April 11, 2011
Fraser has laser focus as Blazers' assistant coach
Blazers assistant Randy Fraser was considered for the team’s head coaching job before Matt Sawyer was lured from Toronto. (photo: Mark Brodie/New England Lacrosse Journal)
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 2011 issue of New England Lacrosse Journal.
In May, Boston Blazers assistant coach Randy Fraser will head to Prague for the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships as an assistant with the U.S. Indoor Lacrosse Team. It’s an exciting opportunity, especially for someone who is on track to be a head coach someday in the National Lacrosse League. Fraser will be coaching for and against some of the best players in the world, and there is nothing he enjoys more than the thrill of competition.
But there is a bittersweet aspect to Fraser’s trip to Prague this year. He is working with U.S. head coach and longtime friend Tom Ryan, who was released by the Blazers in December. And the elephant in the room is Fraser’s last trip to Prague in 2005.
Moments after playing in an all-star game during a box lacrosse tournament, Fraser stepped off the field and into a bar to meet friends, and was almost immediately set upon by a disturbed individual with a knife, who slashed at Fraser’s wrist. The wound was deep, and required two surgeries and six months off from playing lacrosse.
It was a traumatic experience, and though it will be on his mind, Fraser said he won’t dwell on it. The incident made him more wary but hasn’t kept him from enjoying the sport he loves.
“I think my guard will be up; it’s up since then,” he said. “I’m not as carefree as I was. It’s tough to go through something like that and be as comfortable as you were before when you’re in similar situations. But it hasn’t stopped me from doing anything. I still traveled internationally in the last few years. Just more careful. That’s all.”
Ryan’s departure from the Blazers is a more recent memory. The team let Ryan go just before the start of the 2011 season, which was difficult for Fraser as a friend and from the practical standpoint of preparing a team for play.
“It was two days before Christmas and right in the middle of our training camp,” Fraser said. “So it was tough. Tom was full-time, and he held a lot of roles and did a lot of different things, and we had to figure out how we were going to handle the workload. My Christmas holiday was basically canceled.”
Fraser was briefly considered for the head coaching position, but he and Blazers GM Doug Reffue both decided he wasn’t ready yet. So the Blazers lured assistant coach Matt Sawyer away from the Toronto Rock and traded for the right to sign him as the new bench boss. From there, Fraser said, the transition was easy.
“It was not rough at all,” he said. “From the first time me and Matt were together, we hit it off. Matt’s extremely knowledgeable and a good communicator and an excellent coach and somebody I’ve learned a lot from and really enjoy working with.”
Fraser’s relationship with Ryan came out unscathed.
“Tom was happy for me, that I was able to continue on and wish me nothing but the best,” Fraser said. “And I was really happy and able to look forward to the World Games and still being behind the bench with Tom. … I really miss working with Tom and being with him every day in the office and working on things with him. It’s great to still have this to look forward to and still be able to work with him in the future.”
Fraser’s thoughts in Prague will be squarely on his team. Though he acknowledges Canada as the favorite as winners of the last world championship, he points out the final game went to overtime, and the United States was competitive then. He says the current team is better than the 2007 squad.
“We have a group of guys who are used to competing at this level,” he says. “Most all of our team is NLL-proven guys. We have strong team unity and pride in wearing red, white and blue, and I think we’re going to really battle for the gold.”
Fraser’s knowledge of both box and field lacrosse will be an asset to Team USA. Fraser has played both, and he has a reputation as the rare American player and coach who understands and can implement a more Canadian style of play. Graham D’Alvia, U.S. Indoor Lacrosse and Team USA president and general manager, has known Fraser since the late 1980s, when he was first impressed by Fraser as a player.
“He was shifty and fast, a very fast guy,” D’Alvia said. “Just always knew the game very well. A professor of the game, knew right where to be. You always needed to know where Randy was on the floor.”
D’Alvia believes that Team USA will field more offensive firepower this year and attributes that to Fraser’s knowledge of both the indoor and outdoor games.
“He’s able to see some of the things that a more Canadian mind could see,” D’Alvia said. “And he understands and formulates it. Even more important, he’s able to put it in terms that the American player can understand and apply.”
Fraser has considerable playing experience, compiling 13 seasons in professional lacrosse for the original Blazers franchise, the New York Saints and the Buffalo Bandits. He has also coached with the Boston Cannons, Dean College, American International College and Springfield College, his alma mater.
He has always studied the Canadian game and molded himself in that model. Fraser counts himself lucky for having been able to play with some of the best Canadian players such as Marty O’Neill and John Tavares. He was also in the unique position of being coached by his father, Ron, during his playing days with the Blazers, allowing him to influence the game plan as a player.
“I’ve always been a student of lacrosse, so all the films and all the things I’ve done have all been about watching Canadian players and copying what they do,” he said. “So watching the Canadian leagues up north, watching film, getting up there and watching games, scouting, figuring out how they do pick-and-rolls, how they run their offense, and then as a Blazer player and my dad being the coach, I had input.”
That has helped Fraser as the Blazers’ offensive coordinator, as well. The Blazers have to compete with high-pressure defenses in Toronto, Buffalo and Calgary, teams that swarm the ball carrier.
“Randy’s done a great job of analyzing that defense for the past three years as it’s become more and more en vogue,” Reffue said. “And he’s created strategies to work against that defense very successfully now. Granted, we still have a ways to go in terms of competing with Buffalo and Toronto, but I think as we head into the home stretch of the season and into the playoffs, Randy’s going to have some very good strategies as we go up against those teams again.”
Fraser believes he works a fairly normal work week, estimating his typical time on the clock at about 50 hours. That includes not only his duties as offensive coordinator but also helping to manage the budget and acting as director of the Blazers Academy, which Reffue describes as a crucial piece of the team’s public outreach.
Those work hours creep up when the team is on the road and he is helping to arrange transportation and sometimes driving a team van. He has built — and will run — the Blazers successful summer camps for boys and girls, and still finds time to play for the Boston Crabs club team in a Sunday league.
Fraser will talk about everyone from the marketing office to the interns as part of the team that makes things work, but he sheepishly acknowledges that even in an industry where people are often called upon to pull double duty, he has a lot of responsibilities.
“I guess I am pretty involved in everything,” he said. “And maybe that is kind of unique. Whereas other people may be wearing one or two hats, I’m wearing, like, five hats.”
Reffue pointed to Fraser’s business experience as a sales manager at Coca-Cola as another plus.
“Randy is unique in that he has a very sound business mind,” Reffue said. “He spent years working at Coca-Cola and has all the skills from a large Fortune 500 company, and he couples that with an understanding of lacrosse, since he’s been playing since he was 8 years old.”
Fraser’s future in the NLL is bright. Reffue has no doubt Fraser will be a head coach in the league someday. And Fraser acknowledges that’s a goal. But with all of his experience, his trophy case is light. He won a championship with Springfield but never had one as a player or at the professional level. That is a driving force for him in Boston.
“I really want to win a championship, so my focus is really on winning a championship this season,” he said. “A big thing in this league is having that ring and going through that experience. I don’t have it as a player. I coached an NCAA championship at Springfield College back in ’93 and I want one on the NLL.”
Nick A. Zaino III can be reached at feedback@laxjournal.com
