Coach Mo Asif’s Blog: Starting Up Northside Christian School! – Part 2
Written by Lee Roggenburg on . Posted in Featured Posts, Florida Lacrosse News, High School, Tampa/Treasure Coast Boys.
Author’s Note: Readers will remember that for the first two years of Doug Shanahan’s coaching reign at start-up St. Brendan’s we asked Doug to occasionally blog about the experience of developing a new high school program from scratch. The series was well received and when FLN had a chance to replicate the series at another school we were happy to find Mo Asif, the new coach of the new NCS program in St. Petersburg, willing to do so! Thanks to Coach Asif for taking this on and we hope the readers will find this a fun read and one that we all can learn from!
2/21/18
So here we are three weeks into the program, and it feels like it was just yesterday that I was attending a student interest meeting at Northside Christian School to meet with prospective student athletes that were interested in playing lacrosse in the spring. One thing I have to say is once the season started it has been moving along at a rapid pace!
The assistant coaches and I had a game plan in place when we started the season, and we have been sticking to that for the most part. We wanted to get our boys caught up with the fundamentals of the game first before we put any pressure on them of setting up plays, or a particular offense/defense setup.
We are lucky enough that most of the players that are new to lacrosse have experience playing other sports at Northside. I think that has been a huge advantage in the success we have seen in the last 3 weeks. My plan was to try to use the basketball and soccer players for middies, wrestlers for face off, and football players for defense. Not saying it all worked out that way, but I am very pleased with the positions that the players are getting comfortable with. Of course, there is still room for adjustment as we go through the season and grow.
We had a combined practice with the St. Pete Devils at their home location last week. This was the first time that the Mustangs really got to see any full field play. Most of our daily practices are run on a “half field” practice facility that is only 60 yards long. I wanted them to see what full field play actually feels like, and get used to it before our first game. The Mustangs did really well, and held their own with the other more experienced players. Thank you to the St. Petersburg Devils for allowing us the opportunity to come out and share a practice with them and Coach Chris Arnold. I’m hoping this is something we can do in the future, and encourage any new program that is starting off to get with a more experienced program to run some combined drills or even a controlled scrimmage before playing your first game.
Looking forward to how we do with our home opener on Thursday, February 22nd against Lake Wales. As a coach I am hoping that the players take the hard work they put in the last few weeks and translate it the playing field. Most importantly I just want them to have fun playing the game of lacrosse. Regardless of the outcome I am so proud of how far the Mustangs have come, and excited about a historic season for Northside Christian School.
Thanks,
Coach Mo Asif
2/21/18
So here we are three weeks into the program, and it feels like it was just yesterday that I was attending a student interest meeting at Northside Christian School to meet with prospective student athletes that were interested in playing lacrosse in the spring. One thing I have to say is once the season started it has been moving along at a rapid pace!
The assistant coaches and I had a game plan in place when we started the season, and we have been sticking to that for the most part. We wanted to get our boys caught up with the fundamentals of the game first before we put any pressure on them of setting up plays, or a particular offense/defense setup.
We are lucky enough that most of the players that are new to lacrosse have experience playing other sports at Northside. I think that has been a huge advantage in the success we have seen in the last 3 weeks. My plan was to try to use the basketball and soccer players for middies, wrestlers for face off, and football players for defense. Not saying it all worked out that way, but I am very pleased with the positions that the players are getting comfortable with. Of course, there is still room for adjustment as we go through the season and grow.
We had a combined practice with the St. Pete Devils at their home location last week. This was the first time that the Mustangs really got to see any full field play. Most of our daily practices are run on a “half field” practice facility that is only 60 yards long. I wanted them to see what full field play actually feels like, and get used to it before our first game. The Mustangs did really well, and held their own with the other more experienced players. Thank you to the St. Petersburg Devils for allowing us the opportunity to come out and share a practice with them and Coach Chris Arnold. I’m hoping this is something we can do in the future, and encourage any new program that is starting off to get with a more experienced program to run some combined drills or even a controlled scrimmage before playing your first game.
Looking forward to how we do with our home opener on Thursday, February 22nd against Lake Wales. As a coach I am hoping that the players take the hard work they put in the last few weeks and translate it the playing field. Most importantly I just want them to have fun playing the game of lacrosse. Regardless of the outcome I am so proud of how far the Mustangs have come, and excited about a historic season for Northside Christian School.
Thanks,
Coach Mo Asif
