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St. Augustine, Florida – There are lots of opportunities to leave Florida and play lacrosse. You have the IWLCA’s, the National Draw, Lax-4-the-Cure, and many other events up north you can attend. But during the weekend of July 17-18th of this year, what is the point of leaving Florida. You have the best 7-v-7 tournament right here!
Members of the TFG 2010 White team lost two games by a total of 2 goals, including the Atlantic Championship game. Another team with only a couple subs, the 2010 White team gets my award for best teamwork!
That’s not to brag. It’s to rationalize why we (The Maniax) as a club do not go north during Heatwave Championships. We go North many times a year and we always schedule our trips north to not conflict with great events in the South. Why would we want to do that? There are so few good southern tournaments to attend in the first place! The Heatwave Championships are one of the best! And this is why:
1) The Venue – The ONLY lacrosse park in the south is Landrum Lax Park in Ponte Vedra Beach. It has perfect fields, and is 1 nautical mile from the beach. Its strategic fencing (for lacrosse) and layout provide a great team tent environment and atmosphere.
2) The Teams – This year, more than 24 high school teams alone attended. The competitive levels were better than ever and the teams improved as the games were played. Seven middle school and three women’s teams rounded out the field. There is something for everyone there.
3) The Format – 7-v-7 on a small field (35 yards by 60 yards) with ‘instant clears’ in a tournament format. Plus, this year’s 3-v-3 Championship (sudden victory; single elimination) and the 2nd Annual Braveheart Championship (sudden victory; single elimination), added to the hysteria.
4) The Location – PVB is at a cross-roads. 5 1/2 hours from Atlanta, 4 hours from Miami, 5 hours from Naples, 2 hours from Orlando, 7 hours from Charlotte. It’s a great place to meet for a weekend tournament and with planning, teams can drive to town or catch a cheapee flight into JAX.
5) The Intensity – There are a lot of Maniax teams that attend this event. There are a lot of other club programs who attend as well. The sheer intensity of the Maniax playing each other for bragging rights and the other club programs raising their intensity in that spirit makes the event more ‘college-like’ than other tournaments intensity-wise. Plus having college teams there is a big help!
Jennifer Armbruster (11) helped lead TFG '11-'12 Central to a runner up finish and a win over HOTlanta Heat. '11-'12 Central stopped rival TFG '11-'12 State by a goal to advance to the finals.
Club programs who attended the event included: LaxManiax Elite (4th year club), HOTlanta Lacrosse (3rd year club), SOFLA (4th year club), Team Trident (2nd year club), and Beaches, Planet Lax, Eagles Stix, Copperheads, and LM Lax, all first-year clubs. It was an excellent showing for the teams who made the trip. Other than a 30-minute lightening delay during pool play, the weather cooperated. Scheduling a tournament like this in the morning is key in Florida this time of year.
Our club had a very strong showing. TFG teams dropped only two games during the entire event. 2010 White dropped a 1-goal decision to HOTlanta Heat (8-9) and bowed out in the Atlantic Championship game 10-9 (vs. Trident Zebras). The other TFG teams included the 2010 Black team (undefeated winners of the Sawgrass Championship), and TFG 11-12 Central (runners up in the Sawgrass Championship but otherwise undefeated), and TFG 11-12 State (knocked out in the Sawgrass semi-final by their counterparts by just 1-goal). TFG 2013 played well, but was eliminated in the Atlantic semi’s by TFG 2010 White. The tournament was everything it was supposed to be – a lot of competitive action and excitement for players, fans and officials alike.
Middle school teams and elite teams played very well too. The Championship game in the Sawgrass MS bracket was won on a braveheart tie-breaker by CFL 2014, coached by Rollins College defensive mastermind Brad Pinneke. They avenged an earlier loss to Maniax South-Central coached by Rich Howard and company. After earning the #1 seed into the tournament, had defeated the CFL ‘14 team 13-10 in pool play.
The Atlantic Championship was swept by the Maniax Southeast, after not winning a game in pool play on day #1. The Southeastern girls rallied for two in a row on Sunday and a Championship award!
3-3 Titles were claimed by TFG 11-12 State (Maddy Blakeman, Olivia DiCarlantonio, Taylor McCord – all 15-year olds), and Maniax South-Central (Brenna Pinneke, Ali Williams, Mari Grace Gabrovic) at the Middle School level. Poetic justice for these teams whose championship runs were cut short in the 7-v-7. 
Braveheart titles were won by Emotion Silvestri (Mustangs Lax 2010), and Olivia Blakeman (Maniax South-Central). Silvestri, who plays for the LaxManiax 2010 White team, chose to put together a team of players from her high school to enter the Heatwave Championships. It was the first major tournament that girls from Mandarin High School, FHSAA District 1 runners up in 2009, had ever participated in.
One of the interesting stats of the event is the goals for vs. goals surrendered number. This is often a great way to show the competitiveness of a tournament. The Heatwave’s winners averaged 11 goals for and losing teams 6.5 goals for. This tells me two things: the games are very competitive and that defense determines who wins them. 6.5 goals on that small of a field over 24 minutes is not very many. TFG 2010 Black held all but one of their opponents to just 4-goals or less in their six games. One of those games was played without a goal keeper for the first 18-minutes of play. You really find out what your team is made of when they are playing without a goal keeper and have an attacker yellow-carded for 3-minutes! That’s why practicing man-down situations is a great idea! With just 1-sub for two of their six games, the 10 Black team also taught the club lesson in resilience and ball control. Some very high Lax-IQ players on that team.
Winning is mostly due to defense, goal keeping and clock management. Less about attack.
The scores were slightly higher on the middle school side, with the point spread closer to 5-goals between the teams on average. The higher goal count is mainly due to them playing with a 2-pass rule and not learning how to play ‘real’ lacrosse defense until they become club players. The 2-pass rule is killing the development of both defensive and midfield skills in Florida lacrosse. There are enough good players who have played the sport for a year or more to do away with the 2-pass rule. As quickly as kids can learn how to throw and catch, why ‘handicap’ a team to try to get the ball to the kids who do not work hard enough to develop their passing and catching skills? Isn’t that the intent of the rule? Help the kids who can’t really possess the ball in the first place, to possess the ball? It doesn’t work. It is simply a well-intentioned rule that slows the progress of 75% of the team in favor of those who do not work on their skills away from practices.
The 2-pass rule stinks even at the recreational level. May as well add a 5-step rule, like Ultimate Frisby. That rule stinks as well! Nobody has to stop the ball!! That’s the most important thing!!
I am sure a blog will come on the intention of the 2-pass rule soon! Stay tuned.
When polled, most members and coaches of other clubs enjoyed the 3-v-3, and Braveheart, Championships and the excitement they brought to the event. Plus, even if your team is not ‘on’, you can still ‘win’ something. Everyone likes to have a chance to win something at the Heatwave!
And they do!
Fort Lauderdale, Florida – Chanelle Coulon proves to be one of the most unlikely candidates to be a Division I lacrosse player that you can imagine. But if you only knew Chanelle the way this writer does, you would have known all along that she was going to be a great lacrosse prospect. It just took a little time and lots of adversity, effort and leadership for the ‘player’ to come out in her! Today, Chanelle capped a great junior summer with a commitment to attend the University of Cincinnati and play for Coach Lellie Swords.
As co-captains of the 2010 Black TFG team this summer, Chanelle and Caroline Lamere (Lake Brantley) chose the phrase ‘Dig Deep’ as their team’s identity for the summer. They even bought the team bracelets with the term embossed. Her story is a great one. One that has required her to frequently draw from her emotional reserves and to literally ‘Dig Deep’ herself while she followed her dream.
But it was not always a dream. Just a few years ago, Chanelle had never heard of lacrosse. Coach Sarah Anderson (‘Fish’) current head coach of St. Thomas deserves a lot of credit getting Chanelle to start lax as a freshman when lacrosse was just a ‘club’ at the school. Chanelle did play on the 2007 Florida Club State Champions at St. Thomas. She started out playing YMCA sponsored beginner high school club lacrosse. There was no other place to play and there was very little competition. But Coach ‘Fish’ proved to be a great mentor.
She started playing in the LaxManiax club three years ago, and I got a good look at her (and an earful or two) when we attended our first tournament of the season: The Bagataway Southeastern Championships. Chanelle was an instant hit with me when she started imitating Borat before I could even get her into the van at the ATL the day prior to the tournament. And for one entire tourney all I heard was “VERRRY NIIIICEEE!” “IZ NIIIICCEEEE!” and other memorable Borat the Movie-film quotations.
We would never be the same.
Coach 'Goey' (in hat) and Chanelle (bottom right) and the rest of "The Borats" made a bright pink splash at their first Maniax tournament on 2007!
I had seen her at the Southeast Florida tryouts, I liked Chanelle as a player, but she was not by any means going to wear the crown “Chosen One!” upon first impression. In fact, I bet most other club programs would have cut her thinking that she was “not good enough” for an elite club. That is a short-sited approach to a game that is so new in the south that it doubles in growth every other year. There are kids like Chanelle who pop up all the time! So, with that mindset, we took her! And she was tremendous!
By the end of the first-year, I knew that her and Coach Sarah Burlingame (‘Goey’) had hit it off. It is nice being coached directly by a former Team Canada defender. It must be every defender’s dream: Being coached/mentored by someone who has been there and someone who knows how to teach her style of play directly! Goey deserves a lot of credit for Chanelle’s first and second years of growth as a player and person at the elite club level. Ironically, both coaches ‘Goey’ and ‘Fish’ were also teammates and captains at Cornell University. So, for the last two years, Chanelle has had some pretty good models who have been there and done that and she learned to aspire to their levels of passion and expertise.
But the last 12-months of her growth as a person and player belong just to Chanelle.
Chanelle (2nd from left) and her Maniax buddies found ways to be positive and have fun. This positive attitude contributed to Chanelle's success and helped her team find its identity.
Last year her club team (Maniax 2010) ran the gamut of performance and emotions. They went 3-1 in their first tournament of the year, even beating powerhouse T3-Shore. Then they self-destructed and went 1-3 at their second tournament. They lost to great opponents like the Check-Hers and PA Express, and they were missing one of their key middies who was tremendous in transition, when she was injured 5 minutes into the Chek Hers game. But that is not why the team did not play well in the 2nd tournament. Mainly it was not a lack of talent that held that team back in old #2. It was a lack of good attitudes. The team had players who could not get along or handle strong personalities that seemed to dictate what to do even though they themselves didn’t have a clue. On a guys team there most likely would have been a shoving match at some point. But teenage girls tend to be very high on the ‘I’ scale (Introvert) and they internalize a lot of emotions that can ruin their mindset and consequently their games.
It was a rough summer. It turned from a great high, into a great low.
Chanelle continued to work through the tough times and attended more tournaments in the Fall. She got onto some good lists and was in a good position for the following summer. If she was feeling better about lacrosse in general.
Her high school season was not up to expectations. Several players did not take the game as seriously as Chanelle wanted to. The coach (her mentor, Fish) was in law school and was a recent mother, and practices were not consistent in time, effort, or enthusiasm when compared to the championship seasons of the past. The team played up and down all year. The emotions kept swinging. After two emotional rides and many swings up and down, it was enough for Chanelle to question if she belonged at the next level.
After the season, Chanelle was not voted onto any “1st team” all-star teams. More than likely this was due to the lack-luster performance of her high school team and her ability to play middie, defense and attack on high school. She went from low defender to one of the leading scorers on the team. But alas, there is not room on the ballot for the position we call A/M/D. She was voted onto the deBeer all-State team, which is based on both the high school season and the previous year’s elite experience as well. She made the 2nd team.
After her high school season, Chanelle did not give up. She had to ‘DIG DEEP’. She accepted a captain’s position for her Manaix team this summer, and she tried out and made the southeastern US lacrosse team for the women’s division National Tournament in Towson. Her team, playing in bracket five, won the title. The team was co-coached by none other than Sarah Burlingame ‘Goey’ and the pair must have clicked! She showed well at the WDNT, but being good at playing ‘all-star’ lacrosse is no easy. It is a tough event to recruit at because of the ‘all-star’ format. Tough to tell one kid from another when they all do the same things.
Chanelle really came into her own at the IWLCA event and most importantly on the bus rides to and from the fields for practices, games and college visits. She was the DJ. She spun the hits! It was a great time and she had everyone singing and enjoying themselves! By the time we got to the fields, the team was excited to play. And her team played that way. Leadership on and off the field was key. The defense gave up very few goals throughout the tournaments, and some of them were not really the fault of the defense. Her team was a hit. And she was one of the leaders on and off the field. Much of the credit for her consistency comes from the positive advise and support of Coach Mary Hopkins, who has coached Chanelle at several tournaments and seen her mature and grow!
Chanelle (left - Cincinatti) joins fellow Maniax/St. Thomas alum Dani Wiedmeyer (right - Navy) at the Division I level. Chanelle is a great example of how positive thinking and hard work pays off. Good thing they are not going into DI hoops!
After the events, Chanelle became a hit with the coaches too. Several division I suitors came to call on her, eventually Cincinnati won her heart. And now, the story of the kid who just picked up a stick her freshman year and almost put it down her junior year, lives on. My wife has a saying she uses all the time. Everyone in the club knows it. “Attitude is the mind’s paintbrush. It can color any situation.” I think this phrase fits Chanelle to a tee. She has come a long way in her game, in her emotional leadership and control, and in her friendships.
We all hope that Chanelle remains a part of the LaxManiax program for a long time to come! You just can’t replace that leadership, personality or character. We all wish Chanelle the best of luck in her future college pursuit! Congrats, kid! You made it!
June 24, 2009 – St. Augustine, Florida – You know it is never over for us McCord’s. While tournaments are compete and everyone goes home and laments over one thing or another, or misses their teammates, or remembers going behind the back before going out to the beach or hanging at the new Transformers movie, for me it’s a little different.
I Plug In.
I am emailing coaches and texting coaches and players to get them connected. We are making calls and on the phone or working on the web on marketing the players correctly. We are double checking other tournaments and developing events to help raise the competitive edge of our players. From one event springs forth yet another. One roster blends to more and a waiver is not just a waiver. Today another tournament trip completed with a trip to Duke and tour of UNC after a playday.
We work with coaches and develop more curriculum and try to unmask the struggles all of our players have technically and tactically to improve them and develop a smarter lacrosse player while instructing your young players on how they can avoid the pitfalls of the older ones. It never really ends. For the OCD executive director, it never will end. Thank you OCD. It makes me strange and it makes me great. I suppose it is all how you look at things, but if you have read my blogs long enough, you know how I see life.
The college success of the 2009 and now the tremendous success of the 2010’s is creating something very unique that the class of 2017 should be aware of. You are following a club legacy now. No matter what anyone posts or blogs or talks about all that really matters is that there are some phenomenal kids who have come through this program. Phenomenal. And that is what will open doors for your class of 2013. Or the class of 2014. Even though they are not even thinking about college right now (or most of them are not).
Jordan Cook has used a strong tournament ethic over the past 8 months to position herself as one of the top 2011 recruits in Florida today.
We measure our success in many ways. Sure we like to win, but you won’t always win playing the types of teams we play up north. Most importantly we measure our success by the success of our graduates in colleges now, AND in the recruitment of our kids TODAY. They have all done their homework, they played a tough brand of smart lax, and they are in the good graces now. So, if you are a class of 2012, say thanks to Morgan Derner and her teammates. They are blazing you a trail. And if you ever saw Morgan play, you would know exactly what I mean by the term ‘blazing’.
I want to say that I am so proud of both the 2010 Black and 2010 White teams. Both played very tough schedules and both fought hard and were successful. Two teams of players from Florida – rising SENIOR players from Florida. I want to say Thanks to them for all they have done to put this club further into the consciousness of colleges all over the country. When some coaches tell me “I am not going to bother recruiting most of these girls because I could never get them.” that is a grand sign. A sign that the girls from Florida who many have never noticed, are now being brought out to the forefront of the sport.
And all I can say is “Thanks!”
I have always wanted to be a part of a program where the hard work and dedication of the players paid off in dividends for those very same players. Where being from Florida was a symbol of pride and not a badge of dishonor. And now we have done that.
The 2010 Black team went undefeated at the SAT before competing at a HUGE level at both IWLCA tournaments. Thanks to them, the bar continues to rise for Florida lacrosse prospects and TFG!
Spare me the shortsighted conversations about what this club is NOT. And bring me more positive conversations about what this club is. This club is reaching its goals in so many ways and we have so many people to thank for this. Most of all, lets all take some time at the next Maniax Day and THANK a rising senior for their service to this game. Find an alum who is in college now and THANK them for all they have done to grow the game and break the chains of bondage that have held Florida in isolation for so long. THANK those kids for being kids who love other kids and are not all about personal glory over the enjoyment of the sport. They are getting more and more kids to pick up sticks everyday.
Maybe the future Morgan Derners? Maybe the 2017’s? or 2018’s?
In a few years we will all sit back and say “We met the demands!” The demands of a state hungry for opportunities and a desire to make these options come to life where there previously was nothing. THANKS to all of you that have worked so hard to meet the demands.
Stay tuned for more updates on lax!
The Lax Maniax teams enjoyed their most successful northern trip during the summer of 2008, with each team posting a .500 record or better against age-group specific competition, the best you can play on the national stage. The 2009 Lax Maniax National Team became the 1st team from the South to make the playoff brackets of the Champions Cup, 2011 Lax Maniax National Team went undefeated. The 2010 Lax Maniax National team defeated Wildcat Elite twice, and was moved up a bracket based on performance after a great showing at the Champions Cup. Finally the Lax Maniax Elite team (mixed grad years) posted multiple wins in each tournament against teams from northern clubs while earning wins against teams from non-traditional lacrosse areas.
We’ve said since day one that it’s not about the wins or the losses, but about the SHOW the girls put on. We do not care if we look like genius coaches, or if we beat teams because we have a superior system. Our girls are showing better than ever, being competitive in every game, turning in great team and individual performances because our system is less about the coaches and more about the players. College coaches were left saying “Your team looked really good, they’ve been playing how long?” “I was shocked by the stick skills” “There’s alot of players in your program that I like” and “I’ll take any player on your 2009 team right now!”
Facts are facts: We play and beat teams that have been playing lacrosse for twice as long. Most of our teams are all ‘newcomers’ to the game and very few came from ‘feeder’ programs like private schools, or youth leagues. The 2009 club had 8 players who started playing lacrosse in high school. Ironically, of the 6 Division One commitments as of August 1st on this team, only two have played competitive lacrosse for more than 4 years.
The values of the LaxManiax Elite club are many: *a quality reputation of player development (check) *play the best club teams – see below (check) *be seen by college coaches, AND be guided thru the recruiting process by INSIDERS who help each girl plan for the collegiate futures (double-check!)
Here is a list of teams the Maniax played this summer:
Skywalkers (MD) 2009, CC Lax (MD) 2009, Capitol Orange (DC/VA/MD) 2011, T3 Shore (NJ) 2009, Check-Hers (MD) 2010, Ultimate Goal (PA) 2009, Wildcat Elite (IL) 2010, Upper Corner (MD) 2010 and 2010/09, Intrepid (PA) 2011, Intrepid (PA) II, Phantastix Purple (PA) 2010, NEMS (MD) 2010, PA Express 2009 and 2010, Long Island Pride 2011, SEPA (PA) 2010, Greyhounds (MD) 2011, Team Colorado 2011, Team Dixie (GA), Mass Elite 2009, Long Island Liberty 2010, Midwestern Force 2010, 2011, Team-Trident (GA), and more!
There were over 300 different coaches in attendance for the tournaments, click here for Champions Cup, and here for Capitol Cup. But it is the personal attention that the LaxManiax directors spend on helping organize each girl’s recruiting journey that assures them the best opportunities in the Summer and Fall of their senior seasons. If the coaches don’t know who you are, what number you are, and what elite club you play for, you will not be recruited by anyone. The Maniax system has been magnificent over the past three years and has provided colleges with stellar performers. 70% of all LaxManiax alumni start 50% or more of their games as college freshmen. The system develops players for the next level and is not focussed on mere success in the present. It’s not about wins and losses although they are a by-product of the system.
This summer also saw MCC Sports, Inc. manage a camp that was attended by many of our club members called “Lacrosse Universitas”. Held in Delaware the week in between the IWLCA Champions Cup and Capital Cup, this event featured instruction and introduction by several college coaches from the midatlantic area. Instructors at “Lax U”: Delaware, Duquesne, Jacksonville, Haverford, McDaniel, Villanova, Wesley, York, Bryn Mawr, Converse, University of Pennsylvania, Clarkson.
The “Lax U” camp included arranged visits to 4 universities with personal tours by coaches: Villanova, Haverford, Gettysburg, University of Pennsylvania. All of the schools were eye-openers for the girls. Perhaps the hit of the event was the ‘private party’ for the club at Abners Steaks in Philadelphia. They CLOSED the restaurant for our group! How great is that!
The girls received more college-level exposure and coaching in 12 days than anyone ever has from Florida, it was just insane. The interns, all LaxManiax college alums, were left wishing they still had the opportunity to play and go through the process. Even Coach Brooke Richards-Magnuson (Maryland c/o 2006), who went through the process as a CC Lax Alum, said “I’ve never seen anything like this on the club circuit, its incredible”
The legend grows, especially with the new Maniax Mobile. Girls, you continue to set the standard for excellence, stay hungry for greatness, you are achieving it!
Just wait until NEXT summer! Hooo Rahhh!
