May 21, 2008
by Tom Borrelli, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
Portland LumberJax Managing Partner Angela Batinovich turned a few heads and ruffled a few feathers among the old guard when she put her highly-successful fashion career on hold to run a professional indoor lacrosse team at age 23.
Now she's 27, married to Jax sixth-year transition man Adam Bysouth and expecting the couple's first child, a girl, in late August or early September. The boss lady has been through a roller coaster of emotions in her three National Lacrosse League seasons.
Portland marched to an unexpected 11-5 record and a first-place finish in the West Division during the expansion team's maiden voyage in 2006.
Then Batinovich suffered through a frustrating 4-12, last-place finish in '07 and 3-7 start in '08 that, without warning, morphed into a scintillating run to the Champion's Cup final.
Though her LumberJax dropped a heartbreaking, 14-13 decision Saturday to the Buffalo Bandits before a rabid, orange-clad, ear-popping, sold-out crowd at HSBC Arena, the future looks bright in Portland, thanks in large part to an owner that has provided a breath of fresh air to a league that prides itself as a trendsetter.
Batinovich admits her club's demoralizing 7-20 run, between the hot start and blazing finish, tested her patience. But it was rewarded with a ride that thrilled lacrosse fans of the Great Northwest.
For the first time since her early days on the job, I had a chance to sit down with the San Francisco native, who admits she knew very little about Portland before putting her lacrosse team there.
Q: Is it as much fun for you now as when you started the franchise?
A: There's more stress, but it's much more fun. You learn a lot, and it's nice to see the growth, to see the way things have come together.
Q: Did you expect this kind of success this year?
A: No. My husband did. He said from the beginning that he thought we could win a championship this year, even when we were 1-5. I was thinking that I really didn't see that happening.
Q: How did you handle the slow start?
A: It got a little panicky for me there. I actually told The Oregonian when we were 3-6 and lost to Edmonton that it was sort of a turning point. We were either going to win and go on a run or we just weren't going to take off. We lost the game, and then were up against Colorado. I was getting a lot of heat about the coaching staff and management needing to step up. I was hearing, "What are you going do, because you've lost two seasons in a row?"
Q: Did you consider making a change?
A: My gut really told me to stay with [coach and general manager] Derek [Keenan]. I knew the team was confident, and I didn't know what the problem was either. So I went into the locker room before our shoot-around one morning and told Derek I wanted to address the players without him there. I
said that in the first two years, especially the first year, I was on every flight with you, every bus and completely involved. I knew where we stood mentally as a team. This year, being pregnant and all, I haven't been able to be there and didn't feel as connected.
So I wanted to know where their heads were and why they felt like we were losing. I mean, on paper, we are a phenomenal team. What's the deal? I gave them a 25-question survey, excluding Derek, and it had to do with the coaching staff. It had to do with their mood, do you trust everyone on this team, things like that. The very last thing I put on there is will you win the championship this year?
All 25 answered yes, every single one of them. To me, I thought there would be at least one or two that would answer no. That was the only question on the entire sheet that had all 25 the same. That, to me, said that I had them in the right spot and that we just haven't jelled yet. That was really important to me. Two games after that, we started to pick up. The guys knew that Derek wasn't going anywhere. I didn't think it was the coach's fault.
Q: Were you proud of yourself for being patient?
A: I wasn't really patient. I was sweating bullets a lot, because I'd never been in that situation before with a sports team. It was like, "Well, what do we do?" I had a long talk with my dad (real estate mogul Robert Batinovich), and I said as owners, we have to step in and decide what we're going to do. He asked what I really felt. Did I feel like Derek is the problem? And I said no, I don't feel that way. So after talking with the players and getting the sense that Derek was not the problem, because there was a lot of respect for him there, it just affirmed what I had thought. So I'm proud I went with my gut feeling."
Q: Was it more tempting to take action after a change sparked a turnaround in Edmonton?
A: Yes. When they made the move [to fire Paul Day] I thought, "Should I have done that first and brought in Bob Hamley?" I had thought about him. Plus he and I get along really well, too. I did think that maybe I had missed the bus on that one. Right after, though, is when I talked to the players and I knew I had done the right thing and stuck with Derek. My brother [Andrew], who runs the real estate business now, says "Only roll the dice when you know you're going to win." We both go with our gut all the time, so that's definitely like father, like daughter. [My father] is not very involved in it, but as far as the coach is concerned, he just told me to go with what I felt. I didn't want to [make a change]."
Q: Are you happy with the three years of work in Portland?
A: Oh yeah. Derek put this team together, but I have to give myself credit for winning the coin toss [for the first pick of the 2005 draft] for Brodie [Merrill]. The Board of Governors did not want us getting Dan Dawson [in the 2007 dispersal draft] at first, because we had already gotten the first pick in the entry draft. I said, "No way." Could you imagine if Dan had gone to Rochester or somewhere? We fought that one pretty hard, and that was good.
But otherwise, Derek has put the team together. He and I have always had an agreement. I told him, "You run lacrosse, and I'll run the business. If I need you for an interview, I'll pull you in, and if you need me to shut up and get off the bench, I will." So we've had a really good understanding with that. I told Derek I never want to interfere with the players. I never go into the locker room, and I never address them. But I told him, "I need to do it, and I'll tell you why. Ticket sales are dropping off, we're losing, the fans are pissed off, and sponsors are dropping out." I told him I needed to start with the players, because they're the product out there. They're what makes it happen, and I had to start there. He said, "Absolutely, please." He fully understood that and accepted it. He never said, "Don't step on my toes," and was completely respectful of that.
So it was good, and he was also confident that the players would say that it's not him. It's a good relationship and one of the big reasons I did not want to [make a change]."
Q: Have you kept completely out of the fashion business for three years? [Angela's "Bat's Daughter" line of women's clothing was one of the hottest items at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Los Angeles for spring 2005, and was sold to more than 75 boutiques nationwide.]
A: Oh yeah. I definitely don't miss the stress, because that was like a 24-hour job. I do miss the shopping and the creativity. I miss being in L.A., where you've got all the big department stores, but I pretty much do my shopping online now. People collect art; I like to collect shoes. People don't understand that, but I know the business and I know each theme, what it means. So I miss a little bit of the artsy-ness of that. But I do get a lot of creativity out of marketing.
Q: Do you still keep up with fashion?
A: Not really. I went with a friend to Fashion Week in L.A. last year because I thought it would be fun to go back. I walked in there and I was like, "Oh my God, get me out of here. Get me back to Oregon. I can't handle this." There were way too many people and corporate VIPs that I couldn't handle it. That's a tough business. This is easy compared to that.
Q: Do you see yourself staying in the sports business for a while?
A: I want to be. Our big thing right now is that we need to get a better deal at the arena. We need more involvement from them in terms of promotions. We run our team on a staff of eight people, including myself. That's from buying water bottles to selling tickets to everything. It's hard work. If we can do 8,000 [on] average with eight people, then if we could get the arena to come in and work with us like in Colorado, just promotion agreements and being able to get some deals on broadcasting, we'd fill the house like that. But we've had to fight through that the last few years.
Q: Did the improvement of the NBA's Trail Blazers hurt or help you this season?
A: I don't really know. It's definitely hurt us PR- and media-wise. But it's helped us with people coming back to the Rose Garden. The feeling is back at the Rose Garden now. I also think it's good because they purchased the arena back, and now they own both [teams.] Before, it was three [teams] all working separately and trying to make as much money as we could, and nobody was getting anywhere. Now that they're together, it's just another partner with us, and maybe we can get something going."
Q: Has your pregnancy made it tougher to watch your team?
A: "I keep telling the guys that I'm going to have this baby right now. At our playoff game in San Jose, it was really difficult with the tension. But I'm managing.
Tom Borrelli is a sports writer for The Buffalo News
and a regular contributor to Lacrosse Magazine
and Lacrosse Magazine Online
. In 2007, Borrelli became the first media member honored by the National Lacrosse League Hall of Fame. He has covered the NLL for 16 years.
For more on the NLL and from Borrelli, check back to LMO each Wednesday throughout the 2008 season, or contact Borrelli at tbwrite@aol.com.
