When Kirk Rogers and Kevin Anderson were at Lyman High School as freshman their coach was John Byrnes who had played at Hobart College and taught the fundamentals of the game and stressed that stick skills were the most important thing to have as a player.  While this made a lasting impression on the young players, the next two seasons were not as memorable.  They had football coaches running the team who had zero background in the sport and it showed the team’s record. In order to keep progressing as players Kirk and Kevin spent time practicing on their own, helping each other and attending camps.  Because of the lack of coaching, they had been forced to become coaches themselves.  “We became students-of-the game and recruited our friends to become players. We were very passionate about the game but had no real direction or guidance,” said Kirk. In their senior year Nate Young took the helm.  He was a Lyman Alumni who had just graduated from NCAA D II Pfeiffer University. During that time he took a team with little organization, support, and talent and recorded Lyman’s first winning season in years. After they graduated Kevin went to Pfeiffer and Kirk went to Lees McRae.  The two had been friends since childhood and kept in touch.  During their summers they both coached at camps together up and down the east coast always finishing up at Naval Academy’s lacrosse camp in Annapolis, Maryland. After graduating from college Kirk became a local development officer with the English Lacrosse Association in Bath, England.  Once back from England, Coach Young gave him a job at Shorter University.   From Shorter Kirk landed an assistant coaching job at Young Harris College. After graduation from Pfeiffer Kevin went Melbourne, Australia to coach a U-16 boys’ team. This experience convinced Kevin that he wanted to share his knowledge and passion for the game, which ultimately led to his current position today at Piedmont College. Piedmont is a Liberal Arts College located in Demorest, Georgia (1 Hr. outside Atlanta) and is fully committed to providing student-athletes with the complete collegiate experience. Students here are offered 38 undergraduate degree programs to choose from and a 14:1 professor to student ratio in the classroom. They compete at the NCAA DIII level and are currently in the process of joining the USA South Athletic Conference. When asked about advice for Florida athletes who are currently navigating the recruiting process Kirk said, “If a Floridian is interested in playing lacrosse at my school or any school it is of the utmost importance to be proactive. Make the coach know that you are interested by filling out the school’s recruiting questionnaire or E-mailing them. It is important to keep the communication flowing. Give me your club schedule so I can see you play. Come take a visit, we get contacted by a lot of people but not nearly as many take visits. It is important to remember that everything you do, on and off the field, should be considered an interview. The coaching community is small and we are all inter-related, anything that you do, whether it’s good or bad, will quickly spread.”