From the podcast: Bo Koloski and Ryan Murphy of Piatelli Lax

Ryan Murphy, director of operations for Piatelli Lacrosse, joined the podcast with coach Bo Koloski this week.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli were joined by Bo Koloski and Ryan Murphy of Piatelli Lacrosse.

Koloski coaches the Piatelli Central 2026AA team. Koloski played at Sandwich (Mass.) High School and went on to play defense at Merrimack College, graduating in 1991. His son Grant (2026) and his son Mason (2023) both play in the Piatelli program.

Murphy began his playing career at Mansfield (Mass.) High School, where he was a three-time Hockomock League All-Star and an Eastern Massachusetts All-Star. He went on to star at Springfield College, twice earning first-team All-Conference honoree as an attackman. He currently serves as Piatelli Lacrosse’s director of operations.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms.

If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Kyle Devitte: I want to drill down on the curriculum that you guys have. I know it’s like a weird word to say when you’re talking about training the athletes, but there really has to be a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you’re just rolling the ball out and maybe picking some drills. There has to be philosophy and there have to be core tenets. How did that develop with you guys and when did where did it start? With the youngest kids, where does it start? 

Bo Koloski: How to pick up a groundball. I say to the kids today, groundballs win games. So, we want to be the best team in the tournament that’s picking up groundballs, and then passing and catching. You have to be able to pass and catch both hands. You get a kid to shoot overhand, you don’t know where to shoot. So it’s really fundamental-driven.

From the first up until even last year, we were more concerned about kind of developing the kid’s skills and understanding of where they are (on the field). And now we’ve kind of moved into more of the IQ of the game: How do you substitute? What are the little technical things that make you a better player that you’re going to be able to get recruited off of? But if you don’t have the fundamentals and you haven’t taught the fundamentals early on, none of that matters because nothing is going to work right. 

KD: I think I’m also interested in when you teach more advanced movements. I think the first dodge everyone learns … it used to be a face dodge. Now I think it’s just a split (dodge) because it’s easier for kids to understand, right? When do you turn that into, “Oh, I’m going to split into a roll.” When do you learn to chain your dodges? When do you move to more advanced things? 

Jack Piatelli: I think you start from the beginning when they’re young. Pick up a groundball, catch and throw, and then let’s teach them in the world. I’ll teach them a split dodge. Let’s teach them how to shoot on the run at a young age. I find as a coach, the more you throw at them at a younger age in terms of skill-sets, the more they’re going to actually take in. We just focus on groundballs or just focus on shooting, throw it all at them, and see what sticks.

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