The fall ball tournament season draws ever nearer.
Here come the Spiders out of Northeast Ohio.
Training opens in two weeks and the boys will then hit the road to Illinois and Indiana.
Practice Dates:
10/21 10:30 am-12:30 pm
10/22 10:30 am-12:30 pm
10/24 6 pm-8 pm
10/26 6 pm-8 pm
Tournaments:
Team Illinois Fall Showcase – Schaumburg, Illinois
NXT CanAm – Westfield, Indiana
Paul Corto on the Spiders in the Fall
LPG: What are some of the the benefits behind delaying the initial fall training session to October?
PC: Yeah, it’s really to give the boys a rest. Specifically in Ohio, you have a lot of kids that are playing football and the football season for the most part has ended by late October, early November
The delay is really twofold. It’s to give the boys a rest coming off of the summer and the excitement of school starting, but also the consideration of football and soccer and fall sports.
The kids can be multi sport athletes if they want to be. I’ll say a third of our club traveling with us this fall. The other portion are really kids that are focusing on other sports.
We’ll send out our winter program here shortly but it’s going to be our winter Sixes program at Cleveland State. The boys will train for 45 minutes and then play for 45 minutes.
We’ll do that for December, January and February to help prepare the boys for their high school and middle school seasons.
LPG: What are you guys hoping to have in place scheme wise prior to that first fall ball event at the end of October?
PC: The practices are really an opportunity for the coaches just to get back together with the teams and help prepare them for the tournament. The strategy is knock off the rust a little bit and be able to have some semblance of an offense and a defense and a ride and clear.
Just keep it somewhat basic and generic. The real opportunity for the high school teams is just to provide some additional exposure. We feel like the Team Illinois Fall Showcase and Can Am tournaments is where there’s a good chunk chunk of college coaches.
I’m really sensitive to the kids just having that res, as well as being able to play those other fall sports.
And, it’s why in the winter we’re only going one day a week as well is because there’s such a large amount of kids that play basketball, hockey, and wrestling.
The last thing I want to do is make kids feel like they have to specialize in lacrosse. They can, but I would personally prefer for kids to continue to be multi sport athletes.
We’ll help them and give them the opportunity to train. It can be as much as they want or, as little as they want during the offseason.
LPG: How do you kind of define success at those events?
PC: Wins and losses mean nothing to me. That is not a of success. And quite honestly, the one thing that I tell parents is the only thing that we can guarantee is that your son’s going to get better.
So, you know, to me it’s about growth and development and preparing the boys for their high school seasons and their middle school seasons as well as preparing them for the next level.
Full photo gallery from tryouts.
