From the podcast: Guru Greg Gurenlian on face-off acumen

Faceoff Academy founder Greg Gurenlian chases a ball during his final PLL season with Redwoods LC. (PLL photos)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing the Goal” podcast, host Kyle Devitte went solo and welcomed Faceoff Academy founder Greg Gurenlian via Zoom.

Gurenlian is one of the most decorated face-off athletes of all time at the pro and international level. A graduate of Penn State, he balanced being a pro with a strength training business for most of his career.

Nearly a decade ago he decided to go all-in on the Faceoff Academy, an organization that trains and prepares young men for success at the collegiate level. He is one of — if not the — most knowledgeable instructors and innovators of the face-off that the game has ever seen.

Countless players under his tutelage have gone on to have collegiate and pro success. 

The full podcast can be accessed below and is available on all major platforms. If you enjoy it please leave a rating and a review.

This podcast is sponsored by the University of Nebraska High School. For more information on UNHS, visit highschool.nebraska.edu/nelj.

Kyle Devitte: You’re the creator — along with our mutual friend Jerry Ragonese and others — of the Faceoff Academy. What were the early beginnings of that, and how did it go from the first year to having several events and a national showcase with over 200 players?

Greg Gurenlian: We laugh about it because there are people that try to do what we do now, and we understand that. But when the Faceoff Academy started in 2012, it was started as a side passion project between Jerry Ragonese, myself and Chris Mattes. Jerry and Chris were doing other people’s camps and they were kind of sick of how unorganized and money-grabbish that was.

For me, I was a full-time strength coach in New York City, but a lot of my clients would leave for the Hamptons in the summer. So, my financial situation would dip. So I said, “I hate the fact that we are all pro face-off guys and the only thing that is taught out there is cheating.” Every person who ever tried to give me advice on face-offs for my entire lacrosse career always taught me a cheat move. It drove me nuts because if you have to cheat then why do it?

I reached out to Jerry and Chris to make a website — because the lacrosse forums was really big — and Jerry was big on that at the time. So, let’s create a hub for face-off guys. And then it turned into us doing a six-city tour instead of doing overnight four-day camps, (then) let’s do a two-and-a-half-hour clinic where we teach the kids exactly what we know and teach them a system of training for face-offs. Then we did local clinics. Then we did weekly regional stuff. And then all of a sudden we’re helping with recruiting.

KD: I need to ask you a very sensitive question — why are face-off guys so weird?

GG: It’s a great question and it’s easier to understand than you might think. Let me put it in these terms: Put yourself in my shoes. You have played lacrosse for over 20 years. You have competed at the highest level. You have competed in high school, college, international and pro. You’ve won championships, you’ve broken records — you have all these people that you admire that coached and sweated with you on the field.

And every single day of your life you have to explain why you should exist. Nobody in the locker room understands you. No one understands what you’re going through. If you’re an attackman, you can get de-twigged eight times or throw the ball away eight times, but if you get a hat trick, you’re the man. With face-offs, you have a box score and if you went under 50 percent you suck; if you went over 50 percent you’re good.

That’s all people know. Nobody understands us.

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