FLN loved attending the Florida Athletic Coaches Association (FACA) conference in Daytona Beach last weekend.  While the conference has been in place for years for other sports, this is the first time our lacrosse community was included in earnest.  Congratulations go to Donna Rose of Hollywood Hills Military Academy and Roy Kelly of Ransom Everglades (shown above, right, with David Oliver of The First Academy) for really going above and beyond to make this first meeting an excellent one.  Having served on a number of committees over the years, I have a pretty good idea how hard these two (and others) worked to make the event a success.  Brian Davis will detail the speakers in another article. For now, we are going to focus on the vendors, none of whom advertise with us.  We liked them all and are happy to send them a little free press.

For starters, thanks to Donna and Roy, FLN was lucky enough to have a display area adjacent to US Lacrosse, represented by new employee and recent empty nester Andi O’Connor. Andi covered for us when we sat in presentations and even made a coffee run.  A Boys’ Latin mom until this year, she enjoyed a number of trips to Florida watching her son Keegan on spring break (the game scores are hard to remember) and has witnessed the growth of Florida lacrosse first hand.  Andi will be busy in the next few years following her twins Kaeli, who plays defense for the Syracuse ladies (#0) and the aforementioned Keegan, a freshman midfielder for Maryland (#17) on top of her new duties at US Lacrosse.  Oh, by the way, a little research by FLN found that Andi (Maryland) and her husband Patrick (Delaware) both played lacrosse in college.  FLN looks forward to the day the Florida boys we are writing about today are mentioned in their children’s articles.  By then we, too, will be an established hotbed.

Against the far wall to our left were two very personable young men, Collin Meadow of Boathouse (cmeadow@boathouse.com) and Peter Lytle of Warrior and Brine (peter.lytle@warrior.com).  Both of these bright gentlemen have our state in their respective territories and we know they will excel.  If you look carefully, you will see Boathouse is proudly showing off the designs of Barracuda Lacrosse (www.cudalax.com) and their latest design, a lightweight, breathable, water resistant jacket to be released in 2015 (the yellow one).  I want one. During a break, FLN spent a considerable amount of time discussing the state of the sport with Peter and found him to be extremely thoughtful with an educated eye on the “30,000 foot view” of the marketing of the game.  Peter also pointed out the benefits of Warrior being a part of the New Balance family and the expertise it brings to the Warrior shoe designs. Collin played goalie at Ithaca College and Peter was a defenseman at St. Mary’s.

One of the first stops on the tour through the vendor zone maze was Game Changer, an online supplier of apps designed for reporting and coaching.  Game Changer had a beautiful display of its product targeted for baseball and we stopped by mostly out of courtesy.  When we admitted we were not really interested  because we were lacrosse guys, we discovered, to our surprise (and I am sure his) we were talking to Joe Yevoli (joe.yevoli@gamechanger.io), who was helping design a lacrosse app for Game Changer.  Joe was so engaging FLN signed up to be a Beta tester this season (if Lee can figure out how to go digital instead of his using his extensive notes). Game Changer plans to roll out its lax product a year from now and we liked what we saw.  Suffice to say we cannot disclose the features, but we immediately saw the potential benefits.  The app is designed to be a free download and tied into a subscription package.  In a nutshell, we think they have a pretty neat product. It turns out Joe has a pretty decent lacrosse pedigree, too, having played at Virginia, graduating with a year of eligibility left and using that last year for a run with Syracuse.  Terrific young man.

It’s always fun to sneak up on someone at an event like this.  There was a friendly nudge on this writer’s back and the pleasant surprise was the  purputrator was none other than LaxWorld’s South Florida salesman and Douglas head coach, Ryan Burton (rburton@laxworld.com).  Ryan is one of the good guys we have had the pleasure of getting to know over the years and always has a smiling, friendly face.  The big news at the convention was (no surprise) the various approved products for ladies’ head gear.  Since this is a vendor article, we will simply say there are many choices.  While not a scientist nor a professional in the art of helmet testing, it seems strange to me that every one of the approved ladies’s helmets on display had not one bit of top of the head protection. The good news for Ryan and other establishments such as Orlando’s Deep South Lacrosse, represented by managing partner and UCF head coach James Foote (foote@deepsouthlacrosse.com) is increased sales traffic.  Coach Foote was more than generous with his time and it is apprent he will be a key figure in Florida lacrosse in the years ahead.

Our neighbor on the other side was a new company named Champion Collegiate Recruiting (www.championcollegiaterecruiting.com).  This company is different from any you may know.  Champion is not about contacts with college coaches and that type of thing.  Rather, it offers marketing expertise in all sports (and probably areas beyond athletics).  Champion was born when the soccer playing son of one of the founders suffered a “recruiting killing” knee injury.  The timing of the injury,  as you might expect, was incredibly bad and the young man missed his prime showcase year.  By the time he recovered, most of the spots in his class were filled. So, mom and dad and son went to work to get the word out to the targeted schools, which were a specific group of junior colleges.  Needless to say, they found a fit and in turn a  business.  FLN chatted with founders Jerry and Laura Cutchens and Terry Montville and was impressed with their organization and enthusiasm.  If you are looking for honest advice and assistance at a reasonable price, give Champion your consideraton.

After being left alone for awhile, I started to wonder what happened FLN’s founder and leader, Brian.  It turns out he had engaged the star representative of BSN Sports, one Joel White, currently of the Rochester Rattlers and formerly of Syracuse.  I think Brian just dominated Joel’s time until I finally showed up with my camera to take their picture.  Joel could not have been nicer and BSN is lucky to have him. There were many other merchants in attendance including HUDL (love it), Neff, Pennington grasses, Zephyr hats and FANCLOTH.COM, a fund raising apparel company.  Everyone we met was hard working and interesting.  On a personal note, I enjoyed this conference tremedously.  High school coaches were able to talk at length and have dinner with some of the most visible college coaches in the game.  The breakout sessions were lively, highly interactive and full of instruction.  Brian will touch on the relationship building we witnessed, and I know our Florida players will benefit from the time their coaches took to participate. Congratulations and thanks to Donna, Roy and FACA.