"The Face-Off"
From the Desk of Tom Spangenberg, President MBYLL
Who Matters In Your Community?
You do!
As the oldest team sport in North America, our game at its core is about community. In honoring that, our mission is to bring players and families together to enjoy the sport, its culture, and the unique lacrosse experience. Each of us can play an important role this season to make our community a better place through lacrosse and a game experience worthy of acclaim. But how do we do this? Well, let's talk about that.
The Game Experience: The foundation of each program is the volunteer corps of leaders: the moms, dads, and passionate loyalists who dedicate their time and efforts for their town and teams. As organizers, make sure every team has at least two coaches (a head coach and an assistant) as well as a team manager (to help with communication). An important shared role for all the other team parents and supporters is to take and share as many photos, videos, and mementos as possible. Please plan to share your successes with teams and towns around you, commit to learning more, and improving the overall experience for everyone through respectful spectatorship and positive, support-based energy.
Communication: In 2016 we will build on some of our earlier initiatives to make communication easier, more relevant, and mobile to enhance the overall game experience. This includes our continued rollout of Team App in every community. We will also be piloting a mobile-friendly and fully integrated player safety tool from The Safety Tag (see story on page 18) for parents and coaches this spring. And our continued publication of The Scoop and our commitment to social media are other valuable vehicles we will utilize to share and celebrate our collective successes throughout the year.
Education: We ask all who are a part of this sport and this league to have a baseline of knowledge about the game and how to make the lacrosse experience even better. Mass Bay will again publish our Leader’s Guide for all our town program directors and presidents. We will also distribute our Coaches' Pre-Game Checklist as well as our Parent & Player Guides for all families to review this spring. Your town coaches are not only dedicating their time during the season, but have also received training and education through online courses as well as in-person coaching certification clinics. We encourage all program leaders to continue to invest even more in coach and player training throughout the season.
It’s been said many times, but is worth repeating: Your coaches are the key to having a fun and rewarding season experience, so please offer to help them wherever possible. Your town program will reap the rewards—not only for this season but for many years to come.
Let’s all commit to make this upcoming 2016 spring season the best ever. Whether you are a program leader, coach, official, player, parent, or fan—you really do matter, especially when you are able to bring people together and pull us all towards key community goals. The result? A ton of enjoyment for everyone involved.
From all of us at Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League, we wish you a happy and healthy New Year and an enjoyable time leading up to the spring season—now only a short three months away.
Yours in lacrosse,
Tom
T.M. Spangenberg
President, MBYLL, Inc.
Mass Bay Youth Lacrosse League
Ground Balls - Winter 2016
The Scoop / Winter '16 5