S3 E33. USA Lax HS COY, Nic Bell: Tales of Talent and Tenacity, a Compilation.

In this episode of 'Get the Lax Scoop,' hosts Big Dawg and Jaybird interview Nic Bell, recently named USA Lacrosse High School Coach of the Year for 2025. Bell shares his journey from playing lacrosse at Brown University to his influential coaching career, emphasizing authentic leadership, resilience, and the importance of gut feelings in decision-making. Bell discusses his successful stints at Blue Ridge, Trinity-Pawling, and Taft School, mentoring notable players like Pat and Chris Kavanaugh. The episode also provides valuable insights into the lacrosse recruiting process and the mental and emotional facets of being a student-athlete. Finally, Bell answers listener questions, revealing personal anecdotes and his coaching philosophy.

00:00 Introduction to Get the Lax Scoop

00:37 Meet Coach Nic Bell

03:01 Nic Bell's Journey to Brown University

07:02 Mindset Minute: Trusting Your Gut

10:32 Nic Bell's College Lacrosse Experience

14:27 Choosing a Career in Coaching

17:56 Success at the Taft School

27:09 Advice for Aspiring Lacrosse Players

32:13 Listener Questions and Closing Remarks

NEW BOOK!
Inside the Recruiting Game: Insights From College Lacrosse Coaches
-Available on Amazon.com as an Ebook and paperback

Donate to Harlem Lacrosse Summer Camp:

https://www.harlemlacrosse.org/gmvs2025

Links to training videos:
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

Jules Heningburg: https://thelaxlab.com/

Check out!... Coach Tintle's Lacrosse Barn:

https://g.co/kgs/eXedCXf

SuccessHotline with Dr. Rob Gilbert on Ironclad & Apple Podcasts

Brian Cain Daily Dominator on Apple Podcasts

Lacrosse Charities Mentioned in S2 E36:
https://www.4thefuturefoundation.org/

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, helping the next generation of lacrosse players get to the next level well, lacrosse fans, we never stop in our pursuit of talking to the game's finest. Jay, who do we have on top today? Jay? It's a pursuit of excellence. Ron, lemme get into an intro. Our next guest has over 14 years of experience as one of the top prep school lacrosse coaches in the country. While at the helm of the boys lacrosse program at the Taft School. He was a three-time founder leagues champion, a western New England champion and a Geico high school national champion, as well as the Western New England Coach of the Year. Over the course of two seasons, he has revamped a program steeped in tradition at St. Anne's Bellfield in Charlottesville, Virginia, taking the Saints to the State finals in 2024 and this year, bringing home the state title by winning the conference one VIS AA state championship with an eight five win over perennial powerhouse St. Paul, the six and hot off the presses. He was just named USA, lacrosse High School Coach of the Year for 2025. At Stab. He is also the associate Director of college counseling, a position he's well versed in over the years as a prep school and travel lacrosse coach, he's placed over 180 players on collegiate lacrosse rosters, helping them achieve their dreams of playing college lacrosse in the a CC, the Ivy League, the Big 10 and various D three institutions. He played his college lacrosse for Coach Lars Tiffany at our alma Mater Brown University, graduating in 2009 with a degree in moderate American history. Please give a warm, get the lack scoop. Welcome to the one, the only Nick Bell. Nick, congratulations on getting that fantastic award. Yeah. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it. And you know, I know that we didn't talk about this in the pre-show, but I, I have been, really enjoying your podcast, really enjoying your work, and, and I'm honored to be on today. So thank you very that Oh, great. Thanks. Well, Nick, Nick, sucking up will work. We're, we're good. We'd love to hear, let us be very clear. We're we're looking for all, we're just old and washed up, so we're looking for all the positive reinforcement we can get at this point. Nick he's a big rumply dog who's starved for affection. What can we say? Sure. So, so Jay, quite a scoop for us to have the National High School Lacrosse Coach of the Year. Yes. Right after it's announced on Get the leg scoop. That is quite a scoop. We scored it. We scored it. As our title states, we're sharing a compilation from our interview with Coach Bell. First off, we'll hear him discussing how he became a brown bear. So, so tell us about you know, we want to transition to the Brown Days. So what, what was the decider, first of all, who else, who else was interested in Nick Bell and what was, what drove your decision to come to Brown? You know, at a time where, let's be honest, Nick Brown wasn't on the rise quite yet at the time you chose to go to Brown. I think Scott Nelson was probably the head coach. Right. Definitely. Yeah. So Scott Nelson was the coach and one of the camps that I went to was called like the, it was called like the Brown Summer Challenge. And it, he actually had a good idea that I think a lot of clubs and like lacrosse companies now have leaned into, which was like a regionally based camp. So I played on, I showed up there at, at, you know, I was staying in the dorms that were close to the Sharp Refactory, the ratty. And we would walk up the hill to the OAC and, you know, all the athletic facilities there. We were playing on the roof you know, back then before there was turf out on Meister Carvan and or I guess before Meister Carvan even existed. But I played on a team with a bunch of kids that were from the Mid-Atlantic and we play against a New England based team, and there was a Midwest team and there was even like a southeast team. Mm-hmm. And I don't you know. I'm a college counselor in my day job and I'm, I'm working with kids really closely in recruiting through club and my high school. And I, I always say to them, like, you, you may not be able to describe exactly what it is or you know exactly like, what about the school? I, I is drawing you there. But you get a gut feeling. And when I was at Brown, I just, I just really took to it. I liked it. I liked the coaches, I really enjoyed the players that were working the camp that were like our coaches. It just all kind of fell into place for me and I got this gut feeling coming out of ninth grade. And then, you know, my, my mom had really pushed me. Someone growing up in, you know, in rural Virginia, like. There's a lot more out there and there's a bunch of really good schools that are in the Northeast. And at the time, like there was no University of Richmond. There was no high point. There was no Jackson. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's not that much in the Mid-Atlantic beyond like UVA and Georgetown. Right. That I think that she was smart enough to know that there's really good academic options for me that were outside of the area. So, so she, I give my mother a lot of credit for pushing me to have an open mind when it came to thinking about college and recruiting, because there were just so many more opportunities. So then, you know, when recruiting started to happen after my junior year, I, I most considered Dartmouth, Yale Brown. Georgetown and the University of Maryland and Navy. And that's a, that's a terrible list, Nick. Yeah, come on. Step it up. You know. Now I will say as I went through that summer like Yale said, we're not gonna be able to get you in. Dartmouth, I don't think I played well enough at Jake Reed's, Nike Blue Chip, and I think they sort of lost interest and it really came down to Maryland, Navy and Brown. And I actually they still run this program at Navy. They have something called summer seminar where you can go there for like five days and essentially live the life of a midshipman and have some of that experience and like. I'm a terrible dancer. Wow. Fairly uncoordinated. And like, learning to March was a, was a huge hurdle for me, and for probably really bad reasons. It, it drove me away from the school, but I'm glad that I did that. Right. And, you know, with the academic piece being like my guiding light you know, brown was the only school that thought I was a good enough player to justify my transcript getting me in there. And I'm really liked what they did because it, it was amazing and and an easy choice for me in the end. How about if we, 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. Coach Bell brings up a great point here. As he describes his experience visiting Brown as a ninth grader. He says he had a strong, visceral response to the school, a gut feeling about it. In other words, he felt a connection with the place and its people, and then his body sent him a positive signal about it. Another way of saying that is that Brown resonated with him. I had a similar positive feeling of connection with Brown when I visited way back when I was in high school, and I'll bet all of you college grads listening had similar experiences when you visited schools and studies show those of us who listen to that inner guidance system tend to enjoy our experiences more than those of us who do not. I'm gonna take a leap here. So buckle up buttercup and stay with me. The world famous inventor, Nicola Tesla, said, if you wanna find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration. He believed that all matter on the planet end, in the universe was made of differing levels of energy, and he also had a fascination with. Resonant energies. He discovered that certain energies inherently connected with other forms of energy, and that a gut feeling is a signal to follow. That signal is to follow our instincts, our intuition, our inner knowingness. That gut feeling is part of our inner guidance system, a high powered GPS that takes us to the places we're meant to go. The places. That our four are highest and best good. It is purely a feeling coming from the right hemisphere of our brain where our intuition, imagination, and creativity reside. Today's boys and girls who are immersed in technology and strictly rational left brain thinking could be missing out on important cues coming from their powerful inner guidance system. So here are a few tips to help them connect to that small, subtle voice. That resides in each and every one of us. First, quiet the mind. Meditation and mindfulness practices help calm the mental chatter and create space for intuition to emerge. Second is present moment awareness. Engage your senses fully in the present moment, noticing details and sensations without judgment, which can enhance our awareness of subtle cues. Next, trust your gut. Start with small, low stakes decisions and notice how your body reacts. If you feel a strong pull one way or the other, acknowledge it and see how it plays out. And finally, try journaling. Write down your thoughts, feelings, and intuitive hits as they arise. This can help you track patterns and identify recurring themes. So there you have it. And also do, as Coach Bell did, listen to your mother. Mothers are highly intuitive and well connected to their right brains. All in all, it helps to get in touch with your inner GPS. It is highly intelligent and never steers you wrong, and never takes you to a place of utter chaos. A place where there are no 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. Next up, Nick discusses part of his college lacrosse experience and his appreciation for coach Lars Tiffany. And but, but tell us what that, that four years was like and what sort of defined that experience for you and what led to that turnaround. Yeah, rollercoaster sounds like, that's a great question. So, a again, coming from a small private school in, you know, Northern Virginia, almost Central Virginia, but Northern Virginia, and then, you know, transitioning to division one college, lacrosse was a shock for me. And it was really hard. It was harder than anything I've ever done in the sport. And when we struggled that year, I didn't know any, I didn't know any, anything different. And I just thought, you know, our players aren't playing well enough. There's more that I can do. We're just not talented enough. I never, you know, I don't really point fingers at coaches. I don't really yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's such a complex and nuanced job that, especially at the time when I was 19, I, I was just like, you know what? We need to get better and we're not, and you know, like I, I, I don't know, like, I just think that there were so many things that were happening at the same time that I was just like, we're having a bad season. And yeah. I'm not sure I thought more about it, you know, or anything differently. I didn't, I really like Coach Nelson. Yeah. You know, and I, I'm very grateful for him, you know, for being the one that recruited me. And you know, then when Coach Tiffany came in, it was like, I could feel a palpable change. And he is still an enormous influence in my life. He's someone that, you know, when I need help with something or I need counsel, or I need to talk about. Something personal or professional or anything. He's, he's, he's like, meet me in the weight room. Let's go. Yeah, let's get a rack. But, but, you know, but I'm still like, to this day, I, I'm, I'm always like so impressed and humbled by him because he's never too busy, you know, for mm-hmm. People that are in his corner and. You know, I, I, I would not be where I am. I probably wouldn't be coaching if it wasn't for his influence. And you know, that's cool things that I remember when he started, like he changed our, our out of season lifting plan. We weren't running nearly as much in the fall. We were just like drinking protein shakes and lifting, you know, three to four days a week and not, you know, and all of us were getting stronger and more confident and we were actually enjoying college a lot more if we weren't, you know, waking up at six in the morning to do the hill runs and, and things like that, you know, nine months away from our season you know, he would, he would do things, you know, and I think he still does it. And I, I watch UVA practice all the time because we're, we're across the street from them. But like he does the dynamic warmups with the team. He would do every lift with us and would outperform a lot of us as a back in, you know, 2000, what was that, 2006, 7, 8, 9. Right. But what I think I learned the most from him is just, you know, to the weirdness comment, I learned authenticity and I learned, you know, that my players will, will only respect me if I'm actually being myself. Yeah. You know, like it or not, Lars is always himself and mm-hmm. You know, I think that was such an impressionable and like key thing for me to learn at a, at a point in my life when I just needed good male role models. And, and he certainly filled that void for me and all the other kids in the program I could speak for, you know, for my classmates and, and a lot of the brown skaters from that era. Next. Coach Bell discusses how he came to choose his life's profession with the influence of a few other Brown state alums. The prominent three-time All-American David Evans and the also prominent two-time All-American Chaz Woodson. There you are, brown senior year and you're thinking about what am I gonna do with the rest of my life? I'm sure you might have thought about it before that time, but what were some of the things you said, obviously Coach Tiffany was a big influence. What was it that stirred you into the teaching and coaching profession? Good question. So I, when I was a freshman at Brown, I vividly remember in October of that year, every single one of the seniors on the team had either a commercial real estate or private equity or some sort of financial services job, almost a year ahead of, of time and, and remind, you know, that was 2006. Fast forward to 2008 and 2009, none of those jobs were hiring. And I had Good for you, you know, some internships in commercial real estate in the, I thought I was gonna do something like that. And it was actually, I vividly remember a practice where Dave Evans, who was on ours on the staff for a couple years there, but mys was the offensive coordinator my senior year. He said, Dave Evans, He said, Hmm. To the whole team. You know, I know a bunch of, you're looking for jobs. One of the best things that I did in my life was when I graduated, I worked at Woodbury Forest School and I was a teacher and I was a coach, and I was eating all the free food in the dining hall, and I was going to Charlottesville and like partying. It was great. If you don't know what you wanna do, this could be a great, like stepping stone for you. And so it was actually through Chaz Woodson, who Oh, mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Who I had just missed by a year. But you know, he and his family had moved from Norfolk Academy for his dad, Woody, to take the. The head football coaching job at Blue Ridge School, and he brought the whole family with him. And this was in Jazz's senior year, and they're just like salt of the earth people. Woody was great. He was always working the lacrosse campus at Brown. I knew him really well. But it was through that connection that I got connected to Blue Ridge School, and at the time I was like, you know, I'm the, I'm the first, you know, member of my class at Brown on the lacrosse team to actually have a job in April of my senior year. And I was, I felt really grateful for that. And I was like, I'll try this and see how it goes. And the moment that I stepped into it and started working with kids and I was teaching and I was doing some admissions work and I was coaching three sports and I was living in a dorm, it was just like hook line, sinker. I, I loved it and I never, never questioned it, you know, looking ahead. That's amazing. David Evans with the career advice. Beautiful. Wow. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, it's those are two obviously great players and great people in Dave Evans and Chaz Woodson. It's also interesting when you think about the success that those two have had and the different dimensions of their life and career. Talk about authenticity again, like those two know who they are and and they are who they are all the time, no matter what, you know? Right. And so, very cool. Next up, we'll hear Coach Bell coming into his own at the TAF School and his experience with future lacrosse stars in the college game. Pat and Chris Kavanaugh. So let's jump to the TAF School. I know you had another stop at Trinity Pauling, but let's jump to the TAF School and when you were there, obviously the, the team did extremely well. I know it's a school that's steeped in tradition, and I know you had some great players there, like the Kavanaugh brothers. So tell us about those years, how that opportunity came up with the rhinos and you know, how, how you were able to get them to be so successful. So. I met my now wife at Brown Ann, the clerk now Ann Bell, who played field hockey actually for Tara Harrington, I'm pretty sure. Oh, really? And I know Laura's told me at one point that, that Tara told Annie, who, you know, she calls her Annie you really shouldn't date him. You know, probably not. This is probably not like, good for you. And oh my gosh, that's hilarious. You know, I, I do, I do that. And we're very, you got a little window into how special us the cross guys are at that age. Right. You know? Well, she's dating Lars who's living in like a, a trailer at the ocean. Yeah. On like a gravel pit. But anyway, no. And it, if it wasn't so. Ann had graduated the same year that I did from Brown and she stayed in New England. If it wasn't for her, I probably would've never left Blue Ridge. I was perfectly happy there. And so that's what brought me up to Trinity Pauling. Gotcha. And then after we were there, I was there for six years and I had become really close with Casey Defo who was coaching at Taft. And it's kind of cra just, this is like a, a snapshot of how wild, you know, and small the lacrosse world is. But basically, you know, in that during that time, you know, Dom is no longer the coach at UVA, Lars goes from Brown to UVA, Casey Olfo, I'm sorry, Mike Daley then goes from Tufts to Brown. Mm-hmm. Casey goes from the TAF school to Tufts. I went from Pauling to Taft. Right. And the weird thing about that is that. Lars played for Dom, I played for Lars, and then Casey played for Mike Daly at Tufts. Right? So like that in a snapshot is this lacrosse world of live in Tu. Talk about the dominoes falling in the right places. Right. So we moved over to Taft, so that mainly because we were, we had a growing family. We wanted a co-ed school. I loved Trinity Pauling. I love all the people that I worked with there and the kids that I coached. It was an incredible place for me at that time. And but we, yeah, we moved over to Taft in 2018, so 1718 school year. And we had a really good run. I mean, my, my first year there, we did not have the, the deepest roster and we did not have the most talent, but we had a bunch of like brown state overachieving kids that like Nice. We actually won a founders league championship that first year with the least talent that I've coached. In the last 10 years. And when you have, you know, in that league, it's so competitive and when you have that sort of success, it starts to really just, you know, it starts to kind of multiply on top of itself and mm-hmm. That very next year I had recruited Pat Kavanaugh in, and, and this was before Pat Kavanaugh. Was Pat Kavanaugh. I mean, he was kind of a, a little bit of a runt at at Shamina was Shaina attack man. You know, he was their what? Attack man. He was like their fifth attack man at Shamina. Wow. Wow. Geez. And was was a small undersized off ball kid, but there was just from, what grade was he in when he was the fifth attack man? A senior. Wow. That's what I thought. He was a PG at Taft. Wow. Senior at Shaman is the fifth attack man. He came to us in 2019 as a postgraduate, and you're probably like, I'm not sure I want this guy. I, you know, I was, I was, and we actually had a Taft at the time, some, so a couple kids that were going to Michigan. They were good players. We had another kid who came in that same year that was going to Notre Dame. You know, pat was really like, we, we didn't necessarily need another one in that year, but there was just this like, quiet intensity in this fire and I just, I was drawn to him in a big way and I really went to bat for him and I was thrilled when he actually chose Taft over Hotchkiss. Where? Where Matt had gone. Mm-hmm. And he came in and just, you know, took to coaching, listened, worked his butt off, put on 15 pounds of muscle. His confidence went through the roof. And after his PG year, he was by far our best player at Taft in 2019. We had a, a decent team the year that he was there, like we were like a nine and six team that year. We didn't win the league. But then he made the U 19 team after that, and then the rest is really history. Mm-hmm. And, you know, but just, you know, the consummate, overachiever grinder worker. And then we got Chris to come over. Chris transferred in as a junior and became part of like, what was my first really strong group of kids at Taft in that 2021 class. Mm-hmm. So it was a, I mean, incredible run. I mean, that team, you know, kind of survived through COVID, but they won the Geico event. Then we won N-H-S-L-S that year in 22. We had a lot of key pieces back, even though all the Kavanaugh's were gone. But we had, you know, Thomas, Richard Deli we had Trait, yeah. Jason Whitney. We had Dash Sachs who went on to, to face off at Brown. I mean, we, we, we ended up, you know, there was a point in time there where we were cranking out like 12 division one kids a year, 15 college bound players a year in 22. Amazing. 24. Right. Wow. So it was just momentum, huh? It was kind of like a, a snowball that ball's going downhill and it's just getting bigger and bigger. Total momentum and kind of got lucky with Patrick, you know, working out the way that he did. And then it wasn't a hard sell for a lot of other kids considering that same path. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So I mean, it's, it's a pretty quick you know, timeline there from starting a program at Blue, blue Ridge, right. Or taking over program. I, I don't know if it existed, but certainly you didn't have a lot of high level credibility. All of a sudden you're the national, the high school national champion at Taft, you know? And so, so what was it like coaching that caliber of player and playing against, you know, playing the Hill School, St. John's College, as you said, that League is incredibly talented. You know, you got all those PG kids that our future. A lot of'em, future division one players. So, so how did things, did things shift for you in terms of your approach when all of a sudden you're, you're playing and, and you're playing against that caliber of talent, you're coaching a different caliber of kid who's got higher expectations. All the pressures that go with it at a place like Taft, I mean, you know, those places are amazing and they also come with certain expectations. So what was that whole dynamic like, Nick? Yeah, it was, I mean, I, everyone always asked me the question like, man, those parents must have been like so hard to deal with, or like, mm-hmm. Right. You think, you know, like high maintenance, high maintenance, and it's all of that, like New York City. Fairfield County, Westchester, New York. We had kids from the Bay Area. We had kids from like West Palm Beach. We had, you know, some really smart but privileged, you know, kids and families in the program. And I, I look back on my six years there and I have nothing but love for all of the kids that I coached and all of the parents that, that really supported me there. They were, you, you were a long way from Warrington, Virginia. Yes. But the parents were supportive. They were, they were totally supportive and they weren't high maintenance at all in the ways that you would think. I mean, they were all driven for like greener pastures academically for their kids, but they always like went about it in the right way. I didn't have a lot of like confrontation. I was really, I, I tried to sort of. Just default to being myself, being really authentic, working really hard, and I think that they could see and feel that I had their kids' best interests at heart. And e even though I'm, I make mistakes all the time. You know, I was gonna be, I was gonna own those mistakes and just do the best that I could for them. And I think that always shines through. And so it, it, it was a, it was a wonderful ride and, i, I just, I look back on those years again, I, I, I took over as the head coach there. I was, I was in my mid twenties, you know, late twenties, I guess. And I was relatively young to be a head coach in the Founders League and a head coach in West One. But, you know, I just kind of kept rolling with it and I defaulted to being myself, being authentic and working really hard. I defaulted to being myself, being authentic and working really hard. Well said, coach. Next, he described the best approach to club lacrosse and very timely in that. He talks about the fall lacrosse recruiting process, and then finally you'll hear a few listener questions. Enjoy. And so I, I, I, you, I know you've been very successful in the club world as well. So what's your advice that a guy, as a guy who clearly understands the balance aspects in your life, you know is very competitive and has proven they can get teams to a high level. What do you tell your own players and parents about the summer season and how to manage all those pressures and different messages that kids feel you know, which, which leads to how do, how, you know, what do you tell'em about time and events and, you know, the life of a student athlete today who wants to get to that next level? I tell them that lacrosse is, is what you do. It's not who you are. And I think it's, it's that can be lost. And I think oftentimes that is lost. And like I said earlier in this, in this in this, you know, podcast, in this show, you know, I just think that it's so much harder for kids to navigate this process now, and what was different for me than it is for them is that they have at their fingertips regular updates and either validations or, you know, obvious displays of weakness that they're seeing whether they like it or not. And you know, I think about the first week in September when recruiting starts for juniors and how. You know, kids that I work with or kids that I coach are just constantly in fear and anxiety about whether or not Princeton is gonna take their long stigma or not. Am I gonna have a chance? Right. And I just, you know, I, I think that if you fall back on a lot of the things that we talked about on this show in term that are process oriented and centered around the human and you take this in stride and understand that if you fail in lacrosse, that's okay. You're kind of supposed to. And it's not always like a complete completely linear path. And I think the story that I would tell that illuminates this the most is in reference to the kid that you're talking about, who's who you had mentioned who's going to Brown, I, you know, this is a kid who was actually entering St. Anne's Bellfield as a senior, committed to Jacksonville University. And basically at the end of the summer. With all of the impending, you know, NIL and you know, roster cap changes, things that have to do with revenue sharing and, and a lot of what's going on in the world of college athletics put Jacksonville in a tough position where they needed to shrink their roster quickly. And, you know, they had to part ways with him because they just didn't think that they would have a spot. And this is a kid who had worked his whole life to pursue division one lacrosse. Thought he had a great situation, was really coming to St. Ann's to improve in some core areas and be challenged. And then rub, rub, rub is pulled right out from under him. He then like, kind of rebounds, but he's hurt all year. He couldn't really play until our spring season with a back issue. And then. You know, he commits to Air Force and finds out three weeks later that he's medically disqualified. So he's literally going into the spring of his senior year with us. Wow. Without a college, you know, thinking that he was probably just gonna go back home to a local school. And you know, with the schedule that we play. There's a lot of exposure and opportunity in that. And if it wasn't for Brian Kelly, honestly saying, holy cow, that that kid is awesome and is one of the best kids we've seen. And actually taking the time, you know, to pick up the phone and call someone like John Topi. And John and I had talked about him in the past. You know, but it was, you know, this is a story about a kid who just stayed the course that defaulted to who he was as a person and a student didn't lose himself when everything around him seemed to be crumbling down and just was like, I love this game. I'm gonna take it as far as I can. I'm gonna give my team everything that I can this year. And he just simply performed himself into something that a lot of people would say wouldn't have been possible for some of the, the, you know, the, the, the stumbling blocks that he encountered along the way and, right. You know, like. For all great story. All of the kids that I work with, you know, it's so great for me to say, let me tell you about the story about, of Pat Kavanaugh and how he sort of wrote up, you know, and nobody thought that he was ever gonna live up to what Matt is, and he rewrote that story. Right. And in the case of this kid, he committed to a school that he viewed as a dream school in April of his senior year, in the year 2, 20, 25. Right, right. That was more, that was more of a 2005 story. Right. Like going through it like in the senior year. That's great. But like, my point in all this is, you know, believe in yourself, you know, love the game. It will love you right back. And you know, I, I just somehow like this lacrosse universe always works in the right way, I think. And it, and it really honors the kids that invest and do the things that, that we've talked about on this show, on this show. That's beautiful. Beautiful stuff could end on that one, except we had a few listener questions really quick. A collegiate coach of yours would like to have their name withheld from the record. S what would you say your accuracy was dead on or wildly off as you fired an undisclosed food item at the Brown University Gate Dining Hall? You remembering this? I would say, I would say that my accuracy in that moment was dead on. Okay. It went exactly where I thought it was supposed to go. You wanna tell us more or is it, is it not fit for everyone? No, I'll leave it at that. Okay. Jack w inquires, what is the police vehicle story? You don't have to tell it stupid. I'll also leave it back. And Thomas n says, why did coach Tiffany describe your play at times as resembling a crash test? Dummy? I can answer that question. He said that because. Like I said earlier, I, I, I was lucky enough as a college player to have a game day role as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, but I was never really good at. I, I was never excellent at any of those things, and the only chance that I had to contribute and help my team was to just play hard and make hustle reckless. Abandon. Yeah. Play with a sense of reckless abandon that you know, it's probably not good for my body in the long term, but it was the only way that I could, you know, make my mark so nice. That worked for me. Love it. Well, Nick, this has been fantastic, huh? Yeah. And I think Jay, we learned in the spirit of, of authenticity that there were, you know, that Nick had a good time at Brown. I mean, and I, and who's gonna hold that against him? Apparently there's some stories there that we'll look forward to hearing the next time we see Nick in person Right. When we're down in Charlottesville, when he can really be himself. That sounds great. That sounds great. I, I, I, I look forward to getting into that and I appreciate the discretion. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, well, Nick, thanks so much. Have dinner Jay. What a great episode with Coach Nick Bell, the, the high school coach of the year. Incredible. I would expect nothing less. Awesome. Well, good luck this summer, Nick, and as Ron and I just said, we hope we'll run into you in person and, and finish up some of these stories. Sounds great, guys. I really appreciate it. Thanks so much and I look forward to seeing you soon. Best of luck, Nick. Take care. Alright. 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.