|
Click here for the latest Team USA news, highlights scores and Facebook updates. |
Gone Campin': Last Call for Manchester
Intrepid reporter -- and US Lacrosse Director of National Teams -- Nathaniel Badder is embedded with Team USA at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., as it heads into training camp to ready for the MLL All-Star Game and FIL World Championships. Check back to laxmagazine.com this week for continuing coverage.
Day One: Pick-Up Hoops with Team USA
Day Two: Team USA Starts Two-A-Days
Day Three: 'We Have Not Yet Begun to Fight'
Day Four: U.S. Prepares for MLL All-Star Game
Day Five: Captain Powell Finds Fitting
Send-Off
by Nathaniel Badder | Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2010
8:30a.m.: Assistant GM/equipment manager extraordinaire Jimmy Butler kicks of the team’s final meeting with some reminders about equipment needs. I make a few remarks about travel to England and the pride I felt in watching these guys get after it so hard over the week. US Lacrosse’s Men’s Division Director Jody Martin makes some public appreciations -- to the staff, the coaches, and our many supporters, most notably Warrior -- and comments on the great opportunity and responsibility that the team has to serve as ambassadors for the team, organization, sport and country, and then calls on captains Ryan Powell and Kevin Cassese to talk about the 2006 championship. In no uncertain terms, Powell says how badly he was stung by the loss and that he knew immediately on receiving his silver medal that he was coming back to give this mission one last go in 2010. Cassese details the great leadership on this team -- "Everyone in this room has been a captain of his team at some point," he says -- and the need for everyone to buy in.
Then Coach Pressler steps up. Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in hand, Coach P. launches into a 15-minute explication of the task at hand. His pitch and tenor rising and falling like the tracks of a roller coaster, adding emotion and severity to his message, he applauds the group for the gritty come-from-behind win over the MLL All-Stars, retells his experience with the 2002 gold medal-winning team, underscores the necessity of a full-team effort and challenges the guys to check egos at the door. There's also the magnitude of the effort to get to this point, to have the chance to compete for a championship -- four years, thousands of hours and hundreds of people in the making! It’s hard not to get choked up when you hear him talk. He makes you want to throw on a helmet and jersey and duke it out with anyone who stands between you and a gold medal. There’s an excitement in the air, an eagerness to take the next step towards the podium.
9:44 a.m.: One last "Team USA" and the guys break up to catch their planes, trains and automobiles.
12:02 p.m.: Keys collected. Camp is closed! Next stop: Manchester (by way of Baltimore, MLL games and a brief stop at home to do laundry and change clothes).
9:38 p.m.: Finally home after a nine-plus hours on the road for a trip which should have lasted only seven -- thanks very much George Washington Bridge traffic (during which I saw one guy get out of his car in the middle of the left lane to get something out of his trunk and two other guys standing in between lanes selling bottled water… on I-95, the biggest highway in the world!). See you in England.
Want more?
Check out Team USA’s March to Manchester: http://www.laxmagazine.com/community/march_to_manchester
Follow Team USA on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TeamUSALacrosse
Sign up for the exclusive Team USA e-newsletter:
http://laxmagazine.com/newsletter_signup
