From the podcast: NH Tomahawks founder and coach Chris Cameron

NH Tomahawks founder and Bishop Guertin (N.H.) head coach Chris Cameron joined "Chasing The Goal" 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 New Hampshire Tomahawks founder and Bishop Guertin (N.H.) High School head coach Chris Cameron.

Cameron is best known for his creation of the NH Tomahawks, one of the most prominent club teams in the region.

For the last 20 years, the Tomahawks have provided training and fielded club teams, and also started a girls’ program that has developed a number of talented players.

Cameron is Lehigh University’s all-time leader in points (308) and assists (186). He has been the head coach at Bishop Guertin for nearly 20 years and has won 11 Class L titles. The Cardinals are the No. 1 seed in this year’s NHIAA D-1 bracket.

On this podcast, Cameron talks about the excitement of Memorial Day weekend, and his two sons Brian and Sean, who have played and/or are playing D-1 lacrosse at Rutgers and Princeton, respectively. He also talks about the summer club circuit, the recruiting process and building up the Tomahawks program.

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: How do you do you select which events you’re going to take your teams to?

Chris Cameron: Jack (Piatelli) and I talk all the time about events. I mean, because selecting the right event for your program is so important. You’ve got to select the right event for the level of your team.

One of my rules is I don’t go to first-year events. I might get burned every now and then, but that’s one of my rules. I mean, to me, you want to be good competition, but you want to go where the coaches go. Then the coaches are going to go where the best players are. So that’s what we have down right now is that we know where the coaches are going to be right, and then we’re not going to send our Gold (second) teams to play in Long Island.

You know, 180 coaches there, but we lost. So you’ve got to send them to the right levels and then also the right level of coaches that are going to be there. It’s great that you want to make sure that the NESCAC or the Ivies are there, but also Clark or Emerson. 

KD: I’m a D-3 guy, right? I coached D-2 as well. I just don’t happen to coach kids right now that are D-1 players and maybe the occasional D-2 guy. And my whole thing is I just always want to get everybody to have a good experience. Not to knock on any specific club programs, but I think that sometimes people join a club program and they just think, “I’m going to go D-1.” How do you confront that?

CC: As coaches, that’s what our job is. When the phone call comes (from a college coach), “Hey, this kid stood out to me. What’s he like as a kid? What’s he like as a student? What’s his financial situation? What’s the family situation?” That’s what we can talk about. (Sept. 1) is when the juniors can be recruited and we’re OK with kids shooting a little bit high.

But the truth always comes out. So, some club programs will say, “Oh, if you come to play for me, I’ll get you to an Ivy school.” Right. It’s not true. No matter what, the truth always comes out. So you have to be honest with your players, honest with your families as to what level they can expect. But also, “Hey, let’s go for it.” But come Sept. 1 and you’re not hearing from those schools, then you got to say, “You know what? Let’s readjust your list a little bit, Right? Let’s give it a shot.” And then you have the fall if it doesn’t work. And then in the summer, you could adjust it again. 

So there’s nothing wrong with working hard to get to where you want to go, whether you want to play high-level Division 1 lacrosse or not. But Jack and I can’t talk college coaches into a kid at the Division 1 level. 

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