From the podcast: The growth and the goals of Laxachusetts

Host Jack Piatelli, left, was joined by Laxachusetts coaches Dave Evans and Dan Chouinard on the podcast this week. (Seamans Media)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli were joined in studio by Dan Chouinard and Dave Evans of Laxachusetts.

Both men have dedicated lots of time in the last 20 years to developing one of the most successful club programs in the region — and the nation.

Evans played his college ball at Brown, where he was a three-time All-American. He was the Ivy League Player of the Year in 1995 and went on to play professionally with the Boston Cannons, where he was a six-time All-Star in the MLL before he retired in 2006.

He also served as an assistant coach at his alma mater in 2009 and is now Laxachusetts’ college recruiting coordinator.

Chouinard played at UMass Boston and was one of the founders of the Laxachusetts program. His coaching history is extensive, as he contributed to high school programs like Weymouth (Mass.) and Scituate (Mass.), as well as several youth programs and initiatives. He is currently the boys program director and serves as a firefighter at the Weymouth Fire Department.

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.

Kyle Devitte: Can you guys tell me the origin story of Laxachusetts in so far as your involvement?

Dan Chouinard: So, we started the program in 2004. At the time club lacrosse was pretty small. We were probably only the seventh club in Massachusetts. So we started and wanted to be different and took the hockey model.

I grew up playing hockey. I know, Jack, you grew up playing hockey and there was so much focus on power skating and stick-handling, and that really wasn’t in the lacrosse world yet. And we wanted to bring that skill development piece to it. And, in addition to that, the challenge we had was convincing the players and the parents that they needed that, especially on the South Shore, where there’s pretty strong lacrosse in Massachusetts.

So, that spring, we took three teams — the U-11, U-13 and U-15 — down to Baltimore and played Baltimore Crabs, who at the time was the No. 1 club program in the country (and are) still one of the best in the country now. And we lost every game by 25 goals and I’m not exaggerating. So by doing that, we actually showed the players and the parents how important the skill piece was and how much we had to catch up.

Jack Piatelli: I mean, at the end of the day, that’s what you want these guys to do, right? To compete at the college level. You play at a high level and you compete. You know you’re not going to win every game. But you’re not going to lose every game if you go out there and compete every single day.

Dave Evans:  Well, you know this as well, Jack. A lot of these college guys, they want to see the potential. They want to see the raw clay, if you will. You have got to have certain skill-sets — you have to have the athleticism — but they’re going to take a player and plug him into a spot on their squad, in their recipe. And they need to see that that player is coachable, is hungry, and still has a passion to be great.

And I think that’s the important thing to take away from a lot of this because there are guys that have been playing since 4- or 5-years-old, and they get to college and they’re a little burnt out, right? “I play so much lacrosse and yeah, I don’t get a reset.” And that’s where I think we’ve kind of gone full circle, but that’s where that multi-sport athlete helps too.

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