Heart of America Lacrosse
Organizational Meeting Notes
10/11/01
(meeting held at Rockhurst HS)
I. Introduction (Dave Steffano)
II. Heart of America Lacrosse Association Report (Jack Yates)
-Incorporated on July 17, 2001 to get wheels rolling towards becoming a Kansas City chapter of US Lacrosse.
-The main priority is getting organized & electing some coordinators & board of directors. This will allow us to move forward expeditiously and make progress in an organized manner to promote and develop the game in KC and beyond.
-To incorporate, we needed three directors. Right now, they are David Steffano, Cory Samaras, & Jack Yates. They have initiated most of the start-up efforts of the organization.
A. Review of Charter/Mission
B. Review of positions available and voting process.
C. Discuss geographic area to serve.
-Nominations were heard for the following positions:
Youth:
Steve Penrod (St. Paul’s coach, Flying Monkeys player)
Phil Johnson (St. Paul’s coach/AD)
John Campbell (St. Paul’s coach, Flying Monkeys player)
Nancy Hannan (KC Women’s Lacrosse parent)
Doree Wizdel (KC Women’s Lacrosse parent)
High School
John Bartel (Shawnee Mission coach, 4 Winds player)
Jay Coleman (Rockhurst HS coach)
Chris Scheppman (Blue Valley coach, 4 Winds player)
Chris Berger (St. Thomas Aquinas faculty, Rockhurst coach, official)
Eric Hethcoat (Lansing coach, 4 Winds player)
Collegiate
Dave Wiley (KU Women’s head coach, Flying Monkeys player)
John Culbertson (KSU coach)
Club
Jason Ford (4 Winds player)
Eric Olson (4 Winds player/President)
Jon Brenneman (Flying Monkeys player/President)
Diane Spoonemore (KC Women’s Lacrosse coach)
Athletes
Pete Schwartz (Pembroke/Barstow coach, Flying Monkeys player)
Tom Shirkey (Pembroke/Barstow coach, Flying Monkeys player)
Cory Samaras (KC Women’s Lacrosse coach/founder, official)
Ross Dessert (Rockhurst coach, Flying Monkeys coach)
David Steffano (Rockhurst coach, Flying Monkeys player)
Officials
Chuck Ozonoff (KC area official assignor)
Paul Muller
Jack Yates
Steve Martin
Chris Buchinger
AtLarge
Dan Connelly (RHS coach, FML player, physician, USAFA alumnus)
Tom Laughlin (RHS coach, Holy Cross alumnus, entrepreneur)
Russ Kline (owner/founder of NLL, MAI Sports)
Frank Simpson (RHS coach, Syracuse alumnus & former coach at West Genessee(NY), Dublin Scioto(OH)
Bob Capra
Neil Bralley
Bill Alliper
-Further nominations will be solicited and accepted by mail, email, phone during the coming weeks.
III. Missouri Chapter of US Lacrosse Update (Troy Hood)
Recent Elections yielded:
-Troy Hood (President)
-Michael O’Brien (VP)
-Scott Laddell (Treas.)
-Mike Lee (Sect.)
-Issues/Topics for discussion:
-Geographic Definitions & issues
-Syracuse & Notre Dame will be playing in St. Louis this Saturday 10/13.
-Sunday AM, there will be a youth clinic put on by the Syracuse men’s team.
-Next year, there will also include Towson State & Duke
-As well as Stanford women’s & a few other women’s teams.
-USLIA men’s & women’s club championships will again be held in St. Louis on 2nd weekend in May.
-February there will be a women’s national clinic day.
-There has also been talk of having a men’s clinic in St. Louis & possibly in Kansas City.
-There can possibly be start-up funding available from the St. Louis chapter.
-They can also provide us with videotapes, which they have decided to keep on file with the St. Louis library system, so that all can view.
-Loan kits, start-up kits are also available.
Discussion:
-What can we do to develop coaches & officials?
-Each team submits one person to be trained as a coach & one to be trained as an official.
-Go to younger former players & recruit them.
-Go to football officials, soccer officials, etc.
-Develop an alumni list of former players, keep in touch, & hit them when they come back into town.
-Hold coaching clinics & officiating clinics.
-What about developing new teams?
-Hold an organizational meeting.
-Finding a faculty sponsor.
-Visiting an Athletic Director with a group of parents, other coaches, & interested parties.
-What about developing youth teams?
-St. Louis has 3 youth programs (MICDS, Lafayette, Kirkwood).
-Ask for each team to provide at least one coach.
-Working with PE instructors to have lacrosse as part of the courses.
-Perhaps run the practices as night, purchase the equipment & include that as the fees. Then sell off some of the gear at the end of the year.
-What can we be doing to assist our graduating HS players in staying a part of the game when they go on to college?
-educate them & help them get in touch with the various coaches.
-possibly hold a clinic or meeting to help them understand their options.
IV. Status Report (was not done at the meeting for all of the programs, the following offered updates. In the essence of time, it was suggested that teams email their updates in the next day or two to be included in minutes.)
A. Youth
B. High School
-Shawnee Mission South is now “Shawnee Mission” Lacrosse
C. College
–Rockhurst University (Justin Wetterer) has started a team back up. They have about 20 players. They will either play in CCLA or GPLL. They are still looking for a coach.
-KU (Matt Dunkin) has restarted their club team with a group of players from St. Louis & all over. They have been getting about 20 players each session.
-KSU is continuing it’s success and has a full roster.
D. Club
-Next weekend is the 4 Winds Fall Classic. It will include 6 teams from KS, MO, OK, NE.
V. Women’s League and Clinic Update (Cory Samaras)
-They had a fall weekend league with about 30-40 women playing each week. They have about 60-70 women interested in playing organized lacrosse.
-They want to have a city-wide HS team next year.
-They are planning to start an indoor program as of Jan. 1, 2002.
VI. WIN for KC/Kansas City Parks & Recs Update (Cory Samaras)
VII. Summer League Recap (Jason Ford, Eric Hethcoat, Eric Olson)
-The league was a tremendous success with roughly 150 players participating.
-About $1,500.00 was raised to be contributed as seed money to fund the start up of Heart of America Lacrosse.
VIII. Fall/Winter Indoor League
This is still unorganized at this point. We hope to be able to field indoor leagues either in Lee’s Summit or Johnson County.
A. Lee’s Summit Arena Site
B. Insurance Guidelines
IX. Coaches Clinic
X. Officials Clinic
XI. MSLA Update (Jay Coleman)
-Jay Coleman was elected VP.
-President is from Hazelwood Central
-Ren Pentinelli is the Treasurer.
-Each team will be asked to find one person to be trained as an official.
-Fees will stay the same. More of the money will go to the referee’s association to help with their training & development.
-Scheduling meeting will be in early November.
-New Division splits were submitted and are under consideration.
-Jefferson City, MO has a coach and may possibly field a team.
-Freshman Tourney will be held at RHS and will be May 4, 2002.
-March 10th will be the Preseason JV/Varsity Jamboree at RHS.
XII. Development of more teams/programs (youth, HS, school PE classes, etc.)
-It was reiterated that if someone hears rumblings about an interest in starting up teams, they should be getting in touch with the proper people to get the ball rolling….
-Pembroke/Barstow has the only open youth development team. They expect 70 kids at the 6th, 7th, 8th grade level this year.
-Aquinas has a possible interest level and is planning on having an organizational meeting.
-Eric Hethcoat is interested in possibly starting a HS team in Topeka & Lawrence in the next year or two.
In Attendance:
Diane Spoonmore women’s
Chris & Suzanne Ellis women’s
Chris Berger RHS, official, STA
Paul Muller RHS, official
Naw Russell parent
Doree Wizdel women’s
Nancy Hannan women’s
Peter Schwartz Pembroke/FML
Cory Samaras women’s/official
John Jacobson Pembroke parent
Ross Dessert RHS/FML
Matt Dunkin KU men’s
David Wiley KU women’s
Justin Wetterer Rockhurst University men’s
Jay Coleman RHS head coach
David Steffano RHS/FML
John Bartel SM/4Winds
Jack Yates Pembroke
Phil Johnson SPED
Dan Connelly RHS/FML
Eric Olson SM/4Winds
Eric Hethcoat Lansing/4Winds
Chuck Ozonoff official
Chris Schepmann BV/4Winds
Matt Wass de Czege SM/4Winds