St. Margaret’s Episcopal Boys Lacrosse Head Coach Glen Miles. OCVarsity.com
In part three of his interview with LaxBuzz, Glen Miles, head coach of the Nike/US Lacrosse West Region #4 Ranked St. Margaret’s Episcopal Boys Lacrosse program, discusses how important it is for high school lacrosse players to attempt to play multiple sports and benefit from developing multiple skill sets and experience quality coaching.
LaxBuzz: Should high school lacrosse players play on multiple club teams, amounting to essentially a year-round dedication to lacrosse? Should these players be encouraged to play other sports and/or taking periodic breaks from playing lacrosse?
Glen Miles: “Great question. It is critical for our young players who want to compete at a very high level to be well coached. The parity and shear numbers of players at all levels of lacrosse have made it extremely important for our kids to “know how to play.” Every roster spot is important to a college lacrosse program and they are not going to just give roster spots away. Everyone on the roster has a role to play.”
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“That’s a loaded statement. “Know how to play”—there is so much to this including athletically, offensively and defensively. With sports specialization, kids are not being exposed to many very basic athletic concepts of space, advantage/disadvantage and risk/reward.”
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“I am a huge advocate for kids to play multiple sports and expose themselves to a variety of skill sets that other sports beside lacrosse offer. Additionally, there are a lot of great coaches in our area that don’t teach lacrosse. We need to expose our kids to those coaches too.”
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“If character and leadership training are as important as I think they and there is a great mentor out there coaching a different sport why not play that game and learn from the great ones. Let’s not lock ourselves into one sport especially at the youth level because we can learn critical team skills from a variety of people.”
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“From my recent coaching experience over the past 5 years, many High School coaches are starting to understand this dynamic, especially the football guys. I have had a blessed life, but as lacrosse guy, a High School quarterback and a basketball point guard, I loved my High School sports experience more than many of the other experiences in my life.”
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“Specialization is taking that away, and I think it is a terrible shame. The reality of a college scholarship is rare and to sacrifice all of the benefits of multiple sports for that goal is foolish to me.”
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“Obviously, my assumption is that the kids like the other sports too. Don’t just play another sport to play it, but if you love 2-3 sports then play them and have fun. Here is where the coaching comes in. If we as coaches are not making it fun to be coached by us, then the kids will choose fun.”
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“One of my mentor’s asks: “What does it feel like to be coached by me?”
“That simple question has changed me dramatically as a person and as a coach. What does it feel like to my daughter? What does it feel like to be my wife? Scary huh? That’s how we are trying to approach every aspect of our daily interactions with the kids.”
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