Club Lacrosse Then and Professional Lacrosse Now Part 3

Part of a 1990 USA Lacrosse program

Our Thursday nights the team did line drills, full field passing/clearing drills and then scrimmage for the lion shared of the time. The scrimmages helped me a great deal because I played with and against some of the best players in the world. You would see some incredible moves, shots, saves, checks, and goals, but for me I loved the great passes. As a former attackman and Magic Johnson fan, I’ve always enjoyed a great assist. Over my career I seen some also feeders most them attackman; I am thinking of Tim Nelson (Yorktown, SU) and Tim Goldstein (Wardmelville, Cornell, USA). But there are not allot of midfielders who get the reputation as great feeders. Our club had two great ones—Randy “Harpo” Natoli (Sewanhaka, UVA, 2x USA), and Norm Engelke (Sewanhaka, Nassau, Cornell, 2x USA, Hall of Fame). Both these guys had a nasty stutter step that broke ankles, drew slides, and left folks open. Then they had the ability to throw look away passes that thread the needle to the open man who would end up one on one with the helpless goalie. Both these guys come from Sewanhaka the same Long Island high school that produced the great attackman Eamon McEneaney (Cornell, USA, Hall of Fame). I believe that great players work hard during practice. As the saying goes, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. I was one of the guys that loved going to practice and loved watching my teammates do amazing things on the field. I was just a straight up fanatic who worked hard in the weight room, regularly ran, and seldom missed a practice. My philosophy was and still is, I will out work my competitors and do the little extra to set me apart from the pack.