Coaches Corner: 12/21/25

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 (New Event)

• 💼 Job Board: New Posting - Women’s Assistant College Coach

• 🔦 Coach Spotlight: Joe Mazzula - Boston Celtics Head Coach

• 🧠 Some Outside Inspiration: Coach Krzyzewski’s Standards

• 🤓 A Trip to the Principles Office: 4 Drills from BIC Committed

• 🔥 A Webinar Freebie: Jack Rowlett - Pop Quiz Invert

🔒 Defensive Coaching Clinic: The Approach
FCL Defense Coach Clinic

We’re opening limited spots for defensive coaches to observe The Approach on-site July 15-16, 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 Jesse Bernhardt to dive deeper into defensive concepts and answer questions.

Stay tuned for a women’s announcement.

Current Staff Includes:

• Kevin Warne - Head Coach, Georgetown

• Jesse Bernhardt - Defensive Coordinator, Maryland

• Jack Rowlett - Defensive Coordinator, Boston University

• Ajax Zappitello - Assistant Coach, Dartmouth

• Matt Dunn - FCL Defense

• More coaches TBA…

💼 Job Board: Emmanuel University

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: Assistant Women’s Lacrosse Coach

• Location: Franklin Springs, GA

• Season: January - May

• Ideal Availability: 6 days a week

• Preferred Experience: College playing experience, college coaching experience, or high level high school coaching experience

Emmanuel University is a Division 2 school in Franklin Springs, GA. The program is looking for an assistant who can help lead and empower a growing program in Division 2.

🔗 To apply, reach out to Head Coach Brian Little at: [email protected]

🔦 Coach Spotlight
Joe Mazzulla - Boston Celtics Head Coach

Recently in an interview, a reporter states that not every 21-year-old takes criticism the same way. Then, the reporter asks Coach Mazzulla how long it takes for him to learn how every young guy likes to be motivated.

Coach Mazzulla’s response serves a simple reminder: Control what you can control. We control our part in the conversation, we control how we conduct ourselves in our profession.

When we focus on what needs to be corrected, explain why it matters, and make it clear that our feedback comes from a place of care and commitment to growth, we’ve fulfilled our responsibility as coaches. We don’t control how it’s received, but we do control the honesty, clarity, and accountability behind it.

🧠 Outside Inspiration
Coach K’s Standards That Built a Basketball Dynasty

Coach K and Shane Battier talk about what actually builds great teams: standards, truth, and trust. They unpack why he coached his best players the hardest, how consistent expectations raise everyone’s level, and why leadership is really the study of people (and people keep changing).

🤓 The Principles Office
4 Drills from BIC Women’s Committed

Earlier this month, we hosted our Best in Class Women’s Committed event. We had around 100 of the top committed juniors and seniors in the country, which made for an incredible training and compete environment.

This was our fourth year running the event, and we introduced some fresh drills while tweaking traditional ones. Our belief around drill design is simple: structure reps to elicit specific behaviors.

This piece breaks down four drills we ran. A few were dreamt up by our staff (we’re sure somebody has run them before), while others were introduced to us by coaches we really enjoyed.

A quick note before the breakdowns: many of these drills were messy. It was a great reminder that even the best players in the country struggle to execute new drills cleanly on the first try. Players are engrained in what they’re comfortable with. Asking them to step out of that takes time. On many reps, players didn’t execute the exact constraints or rules at first, so it took encouragement and reminders from our staff. We still thought it was awesome and made sure to tell the girls that messy is okay in training environments.

1/ Rapid Fire 3v2 From Side

Setup - Two lines up top: one offensive line, one defensive line. Middies rotate through both. Reps alternate sides each time.

Constraints - Players must stay on one half of the field. Optional layers: must set a pick, 7-second shot clock, strong-hand or weak-hand only

Rep Flow - Three offensive players and two defenders sprint into the side of the field. Coach initiates the rep by throwing the ball to the offense. The rep is live immediately. A second ball can be thrown in to extend the possession. Next rep goes on the opposite side.

What We Prioritized - Offensive self-organization and spacing in a scramble. Defensive urgency getting into their perimeter shape. Spatial awareness in uneven situations.

What We Saw - Starting the lines up top forced the offense to create spacing rather than inherit it. Defenders had to communicate and establish their shape on the fly instead of settling into static matchups. The defense tends to get over-extended.

Coaching Notes - We enjoyed this setup over starting players already spaced on the side. It more closely mirrors game-like chaos and prevents reps from feeling scripted. Alternating sides every rep also keeps tempo high and eliminates dead time flipping the field. Not that starting in static spots is a bad thing, it just emphasizes different aspects of the drill.

2/ 3v3 Diagonal Slam

Setup - Two lines up top: one offense, one defense. Cones are set diagonally across the field, creating an “above the cones” and “below the cones” playing area.

Constraints - Players must stay on one side of the cones. Defense must double every pick and slide off every clear-through. Tempo is the priority.

Rep Flow - Three offensive players and three defenders play a rep above the diagonal. Immediately after, the same group flows into a second rep below the diagonal.

What We Prioritized - Defensive aggression and commitment to pressure as an opportunity. Breaking “stay home” habits. Offensive decision-making under constant heat.

What We Saw - Defenders were initially hesitant to fully commit to the slam rules. Many stayed attached to their matchup, even when the drill demanded pressure. Once they leaned into the rules, confidence grew quickly.

Coaching Notes - This drill is not about clean reps or perfect outcomes. It’s about permission to take chances. Players need space to test aggression, fail, and recalibrate. If the offense scores because a defender jumped a pick aggressively, that’s a productive rep, not a mistake.

3/ 5v4 Tight (Picks + Drag/Carry)

Setup - Two lines up top: one offense, one defense. Middies rotate through both. Offensive players are encouraged to play tight to one another.

Constraints - Two balls with different rules. Ball 1: possession must start with a pick with ball-side defenders play the first pick as an even scenario. Ball 2: no picks or exchanges as players work to drag (backpedal) & carry to challenge the gaps.

Rep Flow - Offense initiates with a pick, playing through the initial even look. Once the advantage is created, the rep continues live as a 5v4. Second ball comes in and the offense must play out of their shape and work to exploit gaps through drags and carries.

What It Trains - Offensive spacing discipline in tight quarters. Defensive communication when numbers are temporarily distorted. Playing advantage without rushing.

What We Saw - The girls are used to playing so fast on both sides of the ball that defenders often rushed out too far, lengthening rotations. Additionally, offensive players ran themselves into trouble rather than try to manipulate gaps. The girls really struggled with the backpedal drag and carry action. We actually did this drill again on day 2 and just focused on the second ball.

Coaching Notes - This is a really awesome drill that CNU Coach Mikey Thompson showed us at our BIC event last year. However, the two ball system is a little complex for players that hadn’t done it before. I would probably recommend just doing one version of the drill at a time with a new group to really emphasize the constraints of each ball. General points to emphasize here is the offense being a threat by staying loaded and stepping into gaps. The defense has to learn to defend threats while splitting less threatening players. A great cue for the offense is to have the back pipe player “pinch” and be a threat to put stress on the defense.

4/ 4v4 “Hunt the Pinnie”

Setup - 4v4 in a defined space. One defender tucks a pinnie into their shorts to designate the “target.”

Constraints - Offense must move the ball at least twice before initiating. Offensive players must attack the pinnie defender on the initial dodge. Defense must slide to the pinnie every time they get dodged. This is meant to signal an “alert” matchup.

Rep Flow - Live 4v4 play with the offense intentionally seeking the matchup against the pinnie defender. Defense is required to support and rotate off that matchup.

What It Trains - Offensive identification of weak points. Defensive urgency in help and recovery. Recognition of a trigger and execution of a plan. Collective awareness and organization on both sides of the ball.

What We Saw - This drill really forced players offensively and defensively to recognize the situation and execute a plan. We really liked the way this played out. Defenders had to recognize when the player with the pinnie was getting dodged and a slider and backside support had to be ready. It forced the offense to set up the right dodge and prepare for the slide.

Coaching Notes - This drill was awesome and one of our favorites. It was inspired by Kyle Hayes’ 4v4 Hunt the Short Stick drill. A theme of a lot of our drills were forcing players to be more strategic and thoughtful in execution. At the next level, these players need to be able to execute off of gameplans and scouting reports. It’s a skill to recognize specific information and anticipate actions because of that.

Wrapping: Themes

Figuring It Out. These drills highlighted how valuable it is to take in new information, process it quickly, and apply it. Each drill introduced a different wrinkle—spacing rules, matchup targets, drag/carry actions, forced doubles. The players who adjusted fastest were the ones who could absorb the constraint, make sense of it, and turn it into an advantage.

Using Information to Play Freely. I remember getting to college and being overloaded with new information as a freshman. It took some time, but there’s a skill in being able to play lacrosse freely while optimizing for information you’ve been given. Whether this is your team’s systems, a gameplan or tendencies, being able to take advantage of information given to you is a skill. Many of these drills challenged our players mentally.

We loved these drills, and if you try any of them, please let us know. We are always learning and tweaking ways to create effective and fun training environments for the players. The girls seemed to really enjoy these and our staff found them to be beneficial.

We plan to do a webinar at some point breaking these down in greater detail, so stay tuned!

⭐️ BONUS PLAYLIST - find a few more examples of the drills above here. Happy holidays 😊.

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 Boston University Defensive Coordinator, Coach Jack Rowlett. Coach Rowlett delivered a webinar ranging from covering the mirror and invert to on-ball defense. One segment we loved was a drill called Pop Quiz Invert.

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: Pop Quiz Invert

• 🔦 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.