Going Offsides Going Offsides

Jim Calder has lived a lacrosse life. His experiences as a player, fan, coach, and parent are the stuff of legends. I recently sat down with Jim to discuss his latest book, Tales of a Lacrosse Troubadour.

About Jim
Jim Calder, born in Canada but raised in New York, grew up as one of the only Canadians to play purely field lacrosse. He took his talents to Hobart College where he was a 2x All-American and 2x National Champion. In 1978 he would be named to the Canadian national field team, a team that would win the World Championships. Calder's accomplishments in the game are to long to list but the fact that he is in both the Canadian Lacrosse Association and Hobart College's Hall of Fames tells you just how special his life have been.

About the Book

This is Jim's third book related to lacrosse, following in the footsteps of "Lacrosse the Ancient Game" and "Women Play Lacrosse". The purpose and theme of the book are best described in an excerpt from Jim below:

Jim CalderThis book is a product of the pandemic. We all miss our sport and it has been painful to deal with the realities of our time and what they’ve done to the game being played. Hopefully, we are almost through the worst. There has been a positive side as I was able to devote hundreds and hundreds of hours to the project. It kept me occupied when I needed something to help me deal with the drudgery of the days. It has been medicine.

Inside Spire
This month we take a look inside the Spire Academy with managing director Ted Meekma and Director of Lacrosse Lelan Rogers. Throughout the show we discuss what exactly the Spire Academy is, the mission of the program, and what life inside the academy looks like for student-athletes.

Spire Lacrosse
At the Spire Academy they have several high caliber sport offerings, bolstered by the recent addition of boy's lacrosse. Who better to run this "new" sport than a former division one stalwart with midwest ties in Lelan Rogers.

Spire AcademySPIRE Academy Lacrosse programs are ideal for serious lacrosse athletes looking for an intense training environment to prepare for the next level of competition. The Academy serves college-bound high school athletes, as well as high school graduates looking to train/compete for an additional year while seeking the best possible college scholarship opportunities.
Lelan Rogers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmI4awfmSVs
Last Month's Episode
NIL is all the rage right now. College and high school athletes across the country have scrambled to cash in on their name, image, and likeness, but there's one big problem: most people are very unclear on what you can and cant do.

https://twitter.com/Rsmith24_/status/1468362445735485440
In last month's episode, I talk with Freddie and breakdown many of the ins and outs of NIL law, how athletes can determine their value and identify opportunities, and lastly we highlight some of the misconceptions that people have about this new wave of legislation.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/23nrCdN3bEZ9bXrbVkulEZ?si=6d825378f2744029

NIL is all the rage right now. College and high school athletes across the country have scrambled to cash-in on their Name, Image, and Likeness but there's one big problem: most people are very unclear on what you can and cant do.

https://twitter.com/AthleteNIL/status/1455645978636206091
Welcome Freddie Berry, a former division three stud football player turned newly minted NFL certified agent. Freddie's background as a college athlete and his skills in marketing have served him well thus far in his prospering career.

Throughout this weeks episode I talk with Freddie and breakdown many of the in's and out's of NIL law, how athletes can determine their value and identify opportunities, and lastly we highlight some of the misconceptions that people have about this new wave of legislation.

https://twitter.com/DarrenHeitner/status/1458081710671810565
If you have questions or need advice about NIL we encourage you to reach out to Freddie through his website or his email freddie@berry@athletes.com.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/23nrCdN3bEZ9bXrbVkulEZ?si=6d825378f2744029
Last Week's Episode
Last week we talked about the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the transfer portal. For any player, coach, or parent that is thinking about transferring we highly recommend the listen. We outline situations where a transfer may be the right move while also recognizing that there are plenty of reasons why staying put may be better.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2GLMYdkte5HNItpQhYEBWd?si=e28b694a408c45e5
New Format
We've appreciated all of the support through our first 100 or so episodes but as the show has grown so have our families and careers. We remain committed to bringing you premium content and discussing all things recruiting, coaching, and college sports. Moving forward our weekly episode release will become monthly. We home that by changing the volume of episodes we can maintain the quality that you've come to expect. So keep an eye out and hit subscribe so that you can catch our new monthly episodes on the second Friday of every month.

On this weeks episode we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly, that is the NCAA transfer portal.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2GLMYdkte5HNItpQhYEBWd?si=5ab7419d4ee444df
What is the transfer portal?
An ESPN article written last year had an excellent definition:

Jeff Borzello, ESPNEssentially, it's a database of every player who has interest in transferring from his or her current school.
In other words its like a stripped down dating app where players who are unhappy with their current situation can let the world know as much, and reopen their recruitment. There are several reasons as to why a player would enter the portal and we discuss a few of them on the show:


Unhappy with coach, playing time, team dynamic
School doesn't have the major you decide to persue
You have remaining eligibility but want to finish by pursuing grad school somewhere else
Family dynamics change and you wish to be closer to home
The coach leaves and a new coach has a system that doesn't fit you

We're not advocating that any of these reasons are right or wrong, but we do agree that there are times where transferring makes sense, and there are times when its better to stick it out.

Last Week
In our previous episode we took a deep dive into the impact of the National Lacrosse Leagues (NLL) tv deal with espn/tsn and what it means for the future of the league. We also discussed the new(ish) olympic sixes format from World Lacrosse and gave our honest opinions on what works and what doesnt.

At the end of the day, we love the idea of making lacrosse more accessible and getting it into the Olympics, but we’re not going to blindly accept Sixes in its current form. With a few tweaks, the game can be even better. Let’s see what they come up with over the next few years, but it’s a solid start.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3qMoGqR6pWNUUK5wd6bOp7?si=a26a5fed79374d0f

On this week’s episode of Going Offsides the guys celebrate the NLL television deal and give their honest opinions about Olympic Sixes lacrosse.

When the push for the Olympics was discussed we, like the rest of the lacrosse world, were excited about the prospect of having our sport displayed on the worlds biggest stage.

https://twitter.com/NLL/status/1452998628591734785

NLL Deal:

Earlier this year the National Lacrosse League (NLL) obtained what appeared to be the strongest television broadcast deal in the leagues history, partnering with famous Canadian program, TSN. The only issue with the deal was that it was limited to Canadian distribution leaving the rest of the world waiting for a viewing solution. Tuesday the league announced the newest and presumably biggest deal in the NLL history securing ESPN as a distribution partner for the entire globe outside of Canada. Ten games will be broadcast on linear television (ESPN/ESPN2) while over 150 additional games will be available on ESPN+. With media and sponsorships accounting for over 60% of the leagues revenue, I’m sure that this deal will add to the bottom line nicely, especially when you consider that the league has never had this kind of meaningful income from broadcast partners. The question now becomes where does Lacrosse pro field league, the PLL, hitch its cart for their new streaming deal. Unless something crazy happens, we all assume its NBC or ESPN.

Sixes:

The long and short of it is that while it looks fun to play, we didn’t particularly enjoy watching it. The product lacks some of the mechanics we feel are necessary to make the game more enjoyable to watch, broadcast, and officiate. We give our suggestions in the show, take a listen to hear our plan. At the end of the day we love the idea of making lacrosse more accessible, getting it into the Olympics, but we’re not going to blindly accept sixes in its current form. With a few tweaks the game can be even better, lets see what they come up with over the next few years, but a solid start.

https://twitter.com/LacrosseNetwork/status/1451976444163284994

Last Week:

On the previous week’s episode of Going Offsides, the guys discussed the LSU football situation and how DI football coaching contracts have gotten out of control.

Later in the show, they discussed the success of Tewaaraton Award winner and now-DII football quarterback Jared Bernhardt.

On this weeks episode of Going Offsides the guys discuss the LSU football situation and how D1 football contracts have gotten out of control.

Later in the show they discuss the success of Tewaaraton trophy winner turned D2 quarterback Jared Bernhardt.

Coaching Contracts
When the news broke that Ed Orgeron's contract would be terminated at the end of the 2021 football it came as a bit of a shock. Typically coaches are terminated after a loss, or due to one single obscene incident. In the case of Orgeron, he was let go due to an apparent collection of smaller indiscretions and on the heels of a ranked victory that brought his team back to .500.



What's astonishing isn't the salary amount, which is a story for another day, but it's the buyout clause that many of these coaches are getting. Yes LSU will be paying Coach O almost $17 million over the next 5 years, take a look at Jimbo Fisher's buyout, nearly $100 million. While his buyout only occurs if he's fired without cause, what world are we living in where this is a reasonable number?

Listen to the pod for our full thoughts.

Jared Bernhardt
When the best player in college lacrosse decided to delay his inevitable premier in the PLL for a football career, we weren't sure what to make of it. He hadn't played meaningful football since high school, and while football is in his blood we have to admit we're both astonished and excited to see how well Jared has done.