MINLAX was created to cover everything lacrosse related in Minnesota. From 3/4th graders picking up a stick for the first time to the accomplished varsity player, MINLAX has what you need to take your game to the next level.
www.MINLAX.com is operated and created by Brian Kimmell. I moved to the MSP area in June of 2010 from Seattle where I was sad to leave my old club behind. While I was out there, I coached 3/4th grade through 7/8th grade. I was the Coaching Director and a head coach for 7/8th grade and assisted with 3/4th and 5/6th grade for Sammamish Lacrosse Club of Bellevue, Washington. I was also an assistant coach for the Team Washington U13 squad as well as an assistant for Seattle STARZ Lacrosse. I've coached for the WALAX Summer league and Trilogy Lacrosse Fall Ball(I also created Trilogy). I'm currently the Head Coach for NWLC's 7/8th grade A team. I also coach for Homegrown Lacrosse and I'm a member of Team AO, coaching for the ALL OUT Lacrosse Camps and the Director and Founder of ALL OUT Lacrosse Camps, Ned Bowen, is eager to introduce the Minnesota area to Team AO! I'm current with my CPR/First Aid certification as well as a member of US Lacrosse. Through US Lacrosse I'm a certified Level 1 and Level 2 coach and I'm also a certified "Double Goal Coach" with PCA. I USED to be a Washington Stealth fan and I had a lot of fun working with them at clinics and presentations around Washington. When I moved to Minneapolis, I accepted an internship with the Minnesota Swarm from the NLL and started coaching for Homegrown Lacrosse. My internship with the Swarm turned into a position as the Native American Lacrosse Program Coordinator and I had a lot of fun coaching the first Native American youth lacrosse team in the State for quite some time. On Swarm game day, you could find me on the field with the pregame ball shaggers and up by the press box making notes of the game highlights for their video editing crew.
I started playing lacrosse my Junior year in High School back in Indiana. Way, way, way back in 1997, not a lot of people in Indiana had heard of lacrosse so I was pretty excited when I learned there was a sport where you could hit someone with a stick! My first stick was a D-pole(STX Dominator on a steel shaft, the head still hangs on my wall like a baby picture) and I've been hooked ever since. I played(player/assistant coach, again, not a lot of lax folk at the time) Varsity my Senior year where I made my first appearance as a goalie. Our starter was a no show and no one else had the courage so I stepped between the pipes. I made a few saves and let in a few goals. One shot bounced of my face mask and for a split second, I smelled burning rubber from the force and speed! I was rattled at best after that and I ducked on the next shot toward my head and my teammates started making fun of me. I dropped the goalie stick and jogged to the sideline to grab my D-pole. I returned and told my team that if they didn't have the courage to start in the net, then they certainly didn't get the right to make fun of me! That was the end of my Varsity goalie career. Since then, I've worked with some awesome goalies and I've improved in skill and confidence. It's not my favorite position, but I've been known to step between the pipes for a men's club game now and then. I didn't go the Division 1 route for college, nor 2 or 3. I went to SMALL college in Northern Michigan and was a player/coach for our club team. We played anyone we could find and had more fun than success most nights! Ever since I held my D-pole for the first time, I knew lacrosse was something special and now I feel compelled to give back to the sport that taught me so much!
A few of you guys have already heard parts of this speech from me but I
wanted to share it with everyone. There are many things that I love
about our great sport. Lacrosse is more steeped in tradition than any
other sport on the planet(aside from running and swimming!) and it is
native to our country! I love the honor associated with lacrosse. Our
sport is different from most others because of its heritage. One of the
things I love most about lacrosse is the individual nature of our
sticks. In no other sport is the primary piece of equipment hand made.
I'm talking about the pocket of your stick. No two are the same and
each is tailored to its owner(it should be anyway). You don't make your
own baseball glove or bat nor are you forced to whittle a hockey stick.
The lacrosse pocket is completely unique to all other sports because as
long as the pocket is attached to the head, essentially you have strung
it properly. Some heads have many holes for different stringing
options(these I prefer). There is no wrong way to string a head(although I've seen some ugly pockets out there) and
this leads to an infinite amount of possibilities in creativity.
Our
sport is unique because you can't just buy a head off of the shelf and
use it in a game with any success. It wasn't until the 1970's that the
plastic head was introduced, before that it was up to a few skilled
craftsmen scattered throughout the country. In the last 40 years we
have lost some of the uniqueness of our sport with the plastic head but
that has created reduced manufacturing cost and time and therefor more
lacrosse sticks in more kids hands! Last season I bet I strung half of
the heads used by the 3/4th grade team and it was great to see the
excitement in their eyes when they realized that they could throw all
along, their stick was just kind of goofy! 99.9% off all brand new
store bought strung heads are not strung well and need to be adjusted at least, if not completely restrung.
Learning how to string a lacrosse stick can be a rewarding and even
profitable venture! Every team needs a few stick wizards but it's my
opinion that everyone learns how to string their own stick. If you can
fine tune your stick it's much easier to stay on top of your game. |
