Commentary On Coronavirus And Its Impact On Spring and Summer Lacrosse

Players and Parents:

 

As you know, the OHSAA and the Governor of Ohio have cancelled events, closed schools and delayed the start of the spring lacrosse season.  We at BR are closely monitoring the situation and reviewing all guidance and recommendations from the authorities so that we can best help you without putting you and your family’s health at risk. 

 

We are currently putting plans in place and reviewing our options to help you to navigate the coming weeks and be ready to go once we have confirmation that health issues have abated and practices, scrimmages, games, playoffs and summer tournaments are good to go.  The current OHSAA timeline is below. Based on their guidance we have no plans to offer practice or team instruction in the next 3 weeks (see our 4 possible scenarios for what we will be offering). 

 

Current guidance from OHSAA

·         March 13- April 5       NO practice, scrimmages, games, etc.

·         April 6-10                    Mandatory practices

·         April 11                       Regular season contest begin

·         May / June                   Tournaments are held on their current dates.

 

As of right now, no summer tournaments have been impacted, delayed or altered.  We are in contact with tournament directors and are working diligently with them on contingency plans should the situation change.  

 

So what should you do now?

 

You need to focus on what you can control, not what others control.  Plain and simple you have been ‘sugar cookied’ as we like to say.  The government has decided on this course of action.  There is nothing you can do to change their decision.  You need to follow their guidelines and keep you and your family healthy.  However, you can decide how you will spend your downtime.  You can sit around and complain or you can work hard to be ready when the season returns.  Those who focus on what they can control and work hard to stay in shape will be the ones that can best handle the short season and playoff sprint when the spring season returns. 

 

The coaches and leaders at BR want to remind you that we are here for you now and will be here for you throughout the spring and summer.  We are locally based and locally focused.  We do not have national or regional distractions that cause us to focus elsewhere. We do not have players from all over the place to try to accommodate.  We can focus on what is best for our players and N. Ohio lacrosse. To that end we have put in place plans that will focus on 1) your lacrosse development, 2) keeping you ready for your spring season, 3) working with you on your college recruiting plan (high school players) and 4) working our relationships with the college coaches to make sure that you remain on their short list for your class. (high school players)  - We are currently speaking / meeting with coaches on a daily basis to discuss our players with them.

 

Should it become necessary we have plans in place that will provide you with the conditioning, footwork, strength training, stickwork, skills session work and even practices that you will need to be successful this summer.

 

Below we discuss four possible scenarios and how we at BR will help you navigate each one of those.  No matter what happens we at BR will be here to help you and continue to work with you on your lacrosse development and your development into good men and women of great character who are set up to succeed no matter what life throws at them.   

 

Parents – please know that the conditioning, strength, footwork, skills sessions and / or the practices discussed in the scenarios below will be covered under your current travel team fees (before the possible refunds – we are temporarily holding on to those).  We will not charge you extra to help prepare you for the summer.  The daily conditioning, workout and stickwork plans will be emailed out, posted on our blog and sent out to you via social media starting tomorrow Tuesday March 17, 2020.

Sincerely,

 

 

The BR Staff

 

4 Possible Scenarios And Our Plans

Starting Tuesday March 17

 

SCENARIO A – SPRING DELAYED START UNTIL APRIL 5, SUMMER LACROSSE IS ON

a)      Lacrosse

i)        Send out daily conditioning, footwork, workout and stickwork plans for players to prepare for the shortened season. 

b)      College

i)        Help you work on contacting coaches, creating highlight tapes, setting up your college plan / timeline.

ii)      Contact college coaches to maintain / strengthen our relationships. Discuss our players and get you on the short list for the summer.

iii)    Work to get them to come to Ohio to watch spring games

 

SCENARIO B – SPRING DELAYED UNTIL MAY 5, SUMMER LACROSSE IS ON

c)      Scenario A plus the following:

d)      Lacrosse

i)        Make arrangements for individual skills sessions similar to what we ran in the winter.  The sessions will focus on skills not team concepts (FOGO, Goalie, Shooting, Defensive Footwork).

e)      College

i)        Contact college coaches to review our rosters with them and make sure our players are being moved along in the process.  Use our reputation and relationship to work with them to address their concerns about not being able to see players live. 

SCENARIO C – NO SPRING LACROSSE BUT SUMMER LACROSSE IS ON:

a)      Scenario A and B plus the following:

b)      Lacrosse

i)        Make arrangements for 2 to 3 weeks of summer preseason practices. These will start in mid-May and run 4-5 times a week.  They will be full 2 hour practices with conditioning so that you are ready for the summer tournaments.  They will be run by our coaches and focus on what you need to perform at the highest level in the summer.  We will assume that you are working hard on your own in the days and weeks leading up to these practices.

c)      College

ii)      Contact college coaches to review our rosters with them and make sure our players are being moved along in the process.  Use our reputation and relationship to work with them to address their concerns about not being able to see players live until the summer.

 

SCENARIO D - NO SPRING LACROSSE, SUMMER TOURNAMENTS ARE CANCELED / MOVED

a)      Scenario A, B and C plus the following:

b)      Lacrosse

i)        Continue with our summer practice schedule

ii)      Add individual summer skills sessions to help fix your weaknesses.

c)      College

iii)    Work to adjust the schedule to get our players in front of coaches. 

iv)    Invite coaches to our practices.  

v)      Use our reputation and name to get our players in to showcases and prospect days.

vi)    Contact college coaches to review our rosters with them and make sure our players are being moved along in the process.  Use our reputation and relationship to work with them to address their concerns about not being able to see players live until the summer.

f)       Fall

i)        Work to set up a fall season for our players so that they can get in front of the coaches they need to before fall application deadlines.