Despite the lost opportunity to reconnect face-to-face, the virtual convention drew more than 3,000 registrants from 48 states and a dozen countries. They committed to continue their ongoing investment in professional development despite such disrupted circumstances. LaxCon featured more than 200 speakers who delivered a total of 118 educational sessions covering a wide range of topics, including men’s and women’s game strategy, program culture, inclusive leadership and mental health, as well as an update on the sport’s Olympic vision.
All sessions were recorded and will be available to attendees on demand through the end of the year. Additionally, content from a number of sessions will be made available to the national lacrosse community across various US Lacrosse platforms.
PHOTO BY ADY KERRY
Korea s Jy Hyun Song in action against Italy during the 2017 women s world championship in Guildford, England. World Lacrosse now boasts 68 member nations and hosts world championships in five categories.
LaxCon 2021: World Lacrosse and the Olympic Movement
Tue Mar 2 2021 | Brian Logue | Fuel
During this year’s US Lacrosse Convention, World Lacrosse CEO Jim Scherr provided an update on the organization and went in-depth on the path to the Olympics.
Scherr is perhaps uniquely qualified to provide this analysis, given his diversified background in the Olympic network. A wrestler who represented the United States in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Scherr went on to serve as the executive director of USA Wrestling and the CEO of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The participants ended up stretching beyond the U.S. borders with participants from Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom and beyond just PE teachers. With the sessions included as part of the main convention track, other coaches and program leaders joined in.
“A positive development was having the coaches and program leaders that were in the sessions because they wanted to learn how to help get lacrosse into their schools,” Davenport said. “Now we need to keep the momentum building.”
Davenport is leading the effort to refresh the curriculum, building on the US Lacrosse principles for athlete development. The curriculum allows PE teachers from grades K-12 to introduce the sport to their students. The curriculum provides age specific units plans, lesson plans, drills, games, educational handouts, cross-curricular activities and more. Aligns with national standards and was developed in partnership with the National Association for Sport and Physical Educati
Set academic goals.
“What is your GPA now and what are you trying to achieve by the end of this spring,” Churchward said. “Make it visible. Write it down. Put that somewhere where you can see it every single day. If we write down goals, then we can have an actionable plan to achieve those goals. If we don’t write it down, then those are just dreams.”
Juniors (Class of 2022)
“I think [this class] will be most impacted by this dead period being extended,” Churchward said. “I think a lot of the 2022 recruiting classes at the Division I level will be smaller. They’re dealing with guys coming back. They’re not quite sure about the scholarship or roster limit and what that might look like.”
Thu Jan 28 2021 | Nelson Rice | College
PHOTO BY PEYTON WILLIAMS
Throughout his career as a Division I head coach at Penn State and previously Cornell, Jeff Tambroni has learned that “culture” does not stem from a sign in a locker room or a catchy slogan on team shooting shirts. Instead, it’s an authentic, desired action.
Tambroni, the 2019 Big Ten coach of the year, expanded upon that belief in a talk titled “Culture as an Action Plan” earlier this month at the virtual US Lacrosse Convention.
Connected to most of the lessons was a book recommendation.
“Any chance we can get a list of the books Coach Tambroni mentioned?” Alexis Brandolini, co-founder of the Alpha Echo Project, asked in the chat after the talk concluded.