Coach Dino and the band are getting back together.
John Danowski, head coach of the gold medal-winning U.S. national team, will reunite with assistant coaches Joe Amplo, Tony Resch and Seth Tierney — as well as seven of the 23 players who carried Team USA to the world championship in Israel — this weekend for the Team USA Fall Classic at Tierney Field in Sparks, Md.
The U.S. men will play defending NCAA champion Yale at 12 p.m. ET. The game will be streamed on US Lacrosse social media and Lax Sports Network.
It’s been a little more than two months since the U.S. stunned Canada 9-8 on a Tom Schreiber buzzer-beater in the FIL World Championship final. Danowski wondered if regrouping so soon after such a momentous victory would prove anticlimactic, but he also meant it when he said he wanted to help foster a U.S. team culture that would last beyond 2018.
Saturday will mark the first time in recent memory that a standing U.S. coaching staff has returned to the sideline intact. Moreover, of the 24 players suiting up for Team USA, all but three competed for the U.S. as members of the 2018 training team.
“I believe in US Lacrosse. I saw the absolute joy that guys had being a part of the tryouts and representing the United States on foreign soil,” Danowski said earlier this week during a production call for the broadcast. “It wasn’t about personal brands. It was about a team. We want to keep that going.”
Danowski, a three-time NCAA championship-winning coach whose Duke team lost to Yale in last year’s final, likened the seven returning players to college seniors who know what it takes to win. In the international game, it means constructing a roster of mentally and physically tough grinders who will hold up over the course of seven games in 10 days and of selfless players who share the ball, especially on offense.
“We had two-and-a-half years to create something. This time, it’s four years, for whoever the coach is going to be,” Danowski said. “Everybody [returning] got a little feel for what the staff is about and how we like to do things. Now the difference is we have some data.”
Danowski pointed to the fact that 65 percent of Team USA’s goals were assisted, with an additional 25 percent of its scoring facilitated by second assists. The U.S. also committed just four turnovers in 80 minutes during the championship game.
“It validates that you play for the guy next to you, even at this level,” he said. “Paul Rabil had two assists in the championship game, and all he did was catch the ball and pass the ball. He didn’t dodge through three guys. All he had to do was play right, and the good players still get points. Jordan Wolf had several second assists. Rob Pannell on the tying goal had a second assist. To the casual observer, people don’t recognize that. Rob Pannell played a great championship game and what did he get, one or two points?”
(Pannell, in fact, went scoreless right up until the last second, when he fed Schreiber through traffic for the game-winner.)
Speaking to the toughness factor, several U.S. players managed injuries in Israel. Schreiber (knee) and Matt Danowski (shoulder) both underwent surgery upon their return to the U.S. Joe Fletcher and Jesse Bernhardt, two-thirds of the starting close defense, played with knee braces. Rabil frequently received treatments for a balky back.
“Nobody complained and nobody said a word,” Danowski said. “That was also part of the story behind the scenes.”
Saturday’s exhibition will be played under international rules, meaning there will be no shot clock, despite the 80-second rule passed at the NCAA level. That said, tempo should not be a concern with this collection of talent.
“We’re not going to hold the ball by any means,” Danowski said. “But if this is about culture and teaching the next group of guys, they’ve got to learn how to play with subtlety.”