Meeting Notes
February 7, 2001

Kansas City Lacrosse

                                                                                                Meeting

                                                                                                2/7/01  7PM

                                                                                                Rockhurst HS

 

Meeting was called by Dave Steffano (Rockhurst) at 7:10pm.

 

Review of Last Year’s Meeting:  (Dave Steffano)

 

Last Year’s Goals:

Full JV schedule for 3 new clubs

Establish Refs

Goal: 2002 to have 5 Teams up & running

 

State of KC Lacrosse  (Dave Steffano)

 

Varsity Teams  (3) – Rockhurst, Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley

 

JV Teams  (3) – Pembroke/Barstow, Lansing, Rockhurst

 

Freshman (3) - developmental Teams – Blue Valley, Shawnee Mission, Rockhurst

 

Youth Teams (2) – St. Paul’s Day School, Pembroke/Barstow

 

Men’s Club Teams (2) – Flying Monkeys, 4 Winds

 

St. Louis/MSLA Update:  (Jay Coleman, rockhurst)

 

-         Feb. 26th starts outdoor practices

 

-         Illegal Equipment Updates – New Warrior Goalie Stick & Goalie Gloves are illegal

-         penalty for bringing them onto the field

 

-         St. Louis Jamboree & KC Jamboree wil both take place on 3/10/01 (we will all participate in the KC jamboree)

 

-         Referees – is a continuing problem, st. louis is making progress & has 15 new refs; we need to find and train more refs to work our KC area games.

 

-         Rule Changes –

-         when there is a visible game clock, that is the official clock, not the hand clock

-         coin toss – winner picks side of the field, loser gets first alternate possession

-         players serving penalty during man down faceoff cannot enter field until the official signals that one team has gained possession, even if the penalty has expired.

 

-         “play-on” technique…if ball is on the ground, and there is still an advantage, the “play on” will continue if that player regains possession quickly.  As soon as the advantage is gone or the team with the pending penalty regains possession, play will stop and the penalty will occur.

 

-         if home team does not have books ready to go 10 min before game, it is a 3 min. non releaseable…same with lack of balls or ball boys

-the idea is to eliminate delays at the start of the games and to speed up play.

 

-         coaches cannot come out of coaches box during time out…players must come to the sideline

-This is largely in the case of tension or scuffles between two teams…it serves to keep them separated during timeouts

 

-         if there is a problem with officials at halftime, both coaches must be present for any discussion.

 

-         only head coaches can call time outs

-Referees may or may not choose to recognize a timeout called by an assistant and that team will be charged the timeout

 

-         no chewing tobacco on sidelines

 

Kansas City Referees:

 

-         Bob Schulte (Head official) has been talking about how we can develop more refs for KC…

-         Chuck Ozonoff, head official for KC, will conduct the classroom sessions & St. Louis will send someone to help with the outdoor sessions.

-         we have 10 in KC who have expressed interest in reffing, but only 3 of those 10 have responded to email or phone contact

-         we need to check upon their contact info & push them to gauge their interest.                                                      

-         Our KC refs have the added responsibility of working the columbia & Manhattan Games

-this places an extra burden on them.

-         Nine Hours of Training are Required

-         3-4 hours in classroom

-         5-6 hours of field work

-     Referees Fees:  $35 for JV Games            $45 for Varsity Games    $95 for college (plus mileage)…potential for travel pay as well.

(Chris Buchinger represented the KC area officials.)

 

Referees Clinic:

 

-         6-9 PM  Friday, March 9th

-         we can include pizza, etc.

-         We will do field Refereeing the following day (Saturday, March 10) during the Jamboree.

 

 

Coach’s Clinic:

 

-         National Clinic in Philadelphia Early January was attended by a number of KC coaches.

-         Clinics are a Tremendous resource for coaches

-         We should think about putting together a coach’s clinic for KC coaches

-         It can also help parents get involved in coaching

-         Is it feasible to put together a clinic….consensus was “yes”

-         We need to make this happen in the next 4-5 weeks

-         Especially with the start-up programs – we just need parents to lead line drills & teach how to catch & throw

-         As our students graduate & come back, it will help feed the coaching in KC

 

(Jack Yates noted:  US Lacrosse web site has a printable version of “parents’ guide to lacrosse”)

 

Women’s Lacrosse in KC:  (Cory Samaras & Dave Steffano)

 

-         There is a tremendous amount of interest around the city

-         Pembroke

-         Notre Dame De Sion is looking to add another sport

-         Barstow

-         Lee’s Summit is interested in starting a team

-         One possibility is starting a “KC Women’s Lacrosse Club”…put all together for a year or two

-         Cory Samaras  attended the meeting to discuss this issue.  Cory lives and works in KC.  She is from Annapolis,MD & played at Princeton, where she won a NCAA Championship.  She has tremendous resources and contacts within her family and her former teammates.  She is interested in helping to start the team.

-         Through her contacts, we could also bring some people in to put on clinics & help to teach the game.

-         First Priority is putting together a combined informational meeting & field session.

-         Date:      Sunday, April 8th      2-4 PM

-         Location:           St. Paul’s School

-         We will watch a video & have a meeting first & then go out on the field

-         we would like to get fliers & publicity going…

 

-Contacts or people who expressed greater interest in starting KC womens’ lacrosse:  Cory Samaras, Ralph Clevinger, Jack Yates, Jed Dunham, Phil Johnson

 

Development of New Teams:

 

-         Lee’s Summit has shown interest in starting a team

-         We need to be more cohesive and work together with startup teams

-         One possibility that was discussed was forming a group or committee that could serve as a contact point and resource for new teams.

 

US Lacrosse Chapter:  (Dave Steffano)

 

-         Advantages:

-         funding & discounts on group equipment.

-         can be formed as a non-profit corporation

-         people can donate money to advance the game in KC

-         help with ref clinics & coach’s clinics

-         Requirements are fairly rigid

-         representation from X number of schools

-         representation of both men & women

-         100+ dues paying members of US Lacrosse

-         Have a Start-up meeting

-         budget & plan for growth, etc.

 

-     There was some discussion about going in together with St. Louis.

            -     It was decided that we would like to form our own chapter

-         We are in a position to apply for “provisional” status now as a KC chapter…we meet the requirements.

-         Jack Yates is an attorney and can help us with the formation of a Non-Profit Corporation to get started with our chapter.

 

 

Publicity:

 

-         We need to begin thinking about how to work together in PR efforts

-         KC Star – articles and box scores

-         TV Stations/Features

-         Lacrosse Magazine…possibility of an article about KC lacrosse…send digital Photos

-         Call-In game scores to KC Star & Metro Sports

-         Update Stats Online web page – this is the main stats & results page for Missouri Lacrosse. 

-         We all need to keep them updated on our teams

-     We also need to support this web page by sending our parents & kids to the page to check it out…more hits will ensure that it stays alive.

 

Vail Tournament:

 

-         Tryouts  on Feb. 24th in St. Louis

-         There was not a lot of interest among our KC teams in sending our guys to St. Louis to join their Vail Team

-         possibility was raised about getting a kansas city team together for 2002.

 

 

Scheduling for 2001 season:

 

-         We talked at length about completing our schedules.

-         Coaches met after the meeting to finalize their schedules with each other.

 

 

 

 

 

(Meeting ended around 9:30pm)

 

 

Upcoming events:

 

-Four Winds vs. KSU    2/11/01 1PM,  66th & Wornall

 

-referee clinic (indoor)                  3/9/01    6-9PM, Rockhurst HS

-referee clinic (outdoor)              3/10/01            Rockhurst HS

 

-KC Lacrosse Jamboree                3/10/01            Rockhurst HS

-Includes Flying Monkeys vs. Four Winds Men’s Game during the Jamboree

 

-1st ever Game Between two KC area Varsity teams (Shawnee Mission @ Rockhurst)                                               3/15/01            4pm JV                    6pm Varsity

 

-KC Girls’ Lacrosse Kickoff Day      4/8/01  2-4PM St. Paul’s School