Podcast: New Attleboro (Mass.) coach Jim Black on culture, drills

Jim Black, the new head coach at Attleboro (Mass.) High School, is the guest this week on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Jack Piatelli talk with new Attleboro (Mass.) High School head coach Jim Black.

Black (Providence, R.I.) was hired by Attleboro in the offseason and comes to the program after serving as an assistant coach at Bishop Hendricken (R.I.).

Black’s playing career was cut short in high school due to the untimely passing of his father. He was working as he was trying to play, and eventually ended up being a goalie at Dean College before getting into coaching high school basketball.

As a head coach with experience coaching an entirely different sport, Black has a unique perspective on how he wants to build up Attleboro into a power in the Hockomock League.

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.

Jack: What steps are you going to take to get your team to compete against the Franklins and the North Attleboros in the Hockomock? Where do you start?

Jim Black: I think it starts with culture. And the gentleman that I’m taking over from, Kevin Patton, is a wonderful guy. I’ve met him a couple of times and he is a wonderful, wonderful person.

But what I’ve told the boys is that this is a new chapter in the book. Everything’s clean. For me, starting out, it was building a staff that had the right focus. So getting to really answer your question, step one was finding a junior varsity head coach who I literally told: I don’t care if you win. I want you to develop them.

 I wanted to make sure that my varsity guys were seamless when they got called up from JV. I’ve said that to Kevin Kopp, who is my JV coach. And I’ve also brought in a varsity volunteer who is going to be my defensive coordinator in Hunter Andrews. He was one of my closest friends. I got to know him through the Rhode Island Bulldogs, and Hunter and I have spent a ton of time together. I know he’s a great teacher of the game; he is somebody who I think the boys are going to learn a lot from.

The returner meeting told me what I needed to know. I went in (and) I was flying blind. There was one family from Attleboro that I knew. … I said, “This is my expectation of you,” and none of it had to do with winning or losing or if you screw up, it’s on you. None of that. All that stuff’s got to get thrown away. First and foremost, it’s where are we laying the foundation for the house. And every single young man I met with that day …, there were 34 of them, and all had firm handshakes and eye contact.

Kyle Devitte: Give me your favorite drill. 

Jim Black: I call it “Mice in a maze.” It’s a groundball drill. You take them from the hash marks out to the box and the team actually lines up around that rectangle. You have a “door” on one side and a “door” away from the coach on the side. That’s it — there are only two doors in the maze. Two guys stand next to the coach and they are facing the coach. Eyes to the sky. The coach rolls the ball out. Those two player have to turn and make a play for the groundball. Whoever wins the ground ball has to get out of the maze.

And it’s not without contact. It’s not swinging sticks. It’s measured. But at the same time, it creates the scrum that’s going to happen in a game. And I found this by necessity last year. Where I had guys who just couldn’t get the ball and carry it out; they would lose it every time. So, how do we keep the ball? Well, you have to deal with contact. 

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