As the days draw closer to opening day of the Major League Lacrosse season, the New York Lizards have ramped up their intensity at practice. At Stony Brook University on Friday night, the team continued their preparation for their opening tilt with the Rochester Rattlers on Sunday April 27.
Following last summer’s disappointing season with offensive woes and chemistry issues, there is a competitive vibe at Lizards camp. The players are joking with one another and going hard at every drill. Midfielder and faceoff specialist Greg Gurenlian chatted after practice on what the team goals were entering training camp.
“The focus this year was [a] good locker room,” Gurenlian said. “Obviously talent was not an issue last year. We just needed a more cohesive locker room, so we went out and got good character guys.”
“Now we have a good mix of young talent, good veterans, and we are going to have good guys coming in from the draft. I think the office and coach did a good job of bringing in the right guys.”
The word “instillation” has been used a lot during camp by the coaches. Spallina is trying to install a new system for the team where everyone recognizes their roles all across the field. So what will the identity be of the 2014 New York Lizards?
“We have a scary, scary, offense,” said the man they call Beast. “We got guys that can play attack and midfield, which is incredible. Now we have guys like Shamel [Bratton] who has come in and looked awesome. He is going to be a guy who can play defense and offense for us. He is one of our swing players. We have athletic defensive midfielders who can handle the ball so we can come at you from a lot of different angles.”
On the other side, the usually defensive Lizards struggled to keep the ball out of the net last season. Some of it was exhaustion due to the offense’s consistent turnovers, but the unit overall struggled to mesh throughout the season. Getting the backfield on the same page is important for a bounce back season. Third year long pole Brian Karalunas discussed the changes on defense near the end of training camp.
“I think we are making progress every week, but there is still a little ways to go,” said the former Villanova standout. “We added a new defensive coordinator and two or three new defensemen from last year. Everyone understands the basic schemes, terminology is different, and that is one thing we have been working on a lot is getting on the same page this season.”
One advantage that has helped the team’s cohesion is camp attendance. Almost every player on the roster is attending training camp this spring. Those who usually play indoor lacrosse in the winter chose to rest up for training camp and the outdoor league. Thus there is a competitive aura at training camp, which has allowed the players to buy into Spallina’s system comfortably.
“This is the most competitive, hardworking training camp I have had in my entire career,” said Gurenlian. “This is the first time we have had MLL guys, who play indoor, are opting out of the indoor league. You actually have all your starters at training camp which makes for a completely different environment. The leaders are all there and it has been lot quicker for us to get our system in place.”
Karalunas agreed and had an interesting point comparing this training camp to last year’s rhythmic woes.
“We were highly touted coming in, but if you think about it, we were adding new players each week,” said Karalunas. “It does not matter who your team is. The talent is so concentrated in this league, it has so much more to do with chemistry than talent. To have everyone here gives us a huge leg up and it is very, very important in this league to win your first few games.”
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Discipline is another area that Gurenlian said the team is focusing on. Last year, New York was one of the most penalized teams with 59 total minutes man-down, while their penalty kill was one of the worst in the league at 61 percent.
“We are going to try and stay out of the box,” he said. “We are going to play hard but we are going to play smart.”
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Following a breakout season that saw him appear in the MLL All-Star Game, Karalunas has become one of the leaders in the backfield. Entering his third season in the pros, he knows he still has room to grow.
“For me, it was being a part of that team defense and I think I did a good job with my individual match-ups, but I always point the finger at myself first. [This year], I really wanted to focus on my off-ball defense and making sure I am helping in and helping out with other match-ups.”
When asked about the Lizard’s identity this summer, Karalunas had a pretty emphatic response.
“Offense gets all the credit, but I am saying our tenacious D,” he said. “We are not letting up any goals this year.”
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Attackman Ned Crotty went to the sidelines twice to get his ankle worked on by the medical staff. Earlier he had twisted his ankle but it did not seem to be serious considering the former Rattler could still run on it. Following a half-field offense vs defense drill, Crotty walked off and sat out the rest of practice. His left ankle was wrapped up and had an ice pack on it. He is still expected to play next in next week’s home opener.
