginning. Yeah, very much. And hi, I hired, so, yeah. So how did you recruit like for that team? Like, because they, you probably had to scramble to get some players transfers. Like, what was that like? So, so, yeah, so I'll come back to that. So real quick, though. Yeah. After the year of recruiting, which again, I'll come back to we'll hire, you know, Paul Richards. Who was a player at Loyola, I coached him for a couple of years, knew what he stood for. He was coaching at Cornell, got him down here and, he's been with me ever since. And, it's funny, somebody from like us lacrosse magazine or USA magazine, you know, called to talk about our defense. And, and and I'm like, I, you're talking to the wrong guy here. Like, like think about the defense, you know? So that's, Richmond lacrosse has been synonymous with playing great defense, for 10 years and that's all coach Richards. So really, lucky to, you know, that he put his trust, in me to, move his wife down here and start his family down here and cause he has been, equally as, as much part of where our program is as anybody else. So he's, we're really, really blessed to have him. That's great going back to the, recruiting. So, you know, my first day on campus here was November 12th of 2012. And I remember like, when they started the program, this is a true story. Not a lot of people know the story. when they started the program, they said, all right, you have, there was, there was a club team. There was MCL, MCLA club team. They said, we're going to give you six admission slots. And I was like, okay, what does that mean? They were like, you can guarantee six guys into school. So I was like, all right, so we're, you were starting lacrosse program and I can get six guys in it's like, all right, well, We're going to need more than that. And it was just, I, I didn't, not to get into like how the whole process works down here, but they were like, no, you got six slots. So the first group we recruited, we recruited with six slots, which is the truth we eventually got in. So I remember, I remember talking to guys and high school coaches and they're like, Oh, you're starting a program. You need players. It's like, You know, here, I got this guy for him or watching film. Be like, no, I can't, you know, can't take him. Like, what are you talking about? You have no team. Like, I was like, I got six slots. I can't give you, this guy's not good enough to get a slot. Like I had to be really particular. To get those six slots, everybody else we had to find had to have the academic strong enough to get admitted on their own. Right? So that was definitely a stressful year. But to me, it was, this is too good of an opportunity to pass up, figure this out one. And, you know, I'm going to do what I need to do to make sure that. We are not recruiting with only six slots from from a year to year. But, the team we're able to put together, like you said, and still, you know one of my they tell you that after they gave you the job. No, no, no, no. I knew what I was getting into. But again, it was You know, I remember thinking, like this is, this is not a reason to not take this job. Right. I was like, certainly if it doesn't get better, like you're looking for another job, but just say it's gotten better. Well, I was at that first game when you guys played Virginia and one goal game. I was, it was incredibly impressive. You know, to have a team that was that competitive, that season had some ups and downs, but you did, I think you won the, your, the Sun Conference Championship, right? And yeah, and you went into the playoffs, like we were saying in the opening. That was pretty amazing. We it's, yeah, these are all fun stories to tell. It's kind of like the, you know, walking uphill to school in the snow both ways, but they get a little bit more dramatic, with each year that passes. Right. We we had 30, we had 32 players on the team. So we took a variety of club guys. But a lot of club guys, I was not what they signed up for and they were not what I signed up for. So they, guys were quitting during the run test, like legitimately just quitting. They were like, what are we doing? I'm like, this is not, this is not, you I'm not, I do not want to play division one. And this guy is crazy. And I'm out of here, you know so but we, we finished, you know With 30, 32 guys. We lost our first five games. We could not win any face offs. And I remember, and we were just thinking we need the ball. We actually have pretty good defense and a good goalie. We just need the ball. So I remember we introduced 10 man ride, in our sixth game, played Vermont, down in Durham, North Carolina of all places. And, got our first win. Then we were kind of off and running. We ended up winning a couple of conference games. We beat Furman and we beat Jacksonville and Jacksonville, a pretty good team that year, so we're really, that was a huge boost of momentum. I remember playing VMI I'm sure any, you know, former players listening to this, remember the travel, in the hotel that I booked them in, into VMI, you know, I won't get into those details, but we lost the VMI. The guy, Mickey Hoffmeister, had like five goals against us. Yeah, I know. Over time. Yeah, he's a local area. That's fine. And we're like, all right, we're just, we're sneaking into the conference tournament as the four seed. But we're like, you know what, this might be good that we lost because, we're actually like. It's gonna allow us to focus up. We drive down to Macon, Georgia, and we played awesome against Mercer, who was the one seed, we were getting better, so that was cool. We beat them up pretty good, if I remember correctly. And we're able to sneak out a win against High Point. In the first conference championship, our guys didn't know what the heck was going on, like you had to know what's going on. And we just were like, all right, when we found out on selection Sunday, we were playing Air Force on a Wednesday. I want to say in Air Force part of the playing game Sunday night, we were like, okay, how, how the heck are we going to get out there for us? Again, we had a bunch of freshmen. They still had, or like trying to figure out even what's going on. So, but that was, that was awesome. That's like I said, I go into the NCAA tournament, the first year of existence is still something we're like, incredibly proud of and nothing, nobody can ever take that away from, that group, which is great. That is, that is very cool. Very nice. And now, in this podcast, we always like to kind of talk about what makes for consistent success and just looking at your career in general, but really at Richmond. I mean, all these years, you guys have been incredibly consistent and what are some of the qualities you look for in recruits? Has it changed a little bit over the years? And would you say, you know, so what do you, what do you think are the keys to that consistent winning year in and year out?

Ron: 24:51

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.