What is Fall For?

(Photo by Lance Wendt)

by  E.J. Freeman | MCLA.us

ATLANTA, Georgia - The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting cooler as we tie a bow on Fall Ball across the country. As always, MCLA teams have taken just about every possible approach to Fall Ball. Some played as many outside opponents as possible, while others turned their focus inward and hoped to develop in privacy. Still others split the difference and had a scrimmage or two to build toward while also allowing plenty of time for practice.

Each team must choose the path that is right for them. The carrot of outside competition is a strong reward for autumnal focus and presence. Looking inward, on the other hand, can allow players to focus on learning and developing new skills without worrying about how it will impact the game against an outside opponent. Whatever tack a program has chosen is not going to make or break its spring season. The hope, however, is that Fall Ball can be a springboard and lead a program into hitting the ground running when they start practice in the spring (which will actually be the winter). There is no universally right or wrong answer here.

As I reminded everyone last year, when it comes to these scrimmages: take the final score with a significant grain of salt. No one knows how the two teams approached the scrimmage, so looking at the score can get you in trouble. We are only 10 weeks away from the first Saturday on which MCLA games can take place, so the games that count will be here before we know it, and we can all analyze those scores all we want.

One of the biggest priorities for Fall Ball should be incorporating new players and making them feel like part of the program. If the team leaders ignore this until January, it can make it very difficult to build a team that plays and fights together in the tough moments. This is easy to neglect and assume will happen organically, but if the program does not approach this with intention, it can slip through the cracks, either slightly neglected or totally ignored.

As coaches, we all hope that our players will not hang up their sticks when Fall Ball wraps, only to not touch them again until January. A small break is good for both the body and the mind, but all those gains a player might have made during Fall Ball can disappear quickly if the stick goes untouched for too long. Hopefully coaches have learned about their teams during Fall Ball and have an idea of what they can do well and what might not work given their personnel. Fall Ball should be a time for experimentation, but soon enough the scores will count and the time for experimentation will be over.

So, I would encourage all of our players to finish Fall Ball on a high note before closing the semester academically. Enjoy these last few weeks of relatively low-stakes lacrosse, because when we return next semester the heat will be on.