Last weekend I participated in the first lacrosse officials certification course in Montana’s history. The event was hosted by the Montana Lacrosse Association (namely, Tim Bechtold) and I got to arrange the location, which was at the Payne Family Native American Studies Building on UM’s campus. Side note- I’ve been hugely jealous of this building since I completed the NAS program only a year before they broke ground… it is an amazing facility and the staff have been big supporters of local lacrosse; playing host to our Elite Boys team study halls last year and now hosting the Officials Course. If you haven’t checked out the building yet, be sure to stop in!

All in all, 28 participants were brave enough to sign up for the weekend class… which is a great start! We had future refs from Whitefish, Billings, Bozeman, Arlee, Stevensville, and of course Missoula. We had middle schoolers and a couple grey haired gents, a good mix of backgrounds and experiences, and a lot of people wanting to grow the game here in Montana! Everybody was there at 9 AM (or earlier!) on Saturday, ready to hit the books… we studied inside, with a brief lunch break, until 2:30 PM before heading to the fields for our first “live” experience. I think this was eye-opening to a lot of people, who somehow assumed that refs stand a lot… in truth, they don’t ever really stand… We were back in the classroom Sunday at 8 AM for another half day of school, then back to the field for our final “live” experience. Everybody learned a lot and I think we will all be reading through those rule books for a while…

These guys will all be coming soon to a field near you, so I’d like to take this opportunity to make a strong advocation for all of us to show respect for these brave men during the games. If we all do our part, we can really ensure that young players across the state have a positive experience… and that’s what we are all here for.

BIG THANKS to Tim Bechtold for organizing this event! BIG THANKS to Don Huber, Fred Zensen, and Nic Herriges for traveling to Missoula and showing us the ropes! BIG THANKS to all the participants, especially those who made a long car ride!

I’m fresh off the plane from Utah and I’m staying up late tonight trying to get as many thoughts as I can down on paper… the past two days have been very eye-opening…

Friday morning I drove to the airport at 5 AM to catch an early flight to Salt Lake City. The trip was for a USLacrosse Regional Chapters Conference, which is a new initiative from USLacrosse and one that I was really excited to be a part of. I arrived, got a cup of coffee, and tried to get myself a shuttle to Park City ASAP. Luckily I found a ride fairly quickly and only missed the first 20-30 minutes of our conference. Along with myself (representing the Montana Chapter) there were Chapter Representatives from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, Colorado, Houston, and our hosts from Utah in attendance. The Conference was directed by USLacrosse staff members Sara Noon, Lindsay Comodore, Billy Hook, and Ann Carpenetti. The Chapters that were represented were diverse in terms of memberships, budgeting, resources, and a number of other elements, but everyone shared similar stories and it ended up being a great environment for sharing ideas and strategies.

On the agenda were a number of topics for discussion, first and foremost being a presentation and discussion about the new national standards for age appropriate youth rules. For the most part, everyone felt that the new standards were well thought out and a good step moving forward. I think it’s safe to say that all of our region’s Chapters will be better off because of this, especially as we see more and more travel and competition between states. Once we got through our discussion on the new youth standards, we moved onto the Chapter Toolkit and broke out into several small group brainstorming sessions. I think it worked out great to have a general direction to the meeting, but also plenty of time to dive into specific issues for individual chapters… it was really awesome to hear so many ideas bouncing around, with everyone taking each other’s suggestions seriously and with appreciation. Everyone who was there works hard and it’s great to be around people who have a common interest and can work together to make this sport thrive.

We wrapped for the day on Friday around 5 PM. I headed to my room to try and nap for a minute as my early morning was starting to catch up with me. 40 minutes later it was out the door to a group dinner at the Wasatch Brewery. In addition to the great food and good beers (I actually tried a Jalapeno beer…), we also enjoyed more conversation… and so the meeting continued… after dinner the group splintered a bit, but a number of us continued the “meeting” down the road, exploring some of the Park City nightlife. We made it back around midnight and I was thankful to have a comfy hotel mattress… it was a long day and morning was coming quickly.

8 AM Saturday was breakfast back in the Conference room. We began the day by reviewing and comparing our projected business plans for the next few years. We went around the room and each Chapter presented our plan for the next few years, which we then all discussed. Again, this was a good way to present valuable information and idea sharing… I know that Montana will be implementing a lot of the good ideas that have come out of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and others in the near future. It was also very reassuring to have the National Organization representatives there and I think the dialogue between them and the local Chapters is more open then ever… I also think that the Chapter leadership went away with great tools to help grow the game in each of their areas. We can be more confident now that we are more united in our strategic visions, missions, successes, and failures.

I’ve been a supporter and member of USLacrosse for many years and attended numerous National Conventions, Coaches Clinics, and Officials Clinics and I can honestly say that I’ve never been happier with a service provided by USLacrosse. This was a really great idea, especially for our region, and I’m really looking forward to a much stronger bond between our regional Chapters in the future.

After the conference ended I had a few hours to kill, so Lindsay Comodore and I joined our Utah hosts for some lunch. I had a delicious sweet potato pasta dish, sooo good… After lunch Lisa Schmidt (the Utah Chapter Executive Director) took Lindsay and I on a tour of Salt Lake City. We hit all the good sites – Lisa was a great tour guide – and we wrapped up the tour at the Utah Chapter Headquarters. This warehouse reminded me a lot of what my garage looks like, only more awesome.

I was really impressed by the Utah Chapter organization and I’m looking forward to picking their brains in the future… very cool stuff…

After the office tour I was able to hop in with coach Bryan Frates (another ULA staffer) for a middle school and high school boys practice. Since I had to catch a flight I was only able to stay for a little over an hour, but I had a good time with the Utah kids, they were working hard.

About 10 seconds after Lisa dropped me off at the airport I realized I left my cell phone in the passenger seat… one unsuccessful sprint later, I was printing off my boarding pass and getting ready for the flight home… and now it’s time for bed…

There’s more lacrosse today at Meadow Hill. Girls are from 1-3, middle school boys from 3-5, high school boys from 5-7. Come check us out!

Big thanks to all involved this weekend in Utah! Let’s keep growing this game!

Hey all – just checking in, lots and lots going on right now…

The Biz is booming! New Players, New Programs, New Coaches, New Events, New Gear! Something tells me it’s going to be another great year…

Boys Fall Ball is going well so far. Our Red Bandana scrimmages on 9/11 were both fantastic and it was good that we had a cooler day for our Transition session on Sunday… both days saw solid action on the field. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the team and honor Welles!

Great to see the MEL ladies out on the field last Sunday! Also hear there are good things going on with the Lady Griz this fall… keep it up girls!

I’ve been talking hockey all day at Maulers Hockey Central, so I want to invite everybody to come over and talk some lacrosse… we’ve got some cool stuff going on… custom gloves for Hellgate, Big Sky, and Sentinel are on the way. Some very cool stuff for MEL is on the way too… Hellgate Knights can come in THIS WEEK ONLY for a sweet deal on our team helmets (don’t worry Big Sky and Sentinel, we got you next week). We’re also offering custom stringing, custom pads, new heads and shafts, new girls gear coming soon… so come in and see me! Oh yea, check out Maulers Hockey Central on Facebook!

I’m off to Park City, Utah, this weekend for a USLacrosse Regional Conference, so expect a report on that soon! One topic I’m sure will be on the agenda are the new rules for youth lacrosse, which are covered well by JB at Lax All-Stars – which you can read by clicking here.

After that it’s time to strap on the pads again for the 5th Annual Griz Fall Shootout. My 406Lax squad is shaping up nicely so far – we definitely plan on giving these young pups a run for their money. Looking forward to laxin’ with most of the ’03,’04,’05,’06 Grizzly defense… Weasel and Timmy are coming, Joe English – where you at???

Catch you all soon… keep hitting that wall!

(…your best friend…)

Happy New Year! (well sort of)… it’s back to school time, which means that we have officially entered another year of Missoula Elite Lacrosse! Now in YEAR 4 things are really starting to ramp up…

This is my first “Varsity Letters” in a while… I took a break last season, which was a mistake, because it became hard to find the time after… but a lot has been going on this summer, so I felt it was time to get some of the news out there.

First, a little re-cap:

Last year was unbelievable, seriously. Things kicked off slowly in the fall, died down over the winter, started slow again in the early spring, and then BAM! One week to go until spring season and a whole bunch of new players decided to join in on the fun- and we were off. Our board and coaches did a great job making arrangements for everybody last minute and we were able to split into 2 middle school boys teams and into the school teams at the high school level… the results were amazing! So many games, so much development, so much support!

For me, it was a great experience to be able to coach the Elite teams as well as the Hellgate boys… each game brings a new experience and new chance to get better, so I thought it was great to be able to coach close to 40 games last year. We competed against the top traveling teams from Oregon (Rhino Selects) and Washington (Seattle Starz), we played against a select team from Baltimore… we WON games in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Illinois…

I’m really happy about the strides our players have taken since we started this program in 2008, but this past year was particularly inspiring. Right now at the middle school and high school level we have such a strong and growing base of dedicated players that it has inspired and driven up competition across the state, which is doing great things to grow the game here in Montana.

All of these efforts also became hugely aided by the establishment of a Montana Chapter for USLacrosse, which also took place this past year. This coordinated, state-wide organization is doing great things to help the sport of lacrosse grow in Montana and we wouldn’t be where we are now without this key component. I will be heading to Park City, Utah, in a few weeks to represent the Montana Chapter at a USLacrosse Conference and I couldn’t be more excited to spread all the good news!

Since this is a Varsity Letters post I should also re-cap some personal stuff from the summer… I had a few big trips this year. First up was a midwest swing to work at Mark Millon’s Lacrosse Camp in Delaware, Ohio, and then host the Team Montana boys in Chicago for the Chicago Lacrosse Cup. I had a great time in Ohio working alongside some of the games top players at Millon Camp. It was also very cool to have a few Missoula boys in attendance (Jack Lundin, Tanner Pace, and Jed Diehl). Great Staff, including Ken Clausen (4X AA at Virginia, Denver Outlaws), Jeremy Boltus (’11 Tewartaan Finalist, MLL Rookie of the Year, Hamilton Nationals), John Schiavone (AA FOS at Loyola), Steele Stanwick (’11 Tewartaan winner at Virginia, National Champion)… you get the idea… serious talent in the building, including this guy-

… anyway… the Chicago trip was a blast again this year. After working out the kinks last summer, this year felt like a breeze. My parents hosted the team in the basement, we fed them good food, played some good lacrosse, but we turned it up a notch this year – added the extended downtown trip / White Sox game… clutch…

only thing that would have made it better would have been if Coach Foss would have made the trip, but we will get him next time, eh! Oh yea, and this year we added Schmoo…

After my fun lax time it’s been weddings, hiking, working and home life for me all summer. Highlight of the trail season has definitely been the 50-mile overnighter with MEL Co-Founder James Pyke (now “retired”). It was Glacier Park ultralight backpacking at its best… check out this epic sunrise on Stoney Indian Pass:

We left from Bowman Lake, stayed overnight at Stoney Indian Lake, and then came out at the Chief Mountain US Customs parking lot… 20 hours of trail time, booking it in the back country.

Anyway… enough about summer… enough about me…

Let’s get back to WHAT MATTERS TO YOU!

So what’s next? What’s in line for the new season?

Well, the short answer is we are going to keep growing… expect to see some changes coming soon… expect to enjoy them…

First up for the boys is fall ball. If you haven’t signed up yet, hurry! CLICK HERE FOR INFO, but trust me, you don’t want to miss this… after a summer of working camps, both here and on the road, I plan on bringing it this fall. After the first week tune up, players in the fall program are going to be introduced to a lot of new material that will really make them better players. It’s going to be a fun environment that will challenge returners and welcome new players too. Plus, there are games – I only wish we could play more…

I’m also planning to spend some time working on the Girls Program soon… so ladies, stay tuned!

After that, well… let’s just say I hope to have some BIG NEWS LATER THIS WEEK about a new addition to our services… think inside the box…

Come out and play TONIGHT at FREE LACROSSE MONDAY! It’s the last one of the year, attendance has been way down lately but if everyone comes tonight I promise it will be a blast… otherwise you can now come find me at Maulers Hockey Central. I start work today so come on in and we can talk lax!

Hope everyone had a great summer and is staying fire-free right now!

It’s time to do some homework again boys and girls! See you on the field soon!

- Coach Flynn