Why I Signed 7 College Lacrosse Goalies To A Sponsorship Deal

This is the story of how (and why) I signed 7 collegiate lacrosse goalies to a sponsorship deal and what it means for you the reader of this blog.

I remember listening to a presentation in March 2021 at the Lacrosse Goalie Summit 3 and the presenter Barb Curran from PositivelyRecruited mentioned the new “name, image, and likeness” rule coming soon to the NCAA.

She was pretty adamant this was going to be a game changer.

At time the I brushed it off. What is the heck is a likeness anyways?

Then on July 1, 2021, the rule became official and word broke of college athletes who had already accepted sponsorships.

Ahhhh! I get it. You’re a genius Barb! That was my first thought.

My second thought – I gotta sponsor some goalies.

The timing was perfect as I had been interviewing college goalies for my podcast all summer long during their break.

It was amazing to get to know these young men and women. They were equal parts awesome, passionate, inspirational, and knowledgeable about how to improve a young goalie’s lacrosse game.

So I called them up and asked them if they wanted to be sponsored by me – Lax Goalie Rat. 

They all said – hell yeah!!!

Of course – they quickly asked me: “What does that mean?”. To which I said, “no idea, but I love that you’re in.”

We put our heads together to see if we could tackle the problems facing our small but mighty community of lacrosse goalies.

The Lacrosse Goalie Problems

Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport at the youth and high school levels.

Now that level of growth is absolutely amazing but it also means 3 things:

1. Not many teams/clubs have dedicated goalie coaching
2. Not many parents understand the sport or the position of goalie
3. New coaches are a little lost when it comes to helping the goalies

I’m sure you can relate to at least one of those if your young son or daughter has started playing goalie in the last few years.

Am I right?

On top of that, lacrosse goalie is often called the hardest position in team sports. To me it’s because of the following:

1. It’s very difficult to make a save – 50% save percentage is considered very good (50% put you in the top 10 for women’s D1 goalies last year)
2. We don’t get a lot of dedicated coaching
3. The mental challenge of giving up goals weighs heavy on the psyche

Throw a kid into a difficult position both physically and mentally and then don’t give him any training or mental support.

That’s a recipe for failure and it’s no wonder many goalies start to deal with serious mental health issues and dislike the sport or this position.

That’s the problem we set out to tackle.

There actually are a lot of great goalie coaches out there nowadays but given how fast the sport is growing across the country, still not enough. Most goalies who are college age and up all have a story about it being really hard to find goalie coaching when they were growing up.

Here is a real image demonstrating the off-stick high save technique from the first book I purchased on lacrosse goalie:

Apart from the illustrations, it’s actually a very good book (bonus points if you know it) but the point is this:

We know what its like to not have mentors and coaches and we want to help the next generation of lacrosse goalies be great and enjoy this position.

Lacrosse goalie is a beautiful position and nobody should suffer in net. Goalies rule.

The College Goalie Training Packs

That’s why I’m so excited to announce the College Goalie Training Packs.

Virtual lacrosse goalie coaching & mentoring from the top college goalies in the game!

I’m working with each of the 7 goalies I’ve sponsored to put together their own virtual goalie training package.

These training packages are perfect for you if:

1. You are a youth or (beginner) high school goalie (both boys & girls)
2. You are a Goalie Mom or Dad wanting to learn the position to help their son/daughter
3. You are a brand new goalie coach looking to improve their goalies

The training will be focused on the basics and the fundamentals.

Which is why its targeted at youth but in all honesty anytime a goalie is going through a slump, returning your focus back to the fundamentals is a very good way to break the slump.

Why are you excited about this project?

That’s the question I asked all 7 of these college lacrosse goalies.

Listen to what they had to say:

Win-Win For You and the Goalies

Here’s the best part of this project…

Sales of the College Goalie Training Packs go directly to support these college goalies!

So your youth goalie gets a mentor and training in the form of an elite college goalie.

And these college kids get to help out the youth goalies with what I hope will become the best sponsorship in all of college lacrosse.

Talk about a win-win!

You can see why I’m so pumped for this!

When I was chatting about the idea with one of the goalies, he said something pretty profound:

Dude, when I was in high school if I could have gotten goalie training and personal access to the top college guys like Kyle Bernlohr, that would have been a game changer! 

Thanks to the NCAA rule change, for the first time ever we’re able to get goalie training and access to the best college lacrosse goalies in the game and give them financial support while we’re at it. 

What a time to be alive.

What’s in each College Goalie’s Training pack?

Good question. Here are the details of what is included in each training pack.

Virtual Coaching Session

I’ve done quite a few of these goalie training sessions now and they never cease to amaze me.

The quality and effort that each goalie puts into teaching their craft is unbelievable. These are truly unique training opportunities.

Each college goalie is busy at work putting together their own presentation covering different elements of learning this position.

In my experience the youth goalies love these! Yes, there’s no replacement for going to the field and seeing shots and doing drills.

But you should see these kids locked in on this training. They leave feeling inspired and supported and ready to get out there and practice.

Here is what each goalie is covering. These live coaching sessions will be held

Sophia LeRose – Situational Basics, Communication and The Mental Game

• Alley Shooting
• 8 Meters
• Clearing
• Communication
• Mindset

Emily Sterling – Reading Offense/Defense and Inside Shots 

• reading the offense and anticipating plays 
• leading the defense
• inside shots

Madison Doucette – Communication and Stance

• Communication with the defense
  • Seeing the field
  • talking through slides
  • positive communication
  • how to bring the team in when necessary after goals
• Stance, positioning or tips for specific types of shots (low, bounce and off-stick hip)

Owen McElroy – Inside Saves and Correct Goalie Positioning

• Inside Saves 
• Angle play and positioning

Will Mark – Getting Better as A Youth Goalie

• How to improve outside of practice
• How parents can support heir child
• How to become a better leader

Brett Dobson – Hand/Eye Tips, Stepping and Stick Stringing

• Hand Eye Coordination – why its important and drills to improve
• Stringing your stick 
• How to properly step to the ball

Jack Thompson – Stance and Positioning Basics

• Stance components & key fundamentals
• Positioning 

Each session concludes with a Q&A session so you can ask your coach any questions.

Instructional Video Series

Each goalie is going to take their iPhone and a tripod out to field a shoot a video series that covers the basics.

We’ll be hitting on things like:

• Stance
• Arc
• Save Movement
• Types of Saves (Off Stick, Bouncers, etc.)
• Drills
• General lacrosse goalie tips for beginner

This videos are out at the field and will give your youth goalie a complete education on what it takes to make saves in this sport.

Each video series has a minimum of 3 videos but most will have more.

In Season Q&A

In addition to the Q&A session during the virtual coaching session, we’re also going to do a special Q&A with the coach during the season.

Get to you know your coach. Share jokes, stories, tips, drills, etc.

This will be during the 2022 season!

Save Breakdown and Analysis of 2022 Games

For these I sit with the goalie and we dissect certain plays and saves. Questions like:

• What are you seeing here?
• Why did you that?
• What is the communication to your D?
• What do you recommend goalies do here?

These are phenomenal learning tools.

We are going to take footage from some 2022 games and provide you all with save breakdowns.

Goalie Email or IG for Direct Questions

This one might be the most valuable of them all.

Got a question, in a rut, need some inspiration – hit up your mentor! Keep in mind they’re busy college athletes so they might not reply immediately but they will get back to you.

I started playing goalie in 1999 and after over 20 years of playing and coaching I have learned this: lacrosse goalie is too hard to go alone!

When you do that, you end up suffering mentally. You need a team! You need dedicated coaches and mentors! You cannot coach yourself!

What better coaches and mentors to have then the best college goalies in the game!

How much does it cost?

When you add up everything in each goalie’s package, it comes to about $800 of value.

And to be honest, I’d feel comfortable charging $800 per pack. I think it’s worth way more than that for having these college kids consolidate all their coaching into such a precise format and being there to provide mentorship when needed.

But we do want to get the training out to as many kids as possible so we’re obviously not going to charge $800 per pack.

The idea was to make each goalie’s training pack less than the cost of a private 1×1 session.

So each goalie pack is just: $59.

That’s way less than you’d pay for even a single hour of live goalie coaching!

And keep in mind, sales go directly to support these college goalies.

If you’re like me your first question is – can I get them all?

Sure can. 7 packs x $800 = $5600 of goalie training value.

Yours for just $295. Buy 5, I’ll give you 2 free. All 7 are yours for just $295.

I was hesitant to include this final option since in my heart I truly believe boys goalies can learn a lot from girl coaches and girl goalies can learn from the boy coaches. But I got enough requests that I’ll do it – there are boy’s and girl’s packs.

The final option is a boy’s pack (4 coaches for $195 ) or a girl’s pack (3 coaches for $159).

Sales start Monday October 25. If you’re on the email list here, you’ll know.

We’ll also be doing a ton of giveaways for those who buy in the first week.

Conclusion

Many coaches and parents tell me that their #1 goalie challenge is finding adequate and quality training opportunities for their goalie. 

With Lax Goalie Rat bringing the youth goalies new, innovative, and awesome goalie training opportunities is what I’m all about.

I first starting playing organized lacrosse in 1999 as a freshman at Cal and I’ve been hooked ever since. Lacrosse is my passion and building up this community of goalies is what lights a fire in my belly.

I hope you’ll join me on October 25 for this unique goalie training opportunity.