LaxAllstars post: Chat with Brown Bear Rob Schlesinger

By Reece

Like I said, we've hooked up with the LacrosseAllstars.com guys on a few projects, and I'm excited to show-off our latest effort - the first of many Brown Lacrosse posts featuring great players like Rob Schlesinger...

How did we help? Well besides the intro, we put together a few awesome clips of Rob from last year. Be sure to watch the video...

Fireside Chat With Rob Schlesinger, Brown University

From The Villa|

• November 19, 2009|

• 0 Comments

Tagged:

• Brine
• Brown
• fireside chat
• Ivy League
• NCAA
• San Francisco

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We’ve heard there are some good players over in Providence, Rhode Island. They’re known as theBrown Bears. They took a trip to the NCAA tourney last year for the first time since ‘97, and things are looking up for 2010. One of the impact players Brown lacrosse fans are talking about is sophomore attackman Rob Schlesinger. According to BrownBears.com, he’s making a name for himself as one of the “most fearless, relentless, never-give-in competitors in the country.”

Schlesinger came up big as a freshman when his team needed him against Cornell and Hopkins. As a testament to his abilities, we have video evidence thanks to the guys at HomeField, a couple of which are Brown Bear alums and strong supporters of the program.

Check out some of his highlights from the 2009 season:

Now let’s sit Fireside and get to know this baller…

LAS: What is your fall ball schedule like this year? Are you guys doing anything differently than in years past?

Schlesinger: The schedule this year is pretty similar to those in the past, the only thing that has been different is our trip out to San Francisco. That was a great experience for us, and it definitely brought the team closer together. Right now we are done with actual team practices because of Ivy League restrictions, so we have two hour-long skill sessions a week and a couple captain’s practices.

Skill sessions are limited to 6 players per coach and we work on the fundamentals. We are also in the weight room 3 times a week and play basketball or football on Friday mornings. It’s too cold for football now, but of course the “Masshole team,” made up of high school superstars, dominated the Baltimore area team, the New York team, and the World team.

Who are some of your teammates we should watch out for this year?

We lost a lot of impact players to graduation and a few key players are abroad, so we are looking for a lot of younger guys to step up. On attack we return two starters, but look out for sophomores Parker Brown and Danny O’Brien who have been fighting for the third spot all fall.

The midfield is where we lost the most from last year. Four of our top five middies graduated, so a lot of new guys are going to see more action this year. Williams College transfer David Hawley has looked really good so far, as has freak-athlete freshman Alex Jones.

We didn’t lose a lot in the defensive side but look out for sophomore Brennan Bailey and junior Matt Greenburg. At LSM, freshman Roger Ferguson is definitely someone to keep an eye on this spring. In goal, we definitely lost a lot in All-American Jordan Burke but junior Matt Chriss has stepped up big this fall, highlighted by his 10 saves in only one half of play against UNC.

What are the team’s goals in 2010?

First and foremost our goal is to win the Ivy League championship. After that, we really want to build on our success from last year having made the NCAA tournament for the first time since ’97. It was a great experience, but we didn’t make it out of the first round. It’s not good enough for us to just make the tournament anymore. This year we want to keep winning and get a National Championship.

We hear you’re quite the competitor. How would you describe your playing style?

I’m really not a flashy player who is going to make highlight reel plays. I pride my game on physicality and playing with a fearless attitude, whether it is picking up tough ground balls or legging out a clear. That’s really how our whole team plays, and I would bet anyone who saw us play last year would agree.

What team are you looking forward to playing the most this year? Why?

Every Ivy League game is fun to play and I really look forward to those a lot. All the games are very intense and usually come right down to the wire.

Describe your pre-game… What do you do to get ready for a big game?

Everyone on the team does their own thing before we have our team warm-ups. In high school I didn’t have any real pre-game, but I kind of developed a routine last year. I’ll usually roll out my muscles for a bit in the training room, then head out to the field to shoot around about an hour before the game. After that I’ll go find a quiet place where I listen to country music and focus on what I need to do that game. While I’m focusing, I’ll have half a nutrition bar and a banana. I then head back into the locker room and meet up with the other guys who are usually bouncing all over the place listening to whatever that week’s mix is.

What’s your favorite part of Brown Lacrosse?

Brown State. You don’t understand it unless you play here.

Best place to eat in Providence?

I have to say that I really haven’t ventured out that far from the food on Thayer Street. If I want a sit down meal, it’s definitely at Spats for some nachos and a burger. If I’m looking for something quick, I’ll go for a burrito at Gordito Burrito, but there’s a new place called Baja Tex Mex that’s actually making a run for the best burrito on Thayer.

What are your three favorite songs right now?

I’m a huge country fan and I usually get a lot of crap for that being from the Boston area, but my old man liked it so I grew up listening to it. I really like anything country, but right now I would say it’s…

Hell on the Heart by Eric Church

If I Could Do it Again by Corey Smith

Big Green Tractor by Jason Aldean

What kind of stick are you using right now? Type of head, shaft? String job? Tape?

I’ve always been a Brine Cyber/Cyber Pro guy, so these new rules are really messing with me right now. I was given the Brine Gospel this summer so I’ve been trying that out a bit this fall. I did order the new Cyber though, so I’ll probably use that when the shipment comes in. For a shaft, I use the Maverick Wonderboy. I’m not big on tape, I just put a little on the bottom to hold the butt end on. Stringing wise, I string all my own sticks, but no one else seems to like them. It’s probably because the ball crushes plastic on the way out.

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This has been another Lax All Stars Fireside Chat. Stay tuned to the LAS Network for more interviews.

Brown lacrosse compliment

By Reece

We've started partnering with a few other sports/lacrosse communities online - in particular LacrosseAllstars.com - and so far the relationship has been fantastic. You'll hear a lot more about this partnership in the coming months, but yesterday I had a conference call with a student-athlete at Brown and one of the guys from LacrosseAllstars who followed up with this:

"So far it seems like Brown students/players know how to get sh*t done. Love it!"

I really appreciate that comment personally, but even more so because I know it's true of most of my teammates. The Brown Lacrosse program produces some really high-caliber young men, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Player of the week

By Reece

I took over the Player of the Week duties from Patrick (call it veto power from the CEO), but no matter who writes it this week, one thing is for sure, you know the player of the week is coming from the Brown University Bears...

This match-up between #13 Brown and #2 Cornell was highly anticipated as Cornell was in position to take the Ivy Championship away from Brown on Stevenson Field in Providence during the lacrosse alumni weekend which brought back fans and alums from all over including the entire 1973 Brown Bears.

Brown State alums going nuts in the 4th quarter.
Bonus: How many Overtime Media founders can you find?

The game was a total battle, tightly fought all the way through - the biggest story being the notable goaltending of Jordan Burke who made 18 saves on the day, 7 which came during the final quarter. But strong goaltending was not enough to beat the Big Red... an outstanding performance by the Bears defense - Fallon, Cassil, Westerman, Greenberg, Hardy, Melvin, Foote - kept Cornell in check, in particular holding Max Seibald to just one goal. The midfield got it done with guys like Walsh, Seligman, and Williams battling for tough ground balls and getting the ball started on offense. Finally, the attack put the game away with outstanding, multiple goal performances from Feinberg, Hollingsworth and Muldoon. And all these guys executed on an excellent game plan from Coach Tiffany and his staff. At the end of the day, the score was 11-9 Bears, and the fans went nuts, rushing the field to celebrate with the team.

Bruno the Bear dancing atop the scoreboard.

If it seems like everyone had a big hand in the win, it's because they did. This was the most complete, team performance I've seen in a college lacrosse game in a long time. It was the epitome of an M.O. that the Bears follow called "Brown State." Brown State is gritty, edgy, tough... and "a little weird" to quote Coach Tiffany's post game speech. It's what connects the guys from the class of '73 to the players of 2009 and everyone inbetween.

So the HomeField player of the week award won't go to Jordan Burke, Matt Cassil or Andrew Feinberg. It goes to every one of the players on the 2009 Brown State squad who won a battle for the ages and their chance at a second Ivy title in a match against Princeton this Saturday.

GO BRUNO!

The 2009 Brown senior class.

Photos via BrownLacrosse.org Check it out for more game blogs and photos.

Disclaimer: Is this award biased? You betcha! Reece and Dan are 2005 Brown alums. But it's still well-deserved. Another Brown mantra? Expect nothing. Earn everything. Bears - you earned it!

Why We're Still in Private Beta

By Reece

I'm glad we haven't made any promises on release dates and launches and whatnot. The few we have, we've met (cut it close, but we did it). It's just the nature of application development to take longer than expected. The problem is the 'expectations.' The point of Beta testing is the 'unexpected.'

As we developed HomeField, we thought through a specific process for our users, based on our time as players, and research we did with coaches. We tried to build the system so that the work-flow of HomeField fell right in line with any coach who used it. So we handed it over to Brown Lacrosse and within thirty minutes we discovered a nasty glitch and an opportunity for a great new feature - not what we expected.

Sure, our proud delivery sort of failed, but it was actually a huge success. We had the bug fixed by the end of the day, and future users (you) will never have to worry about it again. We then took the time to weigh the options of adding a new feature, designed and developed it and now players and coaches can print text-only versions of their scouting reports to paper or pdf.

There were actually a few ideas born out of our testing period so far, and we appreciate them all, but we ultimately chose to implement our printing functionality because it is a major step in the process of scouting another team. In our playing days, we always received a paper scouting report. In the spirit of being green, however, some teams have left this behind and leave printing up to the individual players. So, we felt it was necessary to accommodate those players and we think all users will benefit from this added feature.

Thank you to everyone who has shared ideas with us! We'll keep picking the ones that make the most sense and continue building HomeField into the best resource for you and your team.

The Bears In The Bronx

By Reece

What a beautiful day in the Bronx this past Saturday, watching the Brown Bears play the Jaspers of Manhattan in some D-I pre-season action. Dan and I hopped on the 1 train and took it all the way to 242nd St. - I didn't even know the numbers went that high - the last stop. Manhattan College has a nice field out there underneath the elevated trains, and there was a good crowd in attendance for a scrimmage.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead and for the most part seemed to control the game. Brown's Thomas Muldoon always impresses me, and I dig Jack Walsh as a player, a scrappy hustler who makes things happen.

Manhattan kept right in it though, and put a few goals in on Bruno. One way they didn't score, however, was on their man-up. Brown had plenty of penalties - questionable calls, but who cares? It's a time to practice man-down anyway. Or was it?

Starting sometime in the second or third quarter, the Jaspers ran a stall offense on man-up, literally standing still with the ball in their stick behind the net. Not - a - single - pass. At first, believing it to be a trick play that lulls the opponent to sleep before a quick cut from up top, the Bears stayed on their toes in their box-and-one. D-middie Mike Cummins' head swiveled around looking for the sneak attack, but alas, there was none.

Brown fans were baffled and unamused, especially when it continued to happen on every Brown penalty for the rest of the five quarter game! "You're wasting my time!" and "Let the kids play!" were heard from the Bears faithful. Understandably so. In pre-season, where the coaches ultimately have control over the match (five quarters for example), it is a time for the players to get up to game speed. Stalling on man-up, for whatever reason, is a waste of your opponent's time. The Bears came down from Providence to get better on Saturday, but their man-down might as well have practiced at home. Eventually, they decided to press out and try to take the ball away.

Had the Jaspers simply not put in a man-up play yet? Was it because Inside Lacrosse ranked the Brown man-down unit third in a pre-season poll? Did Manhattan have a secret weapon that they didn't want to be seen on film yet? The sidelines were lost until we found the answer after the game. Apparently, the Jaspers had not run their earlier man-up plays as practiced, and the Manhattan coaching staff decided to teach them a little lesson as to who's calling the shots. 'Run our plays, or don't run at all.' I don't know what their incentive (READ: punishment) was to keep the players from even passing the ball, but the Jaspers responded and the Bears once again garnered a great man-down percentage.

While I would've been aggravated as an opposing player (admittedly, I was aggravated as a fan), there's something to be learned from Manhattan's coaching decision. Sometimes, a coach has to make decisions that not everyone agrees with, regardless of the consequences, but in the end proving a point. Now the Jaspers are forced to work their man-up even harder in practice and hope to be ready for the season. Maybe it's just the kind of motivation that will work. We'll see.

Hofstra Lacrosse Coaches Clinic

By Reece

Spent the morning on Long Island at the Hofstra Lacrosse Coaches Clinic, courtesy of Coach Seth Tierney. He had a huge turnout for his clinic for youth and high school coaches and we took a few minutes to promote HOMEFIELD and talk with the coaches in attendance. Great responses from the coaches of the traditional hot-bed for the game of lacrosse. We can't wait to start letting in users from the LI high school area. It's such a solid area for high school sports, and we know HOMEFIELD can make an impact for a lot of programs there.

A side note on Hofstra... what a facility! Coach Tierney gave us a quick tour and it was well worth it. I never saw the offices before, but they've really made some nice upgrades - including a stadium-seating classroom dedicated to game film! Watch out for Hofstra this year; they will be a well-prepared team (though I'll still be rooting against them on March 1. Go Brown Bears!).

Thanks to Coach Tierney, his staff and team for having us, and thanks to all the coaches for their interest in HOMEFIELD.