TOWSON, Md. - Throughout the 2012 Tiger men's lacrosse season, senior midfielder Ian Mills will
give Towson fans an inside look into the team. In his first entry,
Mills talks about the first two weeks of the team's practices and
preparations for the season opener against Jacksonville.
Welcome back! Last week was a big one for us. We had our hands full with the start of classes, preparing for our scrimmage against the University at Albany and holding our first annual Towson Lacrosse Face-Off Night. There's so much to cover and such little time, so let's dive in.
On the Field:
On Saturday, we hosted the Great Danes for a controlled scrimmage. We hit the field at 11:15 a.m. for our pre-game routine. I thought our warm-up was a little stiff; I'll chalk it up to nerves. There is always going to be rust when a team comes out to play someone new. Things improved as we loosened up. The team headed back into the locker room to reel everyone in before the start of the scrimmage.
Coach Nadelen had some news before we took the field. The night before, Coach asked us to send him the names of two captains to lead us through the 2012 season. I am proud to say that seniors Carl Iacona and John Kenyon will be wearing the “C” for the Tigers this year. For those of you who don't know them on a personal level, they are both extremely hard-working and energetic. Both are great choices and well-deserving.
We started the day by breaking the teams down into a half-field, six-on-six look. In this structure, we are able to run a variety of defenses against their offense, filtering guys in and out. On the other side of the field, the offense went to work against the Albany defense.
In the next session, we moved into man-up vs. man-down. Albany moved the ball well and finished high quality shots against our defense. I wouldn't be surprised if the Great Danes' man-up is in the top 10 in the nation at the conclusion of the 2012 season. Our EMO squad must've been playing well from the cheers filling up 'The U.'
The last exercise was a face-off drill. Wing players and face-off personnel rotated in and out, working through about 12 draws. Our guys won the majority of the draws in this exercise.
The scrimmage started with a warm-up quarter showcasing a variety of young personnel. The scoring started quickly from the newest member of the Tigers, Peter Athens. Less than a minute into the quarter, the sophomore attackman swept across the front of the cage, firing a right-handed shot past the Albany goalkeeper. Athens is also a quarterback for the 2011 CAA Champion Tiger football team. He joined us this spring and we are happy to have him.
The actual four-quarter scrimmage displayed two very different styles of offenses. We play a flowing, team-oriented offense. Albany relies heavily on individual match-ups to expose the crease for smooth, door step finishes.
Junior attackman Matt Hughes led the offense with three goals and three assists. Freshman midfielder Justin Mabus played tough with two goals and an assist. We left some scoring chances on the field, but when we did score they were high quality shots.
Junior midfielder Matt Thomas, or "Rex" as we like to call him because of his short, stubby arms like a dinosaur, had a dominant day at the face-off "X." "Rex" won 11 draws in two quarters of action; as a team, we won 62% of our face-offs. This is a vast improvement from last year.
I give a lot of credit to volunteer assistant coach Ben DeFelice. To the Tiger faithful, DeFelice may be a familiar name. He was a force at the "X" in the early 2000s. We've been working multiple times a week exclusively on draws, hard work that we hope pays off as we move forward through the season.
The scrimmage ended with Albany edging us by an 11-10 count. The silver lining in the loss is we have a whole week to iron out flaws exposed by the Great Danes. I can promise you that this coaching staff will find what's wrong and we will work tirelessly to correct it.
Off the Field:
As I previously mentioned, we held our first annual Towson Lacrosse Face-Off Night after the scrimmage on Saturday night. Over 300 Towson Lacrosse alumni, coaches, players and family members were on hand to celebrate the tradition of our team's history.
The night's speakers included Director of Athletics Mike Waddell, former head coach Carl Runk, former Tiger goalkeeper and member of the 2001 NCAA semifinalist team John Horrigan, Coach Nadelen and Kenyon.
For those of you wondering, the dinner spread included bread, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, greens and carrots, turkey, salmon and prime rib. An assortment of cakes with coffee and tea were served for dessert.
The night concluded with jersey presentations. Individually, each player was called up to the stage and given his jersey by alumni who had previously worn that player's number. After the final jersey was presented, Coach Nadelen unveiled the new helmet for the 2012 season.
The helmets are awesome. We've been asking for white helmets since I was a freshman. The vent holes are decorated by black and gold stripes and the entire side of the helmet is wrapped with our Tiger head. We're ecstatic. After seven months of not being able to wear our school's colors or name, it was a nice surprise from the coaches. And even better since we earned it.
It was an honor to meet so many Towson Lacrosse family members dating back to the 1970s. I know everyone on our team had a great time and we are thankful for the support as we move forward into our season.
A look ahead:
We open our regular season on Saturday afternoon against Jacksonville in the Sunshine State. I don't know much about them. This is the first time we've played them in our program's history. Former Tiger midfielder Brock Armour, '10 is on the Dolphins' coaching staff. He was a smart player; they're in good hands.
We're excited to start preparing and watching film. If we learned anything from this past weekend, it's that we have a lot to live up to! Game time is 1 p.m. in Jacksonville.
Until next week, Fight On Tigers!
