Marquette Lacrosse

As we begin a new season I think back to the Star Wars comments where they look to Luke Skywalker as their new hope, some think their last.   Well, obviously, we are not fighting Darth Vader here, but the analogy is true for the start of any season.  Everyone on the team, including the coaches, have high hopes for the upcoming season.  We all believe the ceiling is limitless if we execute our game plan.  Well, I have hope, but not blind faith.  This team has earned the hope I have.

Practice

This is such a crucial part of a team’s development.  Going from the hodgepodge of practicing to being focused and working your butt off is a tough development for a team.  It seems you are putting in so much but yet seeing no results.  These guys have definitely put in some hard practices with limited resources.  As a coach I worry a lot about being in a gym and how it affects spacing, ability to teach the full field game, and if the team is getting sufficient conditioning in such a small space.  We get to find out this weekend, but the team toughed out two practices in cold conditions outside this week, just to work spacing and we did alright.

Georgia Tech & Kentucky

We travel to Kentucky this weekend.  We are looking at some lovely Wisconsin weather of mid 30’s and snow/rain/sleet.  Great, just what I was hoping for when I scheduled these games.  I guess it is like a home game away from home?  Weather aside, I am very excited to play both of these games.  I met Coach Lovic at the 2007 National Championships and he is an outstanding man.  This is his final season at GT and I don’t think that team could be losing a better coach, but he still has another season to go and GT has started strong.  They have talented players, excellent coaches, and definitely handed us a whooping a few years back.  I am glad Marquette could be a part of Coach Lovic’s final run.

Marquette has never faced Kentucky in it’s history (to my knowledge).  From what I understand Kentucky is a program on the rise and is trying to elevate to the level of being a contendor in the SELC which is a difficult task considering there are 3 to 4 teams in the CollegeLAX.us Top 25 poll every year.  I am excited to do battle with them and have to say thank you for the hard work they have put in to find fields and allow us to get our games in.

Announcements

Our game time on Saturday has been changed to 3:00pm start time due to weather.  We now play

Sat  – GT @ University of Kentucky 3:00pm

Sun – Kentuckty @ University of Kentucky 12:00pm

Parting Shots

- We do positively positives to start practice.  Our positively positive to start yesterday’s practice was “What did the triangle say to the circle?” A: “Your life is so pointless.”   I know, I laughed as well.  Thank you captain Morell .

- How awesome would it be to see Team USA beat Team Canada for the gold medal?  How good is Ryan Miller?

- Follow-us live on Twitter this weekend (marquettelax).  If we can get a live blog going, I will be sure to announce.

Milwaukee, WI – Marquette University Men’s Lacrosse team has released a brand new website.  The team had been working for some time to develop a better identity on the web and this site is the firs step.  It is only a start, and the team continues to look to tweak the site and hopefully turn it into an avenue for parents, players, alums, and fans to get top notch communication to the team.

During the process of developing the site, it was Secretary Mitch Nemmers leading the charge looking at some different ways of doing things and finding innovative ways to have a website that was both useful and branded well.  Mitch will be working with the appropriate invidiuals to continue to keep the site up to date.  If you experience any issues or have suggestions please feel free to contact the team at marquette.lacrosse@gmail.com.

The team opens this Saturday against Georgia Tech so the release of the website couldn’t come at a better time.

The Marquette University men’s lacrosse team announces their upcoming schedule for the 2010 Spring Season.  Marquette will be taking on opponents throughout the country as they look to challenge for a UMLL Conference Crown.

The 2010 Golden Eagles schedule opens up in Lexington, KY as Marquette will take on SELC foes Georgia Tech & University of Kentucky on Feb. 27 & 28.

Marquette will then return home to take on the University of Illinois at home on March 7.  “Our game against Illinois is a classic battle between two Midwestern states.  We have tremendous respect for Coach Dodson and the program they have and definitely look forward to this battle every year.”  Coach Ojeda said.

For Spring Break the Golden Eagles head back to the SELC to play East Carolina on March 16, Virginia Tech on March 18, and Wake Forest on March 20.  Marquette faced Wake Forest a few years ago on a trip to the SELC and lost 11-8.  The Golden Eagles will be looking to avenge that loss and face two new opponents in Virginia Tech & East Carolina.

Upon returning home, Marquette will open up it’s conference schedule facing Minnesota State-Mankato, Minnesota, and Iowa State as the team travels to Ames, IA the weekend of March 26-28.  This features two close rematches from last year in which Marquette lost to Minnesota State-Mankato by two and Iowa State by one.

The Golden Eagles will then have a week off for the Easter Holidays before battling Wisconsin-Milwaukee for Milwaukee supremacy on April 8 at Shorewood High School.  On Saturday April 9, the Golden Eagles welcome the Pointers of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to Marquette Valley Fields.

The Golden Eagles then travel to play Saint Cloud State and University of Minnesota Duluth as they wrap up their conference play.  Games will be played in Saint Cloud and Minneapolis respectively.

Marquette will play host to out of conference and new to the MCLA, Wisconsin-Madison on April 21.  “This is a game Marquette is looking forward to.  Wisconsin-Madison is new to the MCLA and has always had an excellent team, so the competition should be outstanding. “ Coach Ojeda stated.

Finally, Marquette will fight for a chance to win the UMLL Conference Crown the first weekend in May at the UMLL Conference Tournament in Minneapolis, MN.

This past weekend we participated in the LakeFront Classic hosted by Carthage College.  First, I want to thank Coach Neff from Carthage for getting this together.  I know he and I did a lot of the work together, but ultimately it was his work that got this thing off the ground and done.  I had a blast the whole weekend and thought it was a great weekend for everyone involved.

This was the final weekend of fall ball.  The team has a couple of weeks off and then we begin to do some off season work, but we are finished with games until Feb. 25-26.  That seems so far away, but then again so did this weekend, and then it just came up on us.

Our weekend was up and down.  We really struggled to find the consistency we were hoping to have, but I think at the same time we did a lot of growing.  From the first game on Saturday to the last game on Sunday this team changed.  Every year we are challenged with a new group of young men, and getting them to mesh along with building talent.  This year we have seen the team develop ethe chemistry and skills to get better.  However, we had not had a full weekend of being fully tested yet.  Sure we played UWM and Wisconsin and both teams were challenges, but this weekend was a physical and mental challenge, as we play 6 games in just about 26 hours.  his weekend was going to tell us what this team was and where we would be.

Well, the guys showed resilience and heart.  It took time, but we began to form the bond and the work ethic on the field that will lead us to the promise land and put us in contention for every game.  It didn’t come easy, we suffered through some tough games, but in the end when it was the last game and we were tired and could have mailed it in, we played well.  I am proud of these young men and the progress they made over the course of the weekend and the work they put in to get here.  I think it speaks volumes for our team, that we handled adversity so well and continued to work hard for each other.

Overall, I had a fun weekend.  Thanks to the teams, Illinois, MSOE, Lindenwood, MSU, Carthage, & UMD for all the competition.  It was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed it and it gave us a good measure of the areas we need to work on (me included) over the winter and into the Spring.

Thank you to the parents that came down.  Sorry I did not get a chance to talk with many of you.  It was a busy weekend.  I will write again in a couple of weeks.

Parting Shots

- It was really cold this weekend.  Why it couldn’t have been 60 and sunny, I don’t know, but at least we did not have any rain.

- It is supposed to snow today.  Man, Wisconsin weather often leaves something to be desired.

- Gran Torino is an awesome movie and I highly recommend it.

-Coach

As promised, the cross-town rivalry between the Marquette Golden Eagles and the UW Milwaukee Panthers reared its ugly head. As the first game of the fall season, the Golden Eagles were ready to play, and what better team to start with than questionably one of its biggest rivals the Panthers.

After a tough season last year, along with losing a strong group of seniors, the Golden Eagles looked to bounce back and start the season with a bang. Which is exactly what they did.

With new Defensive Coach Rick Rameriz handling the defense and Head Coach Panchito Ojeda running the offense, the Golden Eagles looked like a new team.

Marquette played hard the first quarter and finished the half strong leading 6 to 3. By the end of the game both teams had fought hard and scored multiple goals. The final score was 11 to 8, with Marquette coming out on top even though they played man down for a good portion of the game because of penalties.

The new additions to the offense such as Padeen Reed, TJ Gallus, Pat Van Dusen and Dan Bissing helped propel Marquette to a vital win. Each of the four players had at least one goal. They also got help from returning players Pat Mulshine, Thomas Sikes and Ian Chadwick. The defense was also strong, holding UWM to 6 goals until the 4th quarter and killing a penalty when they were 3 men down.

“The team battled hard on Saturday,” Ojeda said. “We laid out some specific goals around controlling the possession time, winning the ground ball battle, and out shooting our opponent.  We did all of these things which put us in position to win.

I think the whole team sees improvement areas in our lack of focus on the details as we made some mistakes early, but we are only playing our second game so still time to improve.  Now, we must get back to work as we have only two weeks to prepare for some excellent competition at the Lake Front Classic being played at Carthage College.

Overall, it was an excellent game and the young men worked hard and did what it took to win.  Thank you to UWM for coming out for the game and playing.  They will be a tough foe once again come Spring.”

Captain and Goaltender Brian “Pirate” Cassidy also commented on the game.

“I was really looking forward to this game because it gave us our first real glimpse of our potential,” Cassidy said.  ”As a team with a bunch of new parts, it was nice to see how they all fell into place in our system. I felt like our offense played with a killer mentality that maybe we haven’t shown in the previous years I’ve been here. What I mean by that is that it seemed like everyone was catching the ball in a position where they were a threat– everyone wanted to get a goal. By doing that, I think it opened up more opportunities for us.

On the defensive side– I was very impressed with how my fellow defenders responded to being man down a whole lot. I believe we were scored on the first 3 times we were man down, but after that we made the right adjustments and never panicked. I think that seeing the defense respond that way is really a great sign this early on in the year. Also, besides the man-down goals, we were very solid against equal man opportunities. I expect big things in the near future.”

The team’s next game is at the Lake Front Classic being played at Carthage College on October 10 against University of Minnesota Duluth. The game is at 11:30.

Get out there and support your Golden Eagles.

Welcome to Marquette Lax Fans!  That’s right, I know most of you have probably been looking at this website for the past few months or even years, depending on how long you have been involved, but for those of you just starting out, Welcome.  Our 2009-2010 season has officially started.

We had our first meeting last night and we had a large group of young men join us and the team looks to have about 40 young men interested in playing.  We spent last night handling administrative stuff and then talking through team goals and expectations.  As is true with most people, sitting in a room for a few hours is just not that fun, but important.  The work we did last night will hopefully set the table for our successes this year.

On Thursday we get to start practice.  How great will it be to get out on the field and do some work.  We will be able to begin to work together, bond, and develop into the family we know we are.  Over the next 6 weeks we will see our team grow together and begin one unit as opposed to individuals.  But most importantly, we get to the most fun part of lacrosse.

So, young men, come ready to work hard, but come ready to have fun. We are going to have a great time this year working our butts of and becoming a great team.

Parents and Alums, we are getting ready to announce our fall schedule, but we have to get some confirmation on things.  Here is what I do know:

(a) We will be playing in the afternoon on 9/13 as part of Indian Summerfest. I don’t know time.  I will post time and location once I have it.

(b) Our parents weekend will be 9/25-9/27.  Details will be sent out by the EB this week, or at least as soon as we get all the parents contact information.

(c) Our alumni game scheduled for 9/19 appears to have gotten a good response.  If you are not coming, contact us today and let us know you are coming .  Don’t miss out on this tremendous time.

(d) Play Day with Carthage College is October 10-11 @ Carthage College.

Like I have said before we have a new hope, a new season with a bunch of returning and incoming talent.  We can certainly achieve new heights, but the decision is ours.  As I have told some and will be telling the team again.  Winning starts now.  It doesn’t start next week, or with the first game, or next hour, it starts now.  It starts with hard work, with hard practice, with focus on achieving the goals we have laid out for ourselves and doing them the right way.

I don’t know about you, but I am stoked to be practicing on Thursday.  Perhaps the only thing better would to be a player on Thursday as opposed to a coach.  Let’s have some fun over the next few weeks boys.

Is Marquette Lacrosse in the middle of a Jock Jams CD?  Yeah, I know kind of a weird question, but as we get ready for the upcoming season, I can’t help but feel like Jock Jams is playing in the background trying to get everyone pumped up.  I mean, honestly who doesn’t get pumped with Jock Jams?  (Alright most people, but whatever).

Our season is right around the corner.  We are exactly 2 weeks away from our first team meeting and 3 weeks away from our first practice.  It is extremely exciting the prospect of starting fresh and a new.

It is important as we start this new season, we move on from last year and some of the tough times we experienced.  However, more important we must not forget them.  Each one of us, as individuals and a team, need to look in the mirror and find out what we can do better as we approach this fall season.  We have new talent coming in, old talent returning and all the pieces in place for a good run in the Spring.  However, if we take it for granted that because we are talented we will do well, then we will not reach our potential.

The next few weeks (starting on 9/1) we will have a lot of hard work ahead of us.  We are going to spend the fall season “getting back to basics.”  Have you ever noticed, some of the best teams in NFL, NBA, etc. all describe how they “got back to basics & simplified things” in order to achieve greatness.  We are going to do the same.  We will be focused on all the little details, so when you come watch us, you will get the great opportunity to not only watch and athletic, fun bunch of players, but also a team absolutely dedicated to be fundamentally sound.  I believe it will prove to enhance our capabilities greatly over the next six weeks.   As the famous quote “Anything worth having is worth working hard for” states, we will be working hard this fall.

I want to take this time to credit the Executive Board and the work they have done this summer.  For the most part we have been able to work pretty darn effectively via email, and  all board members have been staying on top of their stuff.  We aren’t perfect and have had our hiccups, but overall, we are in pretty darn good shape, and I would argue in position to have one of the better administrative years.  I believe the team, parents, and alums will get to see this in the coming weeks as we begin to see the fruits of their labor.

Answers to everyone’s burning questions (I know, you all are dying for these)

1. Spring Break – We are going to Greensboro to play Wake Forest, East Carolina, and Virginia Tech.  Should be a fun trip including a rematch of a game we lost a few years ago (Wake 11, MU 7).
2. LakeFront Classic – We are going to be playing at Carthage in the LakeFront Classic.  It will be October 10-11.  Should be a fun weekend of ball.
3. We are working on a home weekend March 3-5.  Trying to firm up details.
4. We will be traveling to Lexington, KY Feb. 25-26.  If we are lucky maybe the Wildcats Basketball will be in town and we can catch a game at legendary Rupp Arena.
5. We have a strong recruiting class this year, and will be getting an announcement on the website at the beginning of our fall season.

Well, I probably won’t post again until after the start of the season.  I will keep everyone up to date with our progress.  Until next time…..

Rick "Grandpa" Ramirez

Marquette Men’s Lacrosse is proud to announce the newest member of its coaching staff. In addition to Head Coach Ojeda, new Assistant Coach, Rick “Grandpa” Ramirez was announced this past week.

Rameriz, a former player for Marquette as well as current graduate student, will return to the team, this time as the new Assistant Coach and Defensive Coach. “I’ve had a great time and learned a lot as a player with Marquette for the past two years. I look forward to continung to have a great time and learning while contributing as a coach. This team and season have an immense amount of potential yet to be realized; perhaps more than the ability to coach, I look forward to being around to see that happen,” says Rameriz about being hired as the new Assistant.

Coach Ojeda also commented adding, “Rick Ramirez is an excellent addition to our coaching staff. Rick brings to the table a multitude of lacrosse experience playing the game along with intricate knowledge of our league and a work ethic second to none. When Rick and I spoke he cited lack of experience as a concern, but I am confident Rick will be able to use both his knowledge and work ethic to overcome both and be an extremely successful coach. I am very excited Rick will be joining our program and helping us to continue the winning tradition of Marquette Lacrosse.”

Marquette players as well as the Marquette Lacrosse family extend a warm welcome to our new coach, as we all look forward to next season.

This is a test post

One month until our first team meeting.  Ok, well actually one month and one day, but dang that’s it.  I am STOKED!  I love lacrosse and I am uber excited for our upcoming season.  We have a lot of reasons to be excited including an excellent class of freshman, a strong returning group of players, and some other news which will be put up shortly.

First and foremost, we have solidified some of both our fall and spring schedules.  We don’t have every detail worked out but we know this fall we will be taking on our alums on September 19, 2009 which should be a lot of fun.  We have gotten good feedback from the alums and it looks like we may be having a legitimate alumni team this year.  Additionally, we have committed to play in a fall “play day” with Carthage College, MSOE, Duluth, Lindenwood, and a few others at Carthage College.  We are honored to be a part of this experience and it should be a good test of our team.  We are working on parents weekend and the MU Invitational, we will get that information out soon.

Our Spring schedule is nearly down, but I will wait until everything is official to announce it.  We have planned a Spring Break trip and all I can say is, “It is somewhere warm.”  I know, that narrows it down….Seriously, we will announce it as soon as we have things solidified, but we are close.

Switching gears, the coaches have had time to get together and we have what we think will be an excellent plan in place to get us ready.  It is going to be rigorous, but it will allow us to be ready to compete right away against the teams we want to beat.  One of the things we are really excited about is our “Weekend of Lax” on Sept 11-13.  We are going to be doing lax all weekend long and getting our systems in place to get us ready for competition.  I am so glad I only have to wait a month longer until our seasons begin again.  I hope all you young men out there are as excited and ready to roll as I am.  See you guys in a month!

Parting Shots…

• On a political note, can President Obama invite me to a “Beer Summit?”  I would certainly love to sit down with the President and talk about whatever over a beer, though I would choose Miller Lite
• Apparently I have an “emoticon” problem.  I just got GChatted “darnit Panch, friends don’t let friends type, text, or drive under the influence of emoticons”  Who knew?

Until next time…

Matt “Mo” Morrell

Biography: Matt “Mo” Morell is a senior majoring in Broadcast and Electronic Communication with a minor in Marketing. He is from Glenview, IL and has been playing lacrosse for 14 years, playing LSM/close D for 9 of those years.  Outside of lacrosse, he love sports especially baseball, football and hockey. He is also a huge Cubs, Bears, and Blackhawks fan.

Comments on being selected a captain: “Being chosen as a captain means a lot to me.  It means that my teammates look up to me about lacrosse and I like the ability to help coach them through different assets of the game.”

Biography: Jordan “Be-Bop” is a sophomore majoring in Criminology and Psychology. He is originally from Lake Oswego, OR. He has played lacrosse since 6th grade, for 8 years now, and won two state championships in High School. He was originally a middie to start this season but converted to attack this year. Decided to come to Marquette to get away from family and friends and have a new experience, and loves being in the Midwest. The team is a big reason why he loves the school so much. Also loves basketball and hanging out with the team, and is excited to live with fellow teammate Stefan Maupin next year in Schroeder Hall.

Comments on being selected a captain: “It is truly an honor to represent Marquette Lacrosse as a sophomore. I look at it as a privilege and a responsibility and I’m very excited for next year!”

Brian "Pirate" Cassidy

Biography: Brian Daniel Damian “Pirate Bro” Cassidy is a senior from Marlton, New Jersey. He attended St. Joseph’s Prep in Philidelphia, PA, and began playing lacrosse in 7^th grade for the South Jersey Black Storm. Originally a middie/attackman, he is now the starting goalie for Marquette.

Activities: President of MU Lax, schooling my brothers at Basketball, Hunger Clean-up, Long walks on the Jersey Beach w/ or w/out a lady friend, MDA Camp Volunteer, 2nd team all-conference goalie, being a fan of the World Champion Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, Sixers.

Decided to come out to the midwest for school because he was looking for a good Jesuit University outside of the Northeast and Marquette was the perfect fit and he heard Wisconsin had good cheese.

Quote about captaincy (argghh): “To be named captain by my teammates is a great honor. I feel that I learned a lot about being a leader off the field last year from my time as team President and I’m really excited to be in a leadership position on the field for this coming season. This team means a heck of a lot to me, and I’m just itching to get back to school to start off next season on the right foot, Bro.”

Coach’s Comments:

Coach Ojeda was asked to give a comment on the captians selected for this year. This is what he had to say:

“Each of the captains we have selected has proven how important they are to this team.  It was a joint selection process between the players and coaching staff and we think we have the four best guys for the job.  I think these young men will embrace their leadership role and only help further improve the Marquette Lacrosse team through the 2009-2010 season.  Congrats to these young men on their achievement, they should be proud of themselves.”