S3 E26. The Whiz: Tewaaraton Winner, PLL All Star, & Brown O.C. Logan Wisnauskas, Part I.

In this episode of Get the Lax Scoop, hosts Big Dawg and Jaybird sit down with special guest, 2022 Tewaaraton award winner, PLL All Star, and current Brown Men’s Lacrosse Offensive Coordinator, Logan Wisnauskas, to discuss his journey in the sport from childhood to professional success. Logan shares his early memories of playing lacrosse, influenced by his father, a former national champion at Salisbury, and his experience growing up with the sport. The discussion covers his high school career at Boys Latin, his balance of football and lacrosse, and the importance of multi-sport participation for young athletes. Logan talks about his collegiate success at the University of Maryland, leading to him being the number one pick in the 2022 PLL draft. The hosts and Logan also delve into the issues surrounding the demanding travel lacrosse schedules and provide advice for young players and parents on managing the balance between skill development and physical well-being. The episode is filled with humorous anecdotes, insightful advice, and a passionate message about prioritizing the health and enjoyment of young lacrosse players.

00:00 Introduction to Get the Lax Scoop

00:23 Meet the Hosts: Big Dawg and Jaybird

02:18 Special Guest Introduction: Logan Wizowski

05:55 Logan's Early Lacrosse Journey

08:44 High School and Club Lacrosse Insights

13:43 Message to Travel Lacrosse Coaches

17:40 Balancing Training and Skill Development

22:41 Logan's High School Lacrosse Experience

25:58 Conclusion and Sign-Off

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Links to training videos:
Master The 5 Best Dodges From the Wing!
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Blazing Shots... on the Run!
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Check out!... Coach Tintle's Lacrosse Barn:

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SuccessHotline with Dr. Rob Gilbert on Ironclad & Apple Podcasts

Brian Cain Daily Dominator on Apple Podcasts

Lacrosse Charities Mentioned in S2 E36:
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https://www.harlemlacrosse.org/

https://15forlife.org/

Transcript

0:00

It's time for Get the Lack Scoop, a podcast bringing you all the people and stuff you should know in the game of lacrosse. We take lack seriously, but ourselves, not so much. Join host Big Dog and Jaybird and the biggest names in the game brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's JML skills, mindset, and lacks IQ training. Ron Doglish, 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 Foundation. And Jay McMahon, the Jaybird, a three time All American midfielder at Brown. He was the captain of the U. S. Junior National Team and is the founder of JML. And Joining us in the studio, Steve Grisolfi, who's collegiate lacrosse career statistics equals one goal against Dartmouth brought to you by Jay McMahon lacrosse. That's JML skills, mindset, and lacks IQ training, helping the next generation of lacrosse players get to the next level well, lacrosse fans, welcome to another episode of Get the Lack Scoop. We're in the dog days of summer here. Jay, which for lacrosse me fans means the PLL season. And for us old guys, it means the Lake Placid Tournament. Only these two old guys this year are skipping the tournament, leaving the over 55 bracket at Lake Plastic two in the perilous position. Yes. Yes, they are in app perilous position, Jay. And, I will tease, uh, I've already teased a little bit of our guest mentioning the PLL, but I'm gonna. Tease one more thing that will give you a clue to our guest. I, I think he'll appreciate the story of your, your highlight. Last year in Lake Placid, Jay was getting into a, a tussle that was just, made for television action with you getting into a, a, a, an in-game fight with the head coach. It, it was John. It was not a fight. Yeah, it was a, across the cuffs there were, there wasn't anything but hyperbole. Yeah. Everyone knows I got hit from behind. Turned around. A little push shove. We realized who it was and it ended in a big hug. Okay, so let's just move on. I love how you, you two are just, let me introduce our special if you don't mind. Alright. Jay, go right ahead. Don't get so uppity.'cause he happens to be a Maryland guy like yourself. Here we go. Now our next guest was the 2022 ton award winner, a year in which his mighty terrapins of the University of Maryland, in large part due to his efforts. Enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in men's college lacrosse history. They not only beat their competition going undefeated on the year, but in 90% of their contests, and we're using the term contest loosely here, they completely annihilated the competition, evidenced by a scoring differential and other gaudy statistics that resided somewhere up in the stratosphere. Wow. Jack, you're really laying it on thick with this introduction tonight. Listen, exact numbers are not known, but we will tell you it was being closely monitored by NASA at the time. Oh my God. And the post-traumatic stress of their opponents cared for by the National Institute of Health, whether the rest of the lacrosse world liked it or not. And to be honest, I often got the sense most really didn't. 2022 was the year of Tedo. The turtle. And in that season our next guest don the hardest of the hard shells as he led their pack. And in fact, the nation in total offensive output with 61 goals, 41 assists and an impressive 103 points. That's'cause he had 42 assists. That Mark was good enough to set the all time record endpoint in a season at Maryland as he shattered the all time record for goals and points in a career as well at his alma mater. A program utterly steeped in lacrosse tradition. To put it mildly, the 2022 season was a wonderful culmination of many years of effort for this terrapin. A three time all American attack man who held from boys Latin in Baltimore, who as a senior was a first team all USA today and Under Armor All American and the Baltimore Messenger Lacrosse player of the year. Upon graduation at College Park, he was the number one pick in the 2022 PLL draft. He was selected as an all-star in 2022 and 2023. Missed the 2024 season due to an injury and currently is playing for the first place. Denver Outlaws. This player is also a coach Ron. He was a volunteer assistant at High Point in 2023 and 2024 and 2024. He helped the Panthers achieve a big mid-season win against UNC and go to the Atlantic 10 semifinals in 2025. He served in his first season at Brown as the squad's offensive coordinator, assisting the bears in winning the Ocean State Cup with victories over Providence College and Bryant, as well as engineering a one goal win versus nationally ranked UMass. Here he is the man, also known, not surprisingly as the whiz. Please welcome the one, the only Logan Wizowski, Jay McMahon. That Logan, you should just know that was unequivocally the most incredible introduction Jay has ever done. logan. You deserve all of those accolades. But it seems to me that Jay might be a little bored this summer. He's got a little time on his hands. Got, I was a little bored and it was, I was just like, why not have some fun with this? I stayed at it a couple hours worth. Why not? All right, Jay, may I proceed with the questions for our guests? Please, please, Ron, please do so. All right, so Logan onto the questions. I. Logan, what's kind of fun for us is just understanding where people started in the game and, reading a little bit about you. I didn't know your dad, played over on the shore at Salisbury and won a D three National Championship himself. It's kind of cool. I'm sure there's not many father son combinations, both with national championships, both playing for teams in the great state of Maryland. I might add. So I mean, you know, it's, I guess it's kind of easy to assume that you, you maybe grew up with a stick in your hand with your dad, but, what were kind of your earliest memories of playing, um, the game of lacrosse and who were your big influences? I mean, yeah, you just kind of hit the nail on the head there. It's growing up, there's a baby picture of me, coming home from the hospital with a, a stick in my hand and my dad kind of threw the stick in my hand lefty. And, here I am today lefty. that's kind of all I remember from, my childhood days or, playing in the backyard with my dad, playing lacrosse, three, four years old playing the pockets with the, the plastic stick. I remember those days like it was yesterday. Um, you know, it's a lot of fun and, I just all thanks in the world to, you know, my dad for, showing me the sport and, just kind of, let me do what I want to do. But, kind of, showing me lacrosse and kind of, coaching me throughout the years and then kind of, handing me off towards, the club teams and the, and the high schools of the world. But, you know, it, I owe all the thanks in the world to, to my dad for, kind of showing me the. That's great. And so right from the beginning you had it in your left hand. And we'll get into a little bit of your high school football career, but I, I've seen a few highlights online of you throwing some beautiful passes with your right hand. Yeah. And you're pretty dominant left hand, so that was always from the very beginning. Yeah, no, I, I always say if I could go back and play another sport, it would definitely play foot play football again. just, there's nothing better than the Friday night lights, right. Like growing up, I just remember like the car rides with my dad and, he'd be playing Metallica and I'd kind of be in the back. Going to war with my, all, my, my gear on, just ready to go mouthpiece in just listening to one by Metallica. Um, you know, those were, those were the days, the, the orange mouths at halftime. kind of all that stuff. I'm forever grateful for that stuff. And Sykesville Raiders, those were, those were good days. Very cool. Yeah. And you were lighting it up, in high school too. Well, Tom Brady esque, six three pocket pastor. But, but let's get back to lacrosse, Ron. Yeah. What have we got? Well, let's see. Do I got the next question? I think I do. Yeah. So you're already lost and I'm on script. Jesus. Oh, Ron, you see what happens? He goes off script there for a second, Logan. It gets completely flustered and lost. Well, Ron literally has been outta the country for like a month. So I did the last podcast. What does that have to do with you getting lost, Jay? I'm not used to you being here, I guess, but anyway, I digress. So, Logan, I imagine growing up your age, like Ron and I, there literally was no travel across. When we grew up, it was all high school. And I'd imagine you're probably the polar opposite, I'm sure. And you can tell us exactly what the deal was, but we'd imagine travel kinda sinks its meat hooks in so to speak, early on. but tell us what it was like growing up, you know, what, you know, how much time you might have spent in Iraq and then getting into travel and how much of an impact that travel lacrosse had on your lacrosse experience I spent a lot of time kind of in the rec, you know, I, I played for a program called Freedom. we were the Freedom Patriots, just kind of, around Eldersburg, Sykesville area, kind of my hometown. just a bunch of friends kind of playing together, we got like Brian Costa, we had like the Reese's Oh, wow. In our neighborhood, uh, with Goal and Navy back then. So we all kind of played together, we all were friends we always were kind of running around the neighborhood playing, pickup games with, with Fiddlesticks. so we all kind of joined. Yeah, that was cool at Freedom. And our, our, it was kind of cool'cause our dads were coaching us. so it was, it was fun playing that, and then kind of once we got to, to middle school, I, I kind of knew that I wanted to, play this in high school, play in college. So I, I kind of, jumped ship to the, the crabs, the BLC crabs and, I was fortunate to have a lot of good mentors and, and be on a couple really good teams with some, some really good teammates. and that was kind of the start of kind of the club scene and, kind of the, the three, four, five tournaments in a summer. just the, the car, the constant car rides with, with mom and dad in the back, going to, long Island, going to, Devons, Massachusetts, Downingtown, pa, kind of, all the, all the spots that I'm kind of right, you know, now in a, in a lawn chair. just remember those days like you were yesterday, just kind of, running around and having fun with it. Nice the circuit. So really kind of starts middle school going into sixth grade. I gotcha. Who were some notable outside of your notable neighbors, who were some notable teammates for you playing with the crabs and some guys you would go up against kind of year in and year out? I mean, yeah, we had my attack line who was, I was playing with Nick Kovich who was at, Colgate, and then I was with Jackson Mor, who was, all American at Yale. yeah. Wow. It's not a bad club attack. No. We had a couple really good players and I was, I was fortunate enough to play with those guys and kind of, get to know'em and, be able to see those guys kind of, here and there and, and weekends in the PLL. Gotcha. That's amazing. And we get a lot of young players and parents who are watching this podcast and listening to it and, what advice, they want to be recruited as well. what advice would you have for them regarding the club scene as far as managing the number of events, managing the showcases, that sort of thing? What advice would you have for the players and for the parents? Yeah. it's funny, we were just joking about this in the office a couple days ago. Just we see, we'll be at a tournament in, Jersey and then we'll go to a tournament in Philly and then we'll go to a tournament in Baltimore and we are seeing the same guys over and over again. And it's man, when do you get a break? just kind of the, the dog days of summer, like we were talking about before is like the same with these guys. It's like they're playing, you know, 15, 16 days in a row and it's like, we're not having, they don't wanna ask college kids to do that. They don't wanna ask, you know, PLL guys to do that. And, um, you know, I think to answer your question, it's like when it kind of feels like a chore, it's like, and you're not having fun and it just, you know, day after day after day and it's kind of the same thing. It's like that's when you gotta be like, alright, like, let's. Hold the brakes a little bit, let's go to the beach, let's put the stick down and let's think about something else before, diving back into that stuff. But, first and foremost, you gotta make sure you're having fun with that stuff. if it's not fun, it's you shouldn't be showing up and just putting yourself through that. Because, we see that as college coaches, sitting on the sidelines and, right. That's you can see him getting stuck in the mud, sort of uncomfortable promotions. Yeah. Yeah. They just get bogged down and it's we like this guy. And then it's we see him three, four events in a row and it's oh man. Like, just take a break. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It, it's funny, Logan, I remember a college coach we had on saying, when, when you're, sometimes when you're seeing that kid, you don't know if it's the 15th day that they're playing, you know? And, and it's hard to get that memory of how they perform that day outta your head as a college coach who's recruiting, if that's maybe one of the few times you're gonna see'em live and, and they're, they just don't have it'cause they're exhausted. Is that really doing you any good in the recruiting process? You know, no, not at all. I, I mean, you could see like, you know, the, the first time that we'll see a guy, it could be their 15th day and it's like that. Yeah. That's the note I take on that guy and it's, that's how we're gonna have to live with it. So gotta make sure that, you're taking care of yourself, taking care of your body, getting your sleep, your eating right, hydration, kind of all that stuff. And making sure that, you're putting your best foot forward, come with any tournament that you're playing in. How about if we, how about if we transition to. J m l and let's do that. What follows is a message to travel across coaches, and most specifically to those who are running these travel across programs who often self entitle themselves. Directors, coach Wiska, comments above Echo every single coach we have interviewed on this show for the past three years, and that includes all time great Hall of Fame coaches such as Bill Tierney and Dom Staria, as well as all time great Hall of Fame players. Greg Catano and Doug Knight Directors. One of the keys to a successful travel program comes from the number of boys who are playing for your club, who get recruited to play college lacrosse. It helps your club obviously, for that number to be as high as a possibly can be, and for many, many of your players, certainly the vast majority of them, it is the main reason why they are going to your club. So please keep that in mind when you were setting your club's tournament schedule. You know, just for a moment, take your cranium and pull it out. That is extracted from the circular orifice. You typically have it placed in and actually think for a second or two about the boys and the parents in your organization as human beings just like you, because that's what they are. And that would mean putting their wellbeing on par with your own. At all times. So what I'm suggesting here is a change of tack that is steering your efforts out of total control and the desire for making as much money as is inhumanely possible and steering your desires to keep your buddies happy who are running these tournaments off to the side. And think about what you were doing to these players and their parents. You'll quickly realize you were taking advantage of their fear of missing out. And flat out abusing them. These are the very people whose monetary as well as other forms of support you rely on for your existence in the sport of lacrosse and for your exorbitant income. Again, this young coach and current PLL All Star Logan Wasowski is merely echoing what every single guest we have had on this show has said. Guests such as National Championship coaches, Lars Tiffany of UVA and Joe Brecher of UNC, they all say the same thing. Running a schedule of tournament after tournament, after tournament without a break is asking too much of your players and it is hurting their chances of success. Not to mention the fact that you are increasing the risk of overuse injuries and potentially career ending or altering injuries such as Achilles tendon ruptures and ACL tears by tenfold. So please listen to what these coaches are saying and adjust your approach to the summer schedule I thank you for your time. And listeners, if you agree with this message, please forward it to a friend to get the word out, which could give the sentiments expressed here some traction towards change. Enough is enough. It is time for a reasonable travel across schedule to be put in place once and for all instead of the current out of control situation. That totally lacks any guardrails. Speaking of no guardrails that so many of our listeners describe the college lacrosse recruiting trail. So we've responded by putting excerpts of our 10 best interviews with legendary coaches, such as bill Tierney, Lars, Tiffany and Andy towers. Into a book that you can access on Kindle, it is available on Amazon, under the title inside the recruiting game insights from college lacrosse coaches. You will find a link to the book in our show notes. Now we will return to our interview and you will find that interview in progress. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna follow up on this. So Logan, obviously, whether it's college or the pro game, you, you are one of the best players in the country, if not the world. You've proven that. And so how do you balance what you gotta do in terms of taking care of your body, in terms of your weight training, your speed work, your flexibility versus your ongoing work with your, your skills and your stick?'cause this is another thing we, we, Jay and I talk about with kids in high school who are playing all those tournaments and you see their lack of maybe physical development or foot, foot speed and you're, you're saying to yourself. I think they could be a much better lacrosse player if they were spending some time in the weight room or individual skill development or, flexibility and speed work. So how do you think about that in your own career? How have you learned over time to balance those things and how does that translate into how you try to mentor young kids today? I mean, I think I definitely learned that stuff kind of in high school. I had some awesome coaches in high school that showed me what hard work was, in a sense and, just going through Syracuse, which I, I think we'll talk about here in a bit. But, Syracuse just taught me how to work hard, how to lift properly, how to, how to sleep well, hydration, all that stuff. And just focusing on your body because, at the end of the day, your best ability is availability. And if you're hurt and you're constantly, worrying about soft tissue injuries and stuff, you're not doing your teammates, you're not doing your coaches any good. So, always focusing on that stuff, getting your, your lifts in, getting your runs in, and, and making sure you're hitting all the, all the stuff off the field is, is huge, is, is critical. And, stuff that you need to be looking for, as, as an athlete matriculating through through high school and, and through college as well. So really just looking at the week and having a schedule, you're on a routine day in and day out, based on a weekly schedule, I would imagine. Is that? Yeah, absolutely. You gotta have some sort of schedule and some sort of structure, to that schedule to make sure that, you're hitting on, everything that you need to be hitting on in order to be ready. Nice. So let's get back to your journey, Logan. And we talked about, it's, it's, thank god Jay's got another Maryland guy on the podcast. Rough. I was St. Mary's kid back in the day. had some great games. Saints baby, us, us Santa Arun County kids. Jay, we, we got disrespected a lot by those boys. I was gonna say, does that really count Ron? Does that really count? Oh, it counts. Jay, we were a little, is part of the club. We were a little tough. We branded ourselves a little tougher, more physical brand lacrosse than those pretty boys at bl. I'm sure Logan has. Nice. He probably had some nice flow. I did look, look, see, I know the type I did. I know the type. But, um, but Logan, as Jay was talking about earlier, you were a hell of a football and lacrosse player. And, um, talk about, um, talk about what you learned from both sports and how playing football made you a better lacrosse player. again, we talked to, and, how does that translate into how you think about your recruiting today and kids ver being single sport versus multi-sport kids coming outta high school. So anyway, talk a little bit about how being a high level two sport athlete shaped your lacrosse career and help you become better. And then how do you think about that today as you're looking at kids that you're trying to recruit? High level is in, he set the passing record at Boys Latin as the quarterback with his right hand plays lacrosse with his left. So it's impressive. But go right ahead, Logan. Let let it rip. you kind of see it nowadays with kids going from middle school and high school. Just kind of the, the special specialization in focusing on one sport and just quitting, the basketballs, the soccers, the footballs all that. And just focusing on lacrosse, which. there, there's gonna be some cases out there that Yes. Okay. you can do that. But I, I'd say probably in 95% of those cases, you gotta make sure you're playing different sports. Right. That's going back to, your question. That's, one of the first questions that I'll ask, recruits that we have on campus is what other sports do you play? wanna know, just there's so many parallels to, to lacrosse. It's you look at soccer, it's the foot speed, it's the, it's the endurance, right? You look at, football, it's the power, it's the, the physicality. It's, you look at, a sport like hockey. It's the wrists, right? It's the, the stick work. It's, the endurance on, on the ice, it's the, the skating, it's the, the lower body. Mm-hmm. Um, you look at basketball, it offensive, IQ. principals relate to, to offense, so much. And just kind of, always telling, middle schoolers as well, just like make sure you're playing different sports. Like, put the stick down right. Is it's so important and it's, it's imperative to, kind of growing up and just, learning a different sport.'cause there's, there's so many parallels between, so many different sports. I could go down the, down the line kind of, talking about the parallels of, different sports, but, it's just, it, it's so important to kind of, do that stuff and not kind of, burn out. Just focusing on, one sport back to, your boys Latin lacrosse experience. Logan. You know,, I, it's hard for guys like Jay and those long islanders to understand what it is to play a full schedule of competitive games. You know, they, they, they maybe have three or four tough games in a, in a season. And as you know, that MIA schedule is a meat grinder every single week, every single game. it's a battle. So tell us, tell us about some of your favorite memories playing at BLL bl and in the MIAA as we know the, the best across in the country. I'm sure you'll agree with me, Logan, that you mean Long Island, the best lacrosse. So, anyway, Logan, tell talk, tell us about the high school, lacrosse career. Obviously, you had tremendous success, but what are some of your big memories from your lacrosse career at bl? Yeah, it, it was an awesome experience. I, if I could go back and do it over again, I'd do it, 10 times over, freshman year, not making the varsity squad, just, having guys in it in front of me, like Colin Cock, Shaq Stanwick, kind of the, the Colin Shells of the world. oh yeah. Playing, playing on JV my freshman year. playing with a, a guy of the name of Pat Spencer on our, attack line, was pretty fun. we won the, the JV championship that year. you and, and Pat Spencer. That's nice. So Logan, here's, here's a crazy, connection. I coached Pat Spencer in U 12 in North Kingstown Rhode Island when he lived in Rhode Island for a few years. And he played with, we had, Joey Minow who played at, at, duke. Yes. Yep. He, our attack was Pat Spencer and Joey Minow. on the u twelves and we had Mad Ow and his brother who played at Army in the midfield and talk about annihilating people. Jay. Yeah. So it that, it's so funny. That's great. Yeah. That I coached him as a little kid. But anyway, keep going with their bl experience. I, I'd rather take Logan and Pat Spencer, but hey. Joey was good. I'd take either one Saint too. He just, Saint he was at, started at St. Mary's transferred to bl, so I know, I know. I didn't know that. Wow. Yeah. so moving into kind of sophomore year, that was an awesome year. We were kind of, crowned as, as National Championship champions, I guess that year in 2014, super special. Oh, that's right. I saw that. Yeah. Going undefeated. playing with those guys, learning a lot, from those guys in front of me. And then kind of, moving into to kind of junior year, being able to kind of step on the field and, and play a little more. And then kind of moving into my senior year, with going in through the coaching change of, coach Shriver kind of retiring, oh, Shriver retired. Yeah. What whatcha talking about Coach Shriver? He, he was one of my coaches on the U 19, USA team. Oh, was he? Yeah. So went on a trip. Great. Go Moga. Oh yeah. Jim. S Jay. Jay Jay. Get it over to Garth, get it to gar you and Towers. Never give Garth a ball. Too many Christmas, right? Yeah. Pace Once he, kind of, retired after my junior year and then kind of, and then kind of, and then and then and then And then, and then what happened next? In that momentous senior year after a legend coach Bobby Shriver retired to find out. Tune in next week. Until we meet again. Here's to hoping you find the twine. We're signing off here at the get the lax scoop. Thanks again so much. We will see you the next time.