Coaches Corner: 1/18/26

Happy Sunday, Coach.

Welcome back to FCL’s Coaches Corner. Where we dig into coaching lessons, share resources, and work to grow together. Every other Sunday, we distill ideas we’ve learned from great coaches across all sports, hoping to give you a few tools and thoughts you can bring back to your team.

Let’s dive in.

(Missed the last Coaches Corner? Catch up here.)

Matt Dunn & Deemer Class

Today’s Menu Includes:

• 🔒️ Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach Women’s (New Event)

• 💼 Job Board: High School Varsity Assistant, JV Head Coach

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: Martin Rooney | Coach, Author of Coach to Coach

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: The Captain Class by Sam Walker

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: Building a Defense from Scratch - DASH

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: PLL 5s with Casey D’Annolfo

🔒 Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach
FCL Defense Coach Clinic — WOMEN’S NEW

We’re opening limited spots for defensive coaches to observe The Approach on-site July 14-15, 2026. Coaches will be able to watch training sessions, interact with the staff, and see how we teach individual, small-part, and full-unit defense in real time.

Coach clinic attendees also receive our full coaching packet and access to a private post-event webinar with Matt Dunn and Phil Barnes to dive deeper into defensive concepts and answer questions.

We are offering both a men’s and women’s event and coach clinic.

Current Staff Includes:

• Phil Barnes - Former Defensive Coordinator & Recruiting Director, North Carolina

• Kristen Carr - Head Coach, Towson*

• Emily Garrity Parros - Head Coach, WLL Maryland Charm*

• Ana Heneberry - Defensive Coordinator, Michigan

• Tianna Wallapher - Defensive Coordinator, Ohio State*

• Abby Bosco - Pro Defender, WLL Maryland Charm

• Matt Dunn - Defensive Director, FCL Defense*

• More to come.... 

Team USA Gold Medalist in Field and/or Box

💼 Job Board: Westfield High School

Shared through our FCL Premium Community Job Board, one of the perks for members is we help promote their openings to our full Coaches Corner network.

• Position: Boys Assistant Varsity Coach / JV Head Coach

• Location: Westfield High School, New Jersey

• Season: March - June

• Ideal Availability: Monday - Saturday

• Preferred Experience: High school coaching experience and a strong background in lacrosse

• Deadline: Our goal is to hire before first practices begin on 03/09/2026

Westfield High School is a public school located in Westfield, New Jersey. They are seeking a coach that is passionate about player development and someone who wants to a part of a respected, competitive program.

More Details:

• Instagram

• Season Details

• Laxnumbers

🔗 To apply, reach out to either:

• Head Coach William “Boomer” Wertheimer: [email protected]

• Athletic Director Jim Desarno: [email protected]

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Martin Rooney - Coach, Author of Coach to Coach

In Coach to Coach, Martin Rooney uses a parable to define coaching in the simplest way possible. It is a reminder that coaching is not about ego, control, or having all the answers. It is about guidance.

Brian Knight, the protagonist of Coach to Coach, is taken through a thought experiment when learning each piece of this definition.

To take you somewhere:

The word coach originated in the fifteenth century, and comes from a village named Kocs. It was the word they gave to their horse-drawn carriages. It was a name given to a mode of transportation.

You want to go:

Brian is asked to recall the best and the worst coach he has ever had.

The best coach he ever had believed in him, and trained him both mentally and physically.

The worst coach he ever had called him “chubby” in front of the whole team, leading him to quit the sport of soccer at a young age because of the embarrassment he faced.

This leads him to recognize that part of a coaches job is to help someone get where they want to go, not to put up any roadblocks or resistance to prevent them from reaching the destination.

When you can’t get there yourself:

Whether it be size, speed, skill, technique, game IQ, mental performance, or any other part of being a sports player, few of us can reach the highest levels alone.

As a coach, you have a duty to help fill in the gaps when an athlete cannot get there on their own.

🧠 Outside Inspiration
The Captain Class - Sam Walker

In The Captain Class, sports journalist Sam Walker investigates what truly separates the world’s greatest teams from everyone else and finds that the common thread is not talent, coaching genius, or star power.

After studying over a thousand elite teams across dozens of sports, he argues that sustained greatness is most often driven by a specific kind of team captain: an unconventional leader who sets the standard through resilience, emotional control, and relentless accountability.

The book challenges traditional ideas of leadership and highlights the hidden influence captains have on culture, performance, and winning.

🤓 The Principles Office
Building a Defense from Scratch - DASH

Welcome back to the Principles Office. Today’s topic covers a framework for introducing your team defensive principles. This is inspired by a webinar from Boston University Defensive Coordinator, Jack Rowlett’s.

The Scenario

It’s week one of the season, and you are going into the first team meeting where you would like to begin building out your base crease sliding defense.

At this point of the season, the challenge isn’t teaching what to do in every situation. It’s giving players a shared framework to serve as the foundation.

The DASH framework is a great place to start. It clearly lays out the most general roles and responsibilities for a team defense in men’s lacrosse. You could certainly adopt these principles for women’s lacrosse as well.

What is DASH?

DASH is an acronym that provides a role-based structure for organizing a crease sliding 6v6 defense. Just like the word itself, Coach Rowlett wants his team to play fast and to move with urgency.

Here, players learn who they are in relation to the ball, and what responsibilities come with that role. Dash defines four core defensive jobs that exist on every possession, regardless of opponent, personnel, or scheme.

Once the framework is established, coaches can adjust how each role is played based on matchups, personnel, and team philosophy.

D - Dodger

The D stands for the on-ball defender and the first line of the defense. This role is about dictating where the ball carrier goes and how the offense is allowed to attack.

Boston University’s original DASH concept keeps this role intentionally simple: the on ball defender sends the ball in a direction that benefits the defense. That clarity allows the rest of the defense to organize behind the ball.

How that direction is defined can change based on personnel. If a short-stick midfielder is guarding the ball above the cage, the priority might be to take away the middle of the field and send the dodge down the alley, shrinking the field and denying access to a more dangerous location.

If a pole is on the ball, the approach may be different. You may trust the matchup, be slow to slide, and allow the ball to go where it goes. In that case, the defense is betting on individual strength rather than early, predictable support.

A - Adjacent

Adjacent defenders are the players one pass away from the ball, and they are the bridge between on-ball pressure and team defense. No matter how you look at it, there will always be two adjacent players.

At BU, they define a strong and a weak adjacent.

The strong adjacent is the adjacent player in the direction the ball is going. His role is to get ready to go play the ball next, they have no help responsibility.

Teams can define the adjacent responsibilities in different ways. Some defenses ask adjacent defenders to hedge and show, discouraging hard dodges and forcing the ball to move.

The weak adjacent is the adjacent player away from the direction the ball is going. His role is to help into the backside of the defense with the splitters.

Teams may also elect to get more specific with the weak adjacent help responsibility. For instance out of the 2-3-1 set (top down), if there was an alley dodge, they may have the weak adjacent become the two-slide as opposed to a three-slide or general backside support.

S - Splitter

The splitters are the backside defenders furthest from the ball who must see everything and be ready for anything. Their role is to flow with the ball, protect the middle of the field, and handle the most dangerous offensive players that emerge after a slide.

Backside defenders often have to float off their man, split two offensive players, and shrink the field to take away skip lanes. Typically, the two splitters are responsible for covering the most dangerous area first (the crease), and slow playing any rotation so that the defense has time to recover.

Some teams may elect to share two-slide responsibility, and some teams may elect to commit one player to it. Either can work as long as the expectation is clearly defined.

H - Hot

The hot is the first true on-ball support, their role is to be the slide. The hot defender is responsible for taking the best path to the ball when the dodger breaks down the on-ball defense. Their job is not just to slide, but to slide on time, with a good angle, and under control.

This role emphasizes stance, launch point, and leverage. Whether supporting from the ball side pipeline or along a crease tangent, the slider must work to be positioned optimally before initiating the slide.

Some teams designate a single, committed hot defender, while others share this responsibility as offensive players enter and exit the crease area.

The DASH framework allows for either approach, as long as everyone knows who is responsible right now.

Wrapping it Up

Anyway you try to breakdown team defense in men’s lacrosse, you will come across similar roles: 1) cover the ball, 2) have support ready, 3) be ready to play the next pass or clog space and 4) split the backside guys farthest way.

Whether you choose DASH or another method, you will likely end up close to the same structure. Once you have this framework for roles and responsibilities, you can layer in all the nuance and philosophy that you see fit.

DASH gives you a clear starting point for building a man-to-man defense. Once you define how you want each role to be played, your overall defensive identity begins to take shape.

As we’ve shown, each letter comes with nuance. Responsibilities can shift based on matchups and personnel. That flexibility is the point: DASH creates a shared foundation, while still leaving room to layer in scout-specific rules and situational tactics.

Until Next Time

Thanks for taking a trip down the hallway. If you are looking for a deeper dive, we have posted numerous videos on our Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels on this topic.

Stay tuned for more content all spring and email us at [email protected] with any questions and let us know your thoughts.

🚨 Webinar Freebie 🚨

This week’s freebie is from our webinar with Tufts University Head Coach Casey D’Annolfo. Coach D’Annolfo delivered a webinar on early offense, playing fast, and paired it with some great drills. One drill we really loved was the PLL 5s drill.

The FCL Circle community is the best resource on the market for any men’s or women’s coaching staff to continue developing through new drills and strategies. It includes over 30 college coach webinars, 100+ drills for offense, defense and full team compete.

• 🎥 WEBINAR FREEBIE: PLL 5s

• 🔦 COMMUNITY TOUR: Watch Community Tour Here.

🎙️ FCL PODCAST & COACH COMMUNITY

Want to keep sharpening your coaching toolbox?

🎧 Podcast – Check out our free podcast on Spotify, YouTube and Apple podcast. Who’s ready for season 2?

🔥 Online Community – For coaches who want to level up. Join our men’s and women’s coaching communities for in-depth webinars, drills, and strategy sessions with top college coaches.