S2 E12. Chemotti's Web: The Spider's 2X Conference COY & His Iron Lattice of Consistency, Part III.

In this third and final installment of our interview series with 2X ASUN COY, the Richmond Spiders Head Coach, Dan Chemotti, we hear of Coach's pillars of success for building a powerfully consistent program. 

After over fifty interviews with top college coaches and skills trainers, Chemotti unearths a concept we have not heard before on the show and it makes absolute sense as to why it is a must for any lacrosse player to implement if they'd like to achieve high levels of excellence. Listen in and learn from this grand lax master!

And we don’t stop there. Having led the Spiders to the conference championship game in all eleven of his seasons at the helm, we delve into how recruiting the “right” players, not simply the most talented, is essential to Richmond’s success. Learn what ingredients top college coaches are looking for out on the recruiting trail as they gather the ingredients for a stew that must be tasty and yet pack a punch.

And finally, our roving reporter, Steve Gresalfi, hops on board to deliver some intriguing and quite questionable listener questions. In particular he delves into how Richmond became the Spiders and what the breakfast food options were like in Hanover, N.H. compared to Queens, NY. This is another jam packed episode that you won’t want to miss. Sit back, enjoy, and take it all in!

If you like what you’re listening to and want to hear more, you can support the show by subscribing, telling a friend, and writing a review. Also, you can show your support by joining our Patreon page, checking out our online store (links listed below),… we’d really appreciate it!

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Link to Video of the Week:
Master The 5 Best Dodges From the Wing!
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Blazing Shots... on the Run!
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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. How about if we transition to. J m l and let's do that. We'll get into a little bit of the mindset. We'll do a mindset minute here.

1:09

Hello everyone. And welcome back to the show. We're super excited to bring you the third and final installment of our interview series with two time ASEN conference, coach of the year, the university of Richmond men's lacrosse team head coach. Dan Shamani. If you have not heard the two prior episodes, we highly recommend you go back and give them a listen. Because the information shared by coach. was simply precious. You'll find today's interview starting up, right where we left off last week. 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 what are some of the qualities you look for in recruits? Has it changed a little bit over the years? and so what do you, what do you think are the keys to that consistent winning year in and year out? Yeah, I mean the, very simple, just recruiting rate. young men recruiting great families, character over talent or, I mean, certainly you want as much talent as you can get. But not many people have enough talent to overcome, you know, bad character. So, if, if you enjoy the group that you coach every day. The way that you're going to come out to practice, just as the coach with that, with like that enthusiasm is going to be really helpful to your guys, but, more importantly, more importantly than that, you've got incredible guys who, whether they're like minded to you or whatever. You know where those relationships, as we mentioned, earlier where those can really take shape and and blossom into Again, those like hey, like i'm gonna push you today, like how much you know, we've done, a lot this year You know how much I care about you like We're gonna push you today You know and, and they push us, as well. So we do focus a lot on we, we make really, tough decisions, but a lot of them are like, well, who's, who do we trust here? Who's, who's, who's really mature? Who can we push? Who's got the leadership qualities that we're looking for. So that's honestly a big part of it because we hold, we hold the guys here to a very high standard. so every, every team, I'm sure has great culture. We try and make sure ours is just consistently different. Okay. And so, when you gotta be. You got to be built a little bit different to be to meet that demand, on a daily basis, so those are the kind of guys, that we're looking for. And we don't shy away from telling them that in the recruiting process. No, we're not gonna, we're not gonna blow smoke and you know, kind of hide any of that. And then when they get here, be like, whoa, but it's but I do think it's really special culture. And I think it's seen, yes, in our level of consistency. We've certainly had success on the field. We have had way more success off the field, when it comes to just. The way our guys are perceived on campus, the way they take care of their business academically. So, you know, that stuff is not kind of out there for necessarily division 1 landscape and fans to see. Quite honestly. It's. It's it's way better than even our on the field success, right? Wow, that's great. And I did see with Coach Hurley from UConn, with them winning the men's championship, there was a piece either on TikTok or Instagram or Twitter where he was talking about how important the parents are, a lot of his recruits and just kind of the family in general. And. What's your feeling on that? You know, sometimes the parent can just be sitting the wrong tone, and it really affects the player, and it could even affect the relationship while the kids at college. So is that part of the process for you as well? Oh, definitely. I'm certainly not going to throw anyone under the bus here, but there's been, a number of young men who, you know, when they're here for a visit, you just, you interact with the parents. And it's just like, ah, I just. I don't know. I don't trust that guy. Right. You know, I just, we didn't you know, you didn't click with that mom or just, you know, cause I mean, the parents are doing the heavy lifting for the first 18 years, you know? So like you have to recruit the parents, like, all right, what kind of young man are we getting? What was our interactions? What were those interactions like with mom and dad, or mom and dad, you know, buttoned up, are they, you know, how do they behave,, at a high school game, how do they behave at a, on the club circuit? It's just, you know you have to, you have to make sure you factor in everything. There are Millions of kids out there to recruit, you know, there are, you got to find reasons to, check kids off your list, you know, as much as you're looking for, reasons to like put kids on your list. Right. So, and they're just, there's not enough hours in the day. To, you know, everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And I imagine the players are really going to be quite a bit of reflection of the character of the parents as well. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the other topics we'd like to delve into is the actual recruiting process. I don't want to make your brain hurt here, but in general, we've, we've asked a number of these different questions, but if you could tell our listeners, let's say you got a player, boy or girl approaching that 10th grade year. Yeah. Is what I would imagine is where it's starting. If not,, tell me where it actually would start and just kind of just briefly on each. Let's say the fall than the winter, spring. They're going to be in season than the summer. Like, what are the touch points? Like, you're there, you know, ready to recruit, and what are you looking for? Because they're going to be contacting you naturally at this point. So if you could just walk us through those seasons and that initial contact point. Yeah, it's so funny. I mean, it is. Yeah. The recruiting is not a perfect science on either side, the coaches or the, or the, or the high school athletes. There's the, I mean, I give you the, all the cliche advice, which is, you know, drop your, your email to the coach, with your interest, with your highlight film, and your, your contact information and all of that stuff. I mean, that's. every kid is doing that, and that would be like the fall of that sophomore year. Is that when they first would do that? They're they're doing that. Yeah, yeah, their fall or or or spring, you know, their sophomore year. So I think there's a handful of schools that are, Getting organized with the sophomore class, in the fall of sophomores, you know, years, but would say the majority of division one schools, will be getting organized with, that class at the end of, their season when those sophomores are going through their, their summer from their sophomore to their junior year, trying to figure out, you know, who they're going to recruit. And certainly there's a. There's a circuit that, all of the club coaches and college coaches and high school programs know, very well you know, that for a lot of guys, you know, that you got to get on that circuit. to be seen or be involved in a couple of specific camps, to be seen but there's like I said, I mean, this is so far from a perfect science, there's a young man who, you know, we did not recruit who is starting for, one of the best teams and in the rankings right now is a senior who's uncommitted, who just, He applied to Richmond. He got in and he wants to come. And, we saw his film. I guess pretty good. Why wouldn't we take him? You know, kind of thing. So it's it's it's kind of slipped through the cracks. So, yeah, I mean, and there's there are so many of those stories. It's it's really stressful. It's definitely really stressful, you know, for these kids and these families, they have invested so much time and money in to, getting on the right club team and going to all these events. It is it is amazing. My kids are very young, so we're certainly not You know, in that mold, I have no idea what we're going to do if, life is still the same, Well, we can help you with that coach. We've taken all the rate advice we received from some of the best D one. And. D three coaches in the game, coaches such as bill Tierney, Dom star Jah, and Lars, Tiffany, and trimmed it down to a short book called inside the recruiting game insights from college lacrosse coaches. In the book, you will find literally all the information you need to take the frustration, confusion. Along with the wasted time and effort. Out of the college lacrosse recruiting process. Our free version of the book has been made available. On the Jane McMahon lacrosse app. So simply copy and paste the link for the free mini course. On our app listed in the description and you will find the book listed there and its entirety. For those of you who would like a paperback or Kindle version it is available on amazon.com. Either way we recommend you check it out because we know for sure that you'll get so much out of it. Now we will return to our interview in progress my best advice is, for a kid out there who's listening is you stick to your guns, you know you be realistic with your, with your expectations and the level that you can play at and you stick to your guns. If you are, if in your heart that you are a division one player. You just, you stick to your guns, you stay the course, you know, you keep working on your academics, you keep working on your game and somebody is going to find you somewhere, if you are, a division three player and, you're focused on division one you're not using your time wisely, you got, you know. Ask your coaches to be honest with you about, what level you can play at. Cause a lot of great division three coaches, there's a lot of great division three programs. I think, being honest with yourself and stick into your guns. I know, I know it's kind of cliche. But rather than just tell you, you got to send this email or that, like everybody's doing that, you know, every coach gets 500 emails from people who they don't know. And trying to sift through those is just, it's impossible, to do. Okay, and a lot of people are going to delegate that to others. So, I'm just going to give you some, philosophical advice of just stay with it. If you are just determined, you're going to stay with it and you're going to persevere and you're going to find yourself, on a roster, you think of even the kid you brought up UConn basketball and isn't the lacrosse kid, cam Spencer, you know, I mean, cam Spencer who just wanted, a national championship at college basketball, you know, he played at Loyola. And he just, all right, I'm going to use this as a springboard to go play at Rutgers. And then he transferred to UConn and was just like, this is, this is what I want to do. I'm going to do it. He stuck to it and, you know you know, and he stayed with it and, you know, accomplished, you know, what his, what his goals were. So yeah, so hopefully that's helpful to, you know, a few kids out there. Yeah, absolutely. Good stuff. And getting towards the end here, coach. I want to hold you too long. But one, one other question, I've been involved with some youth lacrosse coaching for about 20 years since I moved down here about 20 years ago. And it seems like in the middle school years, you'll get a lot of these kids, they're, they're doing really well. And then they kind of hit a brick wall as far as improvement. And what I found is a lot of times it is just individual skill development. They are playing on these travel circuits and travel teams, and it helps to be going up against that top competition, but I found like if they don't take some time to work on their skills and go out and literally take, 50 or 100 shots as a young kid and hit some corners, and, if they don't take that extra time, they don't seem to improve, and As I had mentioned in this email to you that one of the things you were working on at a coaches conference this coaches insider was this overhand shooting technique on the run where you're really rotating your hips, rotating your shoulders. And it's, as you were saying in this video, the kids don't really like it. But it really gets them to get more velocity on their shot so that, these kind of skills like what are, what are things you think kids should be working on on their own? Let's say for an offensive player, defensive player, even though they're on these travel teams, first of all,, do you think they need to work on individual skills? And number two is what do you think they should put some time into? Yeah. I mean, absolutely. They, spending time to work on your individual skills. I mean, that's, you know, That's how you're going to get better. If you're just showing up with your team every day, you're getting better at the same rate as everyone else. Let's take a little break to hear about a concept fully supported by JML. And that concept is the need for players to work on their individual skills. And we couldn't have a better example as this endorsement of practicing outside of practice comes from quite possibly the two greatest players who ever played the game. Gary and Paul Gaye. Listen to this clip. Taken from this past Syracuse first Virginia lacrosse game. Where Paul Gates Jersey was retired and now hangs in the rafters. At the dome right next to his brother. Gary's. Commentator Paul Tara had just asked Paul what made these two legends different in hear what Paul has to say? Outside of practice, you know, we took what the coaches let us have freedom and we ran with it. We'd go in Manly Fieldhouse, we'd go to Manly Fieldhouse, and stuff that we learned as kids and tried to adapt it to the field game. Outside of practice, outside of the team, I can remember that if the team were to have They'd all get, uh, buses home. Yep. And Gary and I would run home. That's amazing. We knew what we're doing. It was the work ethic. It helps to be conditioned when you play fast like that. I know your brother loves when it goes from one end to another. So there you have it. And with the JML app. Myself and UVA coaches, Lars, Tiffany and Kip Turner has put together a skills training programs for offensive and defensive players, as well as for goalies teaching the essential skills needed to play this sport at the highest level. And to greatly increase your ability to get recruited at the college level. So check out the link for our free short course in the description below, or check it out@ourpodcasthostsiteatgetthelacscoopdotbuzzsprout.com. We'll return to our interview in progress. I mean, I love watching the Kobe Bryant. clip, you know, comes across your feet on Instagram every now and then where he talks about he went from like, age 12, not scoring a point all summer playing basketball to the age of 14 being, the best, one of the best players in the state, if not the best player in the state. And just, that was all just to, he was like, I wanted to get good and I just did, all of this stuff on my own. So yeah, absolutely. I mean, that, that should be. And especially if you want to play Division One, you got to get out there and you got to be doing stuff, on your own. I am a huge believer in wall ball. I'm a big believer in one handed wall ball, whether it's your top hand or your bottom hand. I think that's a really simple way to start. For guys, I think the translation between that and shooting is you know, the one handed piece is very very specific and very particular and, and very strong. So coach used to use the phrase. When we would meet and talk, you have to learn the middle piece of the mechanic. it's easy for young players to see, the beginning, they can watch, Tom Schreiber shoot, and they can see the beginning, and they can see the result, but learning the middle, like what happens, you know, throughout, like that's, that's the piece that I think you really need to master and that's so I think like that drill that you saw like that's exactly that you know, that statement in action is learning the middle piece of the mechanic. Being able to like set your, your body and your,, your hips and your shoulders up. Like, alright, when I'm coming down the alley and if I'm a midi and I need to, you know, wanna be able to score on the run and beat my guy, this is what I need to look like and I need to, I need to teach my muscle memory, that this is what needs to happen. when my brain says shoot the ball, right? So again, that's all the learning, the middle piece, that's right. Of mechanics. So, and you can't, that was the exact middle of the shot. Now, I think you cannot learn the middle piece of the mechanic by doing things full speed, right? You cannot, like, you, you'll never, you'll learn how to start it and you'll, think, and you'll see that the result. be what you want, but you the middle by doing it fu is all coach Miss era bas interesting actually. And and apply it into the thi you know, even when our f get here, you know y to show up and they want You know how good they are. And right meanwhile, we're telling them, slow down, slow down. So you're not, you're not getting better. You're not learning it. We would like to teach you this. version, you know, slow down, so it really can, can sink in. So and it's actually funny and it's, it's funny to hear our like older guys, you know, like seeing, seeing that and thinking back to like, oh man, coach, coach used to say that to me all the time, you know what I mean? So but that's all, it's all still stems from, coach Macera's teachings and you know, the way he taught us. Right. That's awesome. Good stuff. Well, I think we're ready to bring in our roving reporter to finish up. All right. It's been a great interview. So my questions don't really, you know, because they don't let me talk about lacrosse. I have to ask you about some other aspects of your career. So as discussed earlier in the podcast, I don't know anything else about anything. So I'm very nervous. So as discussed earlier in the podcast, I early in your coaching career, you did a stint up at Dartmouth in New Hampshire and then went there straight to St. John's in Queens, New York. Tell us about the transition in the breakfast options from the New Hampshire organic granola and muesli. To new york's you know to a new york deli's bacon egg and cheese on a roll. So yeah It must have been quite a culture shock to handle that. I do know these are this is a topic. I do know something about So I mean when I was at dartmouth year one, I was making eleven thousand dollars So I I you know, I mean it was honey nut cheerios You know, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you know so that was but I lived in, when I moved down to Queens, I lived in Bayside, Queens. Oh, yeah. So Steve lived in Bayside at one point. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Boulevard, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. There we go. So, it's funny. I tell my son, you know you know, I lived in Queens, you know, cause he's Spider Man. I And so he always asks, Oh, he's like, did you see Spider Man when you live in Queens? No, but but there was the Bayside milk farm. So the Bayside milk farm was awesome. And this was a sandwich. What's it called at the Coliseum deli outside Hofstra, the red star. Chicken cutlet, ham, Swiss cheese, honey, mustard. So that was always my, that was my go to farm. They used to know me by name, you know, cause I would ask for that, you know, all the time. So, you know, chicken cutlet, in New York, I mean, there's, there's, there's nothing like it. So did you, when you were in, in Queens, did you have a go to pizza place? Did you go to like VI pizza on bill Boulevard? Like what was the go to spot? Oh, man. I cannot remember the name of it. There was definitely a spot. I can picture it. Yeah. But I cannot remember the name. Everybody always has the one that they go to. Even though there's 15 on the same street, you just keep going back to the same place, right? Yeah. Yeah. Now that you're in Richmond though have you gone full biscuits and gravy for breakfast? So like what's your Waffle House order now? Like do you go all star? Smattered? Anything like that's like a any breakfast burrito that I can find. There is honestly the best breakfast sandwich in Richmond is on campus. Really? We got a farmer's wrap at Tyler's Deli here on campus. I, I have to, the willpower to not get it every day is, is like a challenge. It's, it's I see Jay taking notes. He's only 20 minutes away. Check that out. Yeah. The farmer's wrap or like, you know, anything that's. Some sort of breakfast, burrito. I'm that that is my kryptonite for sure all right. So it's quiz time. I did some research on wikipedia. So now i'm an expert Do you know why the University of Richmond's mascot is the spiders? Of course, yes I do. So, used to be the Colts, and then I want to say in the early 1900s, there was a pitcher on the baseball team who was, call him 6'8 6'9 and the local sports writer dubbed him the Daddy Longleg. It's a wind up delivery. He looked like a daddy long legs. So he, him and that sports reporter apparently transcended us from the Richmond Colts to the Richmond Spiders and the only country, the only college in the country with a spider as a mascot. Yep. Yep. All right. So I'm going to, and the one right at X on the lax field. I love it. All right. So I'm going to quickly list some interesting rankings for the university for our listeners. US report. Has the University of Richmond in the top 25 best liberal arts colleges in the country. Princeton Review lists it as the number one for most beautiful campus. Number three for best classroom experience, number three for best schools for internships, and number three for best run colleges. Tell us some of the other things that you would want our prospective players and parents who are beginning their search for schools and programs to know about the University of Richmond. Besides Tyler's. Yeah, I mean you took a lot of the words right out of my mouth. I mean the number one ranking for the most beautiful campus is very, well deserved. I mean this place is It is immaculate. I mean, it's really, really something special. This is not hard to do in recruiting, but the hardest thing we have in recruiting is just getting people on campus, which again is not hard. And then campus speaks for itself. I think a really neat dynamic that we have here is you can refer to it as like the best of both worlds. You have all of the academic advantages that small schools offer combined with all of the athletic and other advantages that larger schools offer. So it's a really neat combination. Certainly it's not like, like big 10 football, unlike Saturdays, but in terms of like the size of campus and the larger, you can have a larger school experience. You can have a smaller school. Experience, and I just think that's very, very unique and not common. Yeah. And great facilities for a smaller school, you know. Yes. Yeah. Football stadium, it's great size for lacrosse, the, the basketball arena is awesome. I mean, it is a beautiful campus, too. And those are, that's, those are the things I'm referring to, for sure. Right. And my son says the cafeteria is amazing. He went there for basketball camp when he was younger. He said the food's great. Oh, yeah. The the dining hall is the real deal. I am really happy. It's on the other side of campus from my office. We would our record would not be what it is. If if we, if our offices are close to the dining hall, we would spend way too much time in there. But we, we do team heels in there. I mean, that place is legit. Yeah. Nice. Awesome. Well, thanks so much coach. This has just been great. Yeah. Yeah. It's been fun. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. Good luck the rest of the way. Yes, absolutely. And you had a big win last weekend. Who do you got this weekend? Play UMass, flying up to UMass tomorrow. You know, always, you know, super tough opponent. Yeah. You know I dunno if there's a better guy in the sport than Coach Canella. Right. Brook guy. So what's that, Brook? Is that right? He's a Limbrick guy. That's Robert. I went to high school as well. Oh yeah. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. They were our big rival when we were playing back in the day, so That's great. Yeah. A really, really tough, really well coached team. So certainly got a work cut out for us. Awesome. Well, well, good luck. And do you guys have a home game towards the end of the year? Yeah. So we'll go up to UMass tomorrow. And then next Saturday we have St. Joe's. Gotcha. They're no slouch. Yeah. You have them at home. Well, all we're focused on right now are the men. Right, right. I gotcha. Yeah. I'll see if I can't stop by. Dom got me up in the booth one game at the Virginia game, so I'll see if I can't get there for that St. Joe's game. He has been special. We really enjoy, you know, his presence. That's great. Yeah, he was telling me he had come out to practice a few times and talked to your team and that's awesome. Yeah. He's great. No doubt. Our coach. Well, good luck. Rest of the way. And thanks again so much for coming on. It was awesome. Yeah. My pleasure. Yeah. Really appreciate it. You guys have a great night. Bye. Bye.

Ron: 26:21

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.