Photo Credit: Di Miller
On June 11, the MLL held their weekly Coaches Conference Call and Denver Outlaws Head Coach B.J. O’Hara was asked whether or not playing Charlotte back-to-back contributed to the Hounds changing their game plan and win on June 7. Coach O’Hara said:
“No, I don’t. I think that we were going to play them home-and-home, and I don’t think the timing of the games had any impact on the outcome of the game.”
Being your first loss as the Outlaws head coach, what were your thoughts? He said:
“Well, we went into the game a little bit light personnel-wise. We knew John Grant Jr. would not be available because he had some personal business to attend to. We knew at the beginning of the season he would be missing that night. Additionally, Jesse Schwartzman has been hampered with some injuries over the last few weeks, and has not been 100%. We played him the week before—in hindsight maybe we should have rested him then. He wanted to go, felt like he could go, and actually had a very good game, but reinjured himself. So we decided it’s a long season, and if there was a time to give him a rest, it was probably then. We elected to go with Charlie Cipiriano who we have a lot of confidence in, and Charlie played very well. Then Chris Bocklet went out early in the game with an injury, so we were little bit shorthanded. I thought Charlotte played very, very well. On the offensive end particularly, they took advantage of some of our miscues. They shot the ball extremely well and they were the better team that night.”
What about this weekend against the New York Lizards? He said:
“We’re still day-to-day with Schwartzman and Bocklet. We’ll know more later in the week. John Grant Jr. will definitely be in the line-up this week. New York is obviously a very, very talented team, particularly on the offensive end. They feature I think, two Tewaarton Trophy winners on Attack, and one in the Midfield. So they’ve got an All-Star cast. Greg Gurenlian leads the league in face-offs. So they’re going to be a formidable opponent, we’ve got to bounce back, and play our game on both ends of the field.”
Curtis Dickson made his MLL debut against the Hounds. Was he just filling in on offense last weekend? His response was:
“No, no. We were thrilled when Curtis signed his contract. We’ve held his rights for three years now and were hoping that day would come. He was tied up with the Calgary Roughnecks in the NLL play-offs, so was unavailable until last week. We were extremely thrilled with what we got out of him, and I think that’s only going to get better. He was obviously playing on a field instead of indoors, and going against long sticks, so that was a little bit new for him. He was a little rusty there, but I think he had four goals, one assist, and also had a couple of really good shots which Charlotte goalie Adam Ghitelman made some nice saves on. So we think we’re going to get even more out of him, particularly once we get him with John Grant Jr., Zack Greer, and together with Chris Bocklet and Eric Law. I think we’ve got some pretty good options there.”
The final question to Coach O’Hara had to do with more rookies cracking the active roster as the season progresses, players such as Face-off specialist Brent Hiken. Coach O’Hara had this to say:
“Well, Hiken is—we haven’t activated him yet, but it’s only a matter of time. This next week we will be able to get Jeremy Noble back, who played two games ago. Jeremy graduated last Saturday from the University of Denver, so he was unavailable. We’re hoping to have him back in the line-up this week. Colin Dunster gave us a nice outing, I believe it was his second game, and he did a nice job. Cameron Flint continues to show well. We’ve got some depth, and we’ve got some options. I think the real puzzle to fit is going to be who is coming out of the box as a Midfielder, and who is going to play Attack. Those are things we have to work through.”
As the In Lacrosse We Trust Beat Writer for the Denver Outlaws, I’d like to thank them for their assistance and professionalism as a MLL franchise. As always, they are a pleasure to work with.