On the team’s mindset coming out of training camp…
“We had two sound weeks of training camp, probably not as much time as we would have liked together, but certainly moving forward there is a little bit of a void as we’re trying to find a new direction. Matt Danowski was kind of a larger than life personality for us. Adam Ghitelman on the defensive end too. Both your captains are gone so you’re kind of moving in a new direction. But it’s a healthy situation right now with a lot of guys competing for jobs.”
Discussing the maturation of Pierce Bassett…
“Last year Bassett had a very good showing in a small sampling of games. Even in losses — outside of the last game against Chesapeake — he showed up well. Now we’re going to find out if Pierce is going to be able to hold up over the course of a long season. Certainly his preparation, his attitude, his professionalism are there, so he’s going to get that chance in goal for us. He’s doing all the things necessary to be successful, so we hope it translates into a big season for him. He’s a good ball stopper, there’s no doubt about that. It shows up statistically and his teammates have that confidence in him too.”
What the return of Joe Cinosky brings to the team…
“What Joe Cinosky brings, besides his physicality to a defense, is his experience. He’s been on a MLL Championship team, he was a tremendous college player and he has a Gold Medal playing for Team USA. There’s not a lot that rattles him, and when you’re working with some of your younger defensemen — like (Henry) Lobb and (Mike) Ehrhardt — Joe is a calming influence back there. He also had been a teammate with Assistant Coach (Chris) Schiller on the World Team in 2010 so there is a great relationship there too. Getting Joe’s leadership back and poise in the back certainly helps us.”
On a new style of play for 2015…
“This is a different group of players. Mike Sawyer and Josh Dionne are tremendous finishers. So the offense will be a little more midfield initiated, where in the past it’s been very attack initiated. So we should be more aggressive in open field situations than we have in the past. I think we will see a lot more assisted goals in our offense this year, but I also think you’ll see more presence from our defensive midfielders. Kevin Drew, Josh Hawkins, Pat Laconi — you’ll see more presence from those guys in the transition game and more from our poles too as we work more using those athletes. We’re looking for more two-way play from a lot of our midfielders as we try to move away from some of our attackman-hybrid-midfielders we used last year. So you’ll see a lot more two-way play and more initiating in transition from some of our defensive midfielders.
Discussing the growth of the team heading into year four…
“I think what it is, and maybe it started with the staff of the organization, it’s almost like there’s nothing we haven’t seen. In year one, you wanted to make sure you were a viable franchise, competitive and a product that people in Charlotte would enjoy. Then in year two, my goodness we pushed all the chips to the center and were able to make it all the way to the Championship. Year three we finished last. There’s nothing we haven’t seen. We’ve been on every end of the spectrum. Now we just want to focus on playing the best lacrosse we can, the most exciting brand of lacrosse for our fans, and make sure these guys are enjoying this journey together and really battling for each other and the city. I think there’s a sense of relief that we’ve seen just about everything. We’ve been standing on the last day that you can play and we’ve been the last place team. There’s no surprises anymore. Let’s just see how far we can take this thing by sticking together.”
