Podcast: Guru Ryan Conwell on the benefits of playing box

Scott Neiss, left, presents Ryan Conwell with the 12th-place finishing plaque at the LAXNAI tournament in Utica, N.Y. (Courtesy)

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, host Kyle Devitte talks with local lacrosse official and box lacrosse director Ryan Conwell.

Conwell is originally from central New York but moved to the Boston area a decade ago. After playing in various men’s leagues, he decided to start a box lacrosse team. That team eventually became the Cambridge Nor-Easters, who currently compete in the NABLL.

After coaching lacrosse in the youth ranks in Massachusetts, Conwell then went on to become an official. He has also written for lacrosse publications, most notably Lax All Stars.

He co-runs the Moon Bears men’s lacrosse club, a team that competes in international tournaments like the Aleš Hřebeský Memorial in Prague.

In this episode, Kyle and Ryan talk about coming up as lacrosse writers and coaches, as well as their mutual love for box lacrosse.

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.

RC: It was when I stopped coaching. I did youth coaching for a while, and the big reason why I had to leave that was I have a pretty normal day job. Just a desk job, typical nine to five. I’m not on school hours anymore. When you’re coaching varsity that’s rough, taking a lot of half days in the spring so you can make that 3 o’clock bus for an away game.

It just became a bit too much for the six days a week. And it really eats away at all your free time. So it didn’t quite strike the work/life balance that I needed. I wasn’t able to do the family things that I also needed to do. I needed some more flexibility and that’s where reffing came in because I knew there was a shortage.

I still play enough and talk to enough of those refs who do love it, so I knew how much they needed people who knew lacrosse. There’s a lot of officials getting into it that are moving over from basketball, football and other sports. Hockey is another big one. They’re there because they enjoy officiating as a whole, but they’re learning lacrosse as they do it. And I think whether you’re a parent, a player or a coach, it’s a great opportunity to give back to the game at a level where there are games being canceled or never played because they don’t have officials.

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