Fitness is a huge part of success in the game of lacrosse. You must posses speed, strength and endurance in order be competitive. Arriving at the first day of practice out-of-shape, regardless of your talent, is the best way to get on your coaches bad side and fall way behind other less talented players and end up on the bench. You simply cannot play lacrosse if you are not in top condition, there is too much running, hustle and fitness involved in the game.

I always started training at least 2 months before the first practice because I didn’t want to spend the first weeks trying to get into playing shape and looking bad in front of the coaches. You want to show your commitment to the team and impress the coaches quickly because many decisions about who will play are made in the first weeks of practice. Your goal must be to make sure you are at least a starter, which will give you an opportunity to have a good season – and this all starts by arriving in shape.

I suggest a routine of distance running, basketball and some sort of muscle building routine.

Distance running:

There is a ton of running in lacrosse, and you better be prepared. Your goal is to be in shape when the season starts, not be a marathon runner. In two months, you should be able to increase your cardio fitness by running approx. 3 times per week. For the first 2 weeks, I would run 1.5 miles each time you go to the track, followed by some 100 yard sprints. This should start to get your legs in shape and give you enough time to recover to prevent injury. Make sure you have a good running shoe and do some light stretching.

Around the 3rd week, you will notice 1.5 miles feels very easy and you can start to run about 3 miles each time out. I would not go much beyond that distance; that should be enough to really get you in terrific shape for the start of the season. Distance running is great for lacrosse players.

Basketball:

While distance running is great for overall endurance, basketball is great for improving your first step speed, lateral movement and your ability to backpeddle. Basketball is a game of quick bursts, jumping and sprints; all of which will greatly increase your leg strength and again, your endurance. Some lacrosse players prefer HOOPS over running because it more closely simulates the workout of a lacrosse game and is more fun.

When I was preparing for the season, I would play hoops 2-3 times per week. Since I love basketball, this was never an issue. Get a few teammates together and play other good athletes. Cover the best man on the other team and work on your latteral movement. Offensively, push the tempo of the game but share the ball. Play with a purpose. Don’t just go out there and start shooting 3 pt shots and not getting back on defense. Get in the post, rebound, build your strength, defend and communicate. This is the best way to maximize your workout.

Basketball also gets you in mental shape. Each game has its own dynamic. Obviously, the goal is to help your team win the game. How can you contribute? How can you help your teammates get better? What can we do as a team to stop the other teams strength? These are exactly the same issues you will face as a leader on your lacrosse team.

Strength building:

The third area you want to work on is your physical strength. I always love weights but also added routine push-ups and sit-ups. Lacrosse is a very physical sport and if you get pushed around easily, you probably will not be very successful. You want to be strong enough to both take and give a hit; and run through stick checks.

I normally hit the weight room about 3 times per week prior to lacrosse season. I was not trying to get HUGE; I wanted to be strong, fast and flexible. I would do push-pull routines of chest/triceps, back/biceps and shoulders/hand strength work. Personally, I never did any legs in the weight room since I was running and playing basketball but squats are great for explosive strength so u should work them into your routine.

After the first few weeks, I would notice improvement in my strength and begin doing more reps. While I did use a decent amount of weight, I never wanted to feel like I was do so much I could hurt myself – an injury in the weight room can be a huge setback. I wanted to be lean and strong, fit and ready to explode at the first practice. That is the build of an athlete – look at hoop stars like Lebron James or any top lacrosse player! Lean and mean.

Weight lifting is a also great way to prevent injury.

A complete work out would also include YOGA to increase flexibility.

DIET: A diet high in protein, vegetables, fruits and low fat will remove any weight your carrying and provide you with the necessary nutrition to add muscle.

PICK A STICK! Start to break-in a few sticks so you are comfortable with your equipment. Find a stick that compliments your game. Make sure you have at least 2 sticks ready for the start of the seasons; in-case one breaks in the cold weather. LACROSSE HERO.

So arrive in shape and ready to go! Get your teammates to join you in your commitment and be a leader. It’s a great start to a great season!

WLAX: No. 19 Ohio State Welcomes No. 18 Penn State Sunday
Contest will be aired on Big Ten Network at 5 p.m.

No. 18 Penn State (7-5, 0-3 ALC) at No. 19 Ohio State (8-4, 1-2 ALC)
Date:       Sunday, April 18 – 1 p.m.
Where:   Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium (Grass/8,000)
TV:           Tape delay on Big Ten Network at 5 p.m. Sunday
Talent – Mike Wolf (play-by-play), Megan Mirick (expert analysis)

OPENING DRAW
Coming off a 20-5 thrashing of Cincinnati Wednesday, the No. 19 Ohio State women’s lacrosse team welcomes 18th-ranked Penn State to Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday in a pivotal ALC matchup. The Big Ten Network will broadcast the contest on a tape delay basis, with the re-air scheduled for later in the day at 5 p.m.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
The Ohio State-Penn State game can be followed through live stats, linked from the home page or women’s lacrosse schedule page of OhioStateBuckeyes.com. Live scoring updates also can be received via Twitter by following @OhioState_WLAX. The game will be aired on tape delay on the Big Ten Network beginning at 5 p.m. Sunday with Mike Wolf and former Buckeye Megan Mirick (1999-2002) calling the action.

RECORDS WATCH
With two assists vs. Vanderbilt last weekend, senior Kelly Haggerty broke the all-time record for career points at Ohio State. The West Chester, Pa., native now has 134 goals and 91 assists for 225 points, passing Kristen Slahor’s 221 (82g, 139a) earned during the 2005-08 seasons. Haggerty is second all-time in career goals and assists, needing nine and 48, respectively, to eclipse the leader in each category.

DYNAMIC DUO
Kelly Haggerty and Alayna Markwordt are one of the most successful scoring duos in NCAA lacrosse. The pair has combined for 111 points, the third-most among Division I scoring tandems. Haggerty leads the Buckeyes with 29 goals and 30 assists, while Markwordt – the reigning ALC rookie of the year – is second with 33 goals and 19 assists.

ANNIE GET YOUR SAVE
Heading into the week, junior goalie Annie Carruthers led the ALC in saves per game (12.2) and save percentage (0.541) and is ranked second and fifth in the NCAA, respectively in the two categories. The Columbus Academy product made a career-high 22 saves against Northwestern March 24 and has had at least 10 in six games this season.

IN THE MIX
Several Ohio State players are in the mix within nationally as statistical leaders.
Buckeyes in the Top 25 (as of April 12)
Kelly Haggerty
Points   55/12th
PPG       5.0/6th
GPG       3.1/16th
Assists  29/7th
APG       2.64/2nd

Alayna Markwordt
Points   51/24th
PPG       4.6/11th

Annie Carruthers
Saves    132/9th
SPG        12/2nd
Save %  .541/5th

Maghan Beaudrault
CTs         1.91/23rd

RANK AND FILE
The Buckeyes re-entered the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) poll at No. 20 last week for the first time since the March 1 edition and have since moved up one spot to No. 19. After being limited to receiving votes beginning Marsh 8, Ohio State has gone 5-2 with its losses coming at the hands of top-ranked and undefeated Northwestern and No. 10 Vanderbilt.

GONE STREAKING
Two Buckeye attackers hold point-scoring streaks of at least 20 games. Kelly Haggerty has notched at least one goal or assist in each of the last 30 games – the 19th-longest active streak in the country – while Alayna Markwordt has posted points in 26-consecutive games.

BIG GAME, SMALL SCREEN
Buckeye lacrosse is making its debut on the Big Ten Network Sunday. Ohio State’s game with ALC rival Penn State April 18 will be shown on tape delay at 5 p.m. that day. Its next contest, vs. Notre Dame April 22, will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com and then shown on tape delay on the television network at 10 p.m. April 23. The games will air intermittently throughout the week; check local listings for times.

SCOUTING THE NITTANY LIONS
The Nittany Lions (7-5, 0-3 ALC) posted a 1-1 record last week, defeating Lehigh, 14-13, on the road on Wednesday before falling to No. 1 Northwestern, 13-6, in State College, Pa., Sunday. Theresa Bucci, an Ohio native, had a productive week, scoring four, including the game winner, vs. the Mountain Hawks and then netted three more in the loss to the Wildcats. She currently leads the team in goals with 22 and ranks third with 26 points. Jen Steadman, the team leader in points with 30, was also active, totaling four goals and three assists in the two games. Penn State is 2-4 this season against opponents ranked in the Top 20.

SERIES HISTORY
The Nittany Lions have taken each of the last three meetings against the Buckeyes and hold a 12-4 record in the all-time series. Last season, Penn State beat Ohio State twice in University Park, earning a 13-9 win during the regular season and an 11-7 triumph in the ALC Championship.

LAST TIME OUT
Brittney Zerhusen finished with an Ohio State first-half record 10 points off five goals and five assists, leading the No. 19 women’s lacrosse team to a resounding win, 20-5, over Cincinnati Wednesday evening at Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. Eleven players scored for the Buckeyes (8-4), including the redshirt junior Zerhusen who broke the record for points in a half that had previously stood at eight set during the 1996 season by Mara Simpson.
Zerhusen now leads the team in goals on the season with 35 and is third in total scoring behind senior Kelly Haggerty and sophomore Alayna Markwordt, who finished the day with three goals and an assist, respectively. All 30 available players saw action in the game, including freshmen Alison Cahill and Sarah Fellows and junior Nikki Jones, who each saw their first career minutes as Buckeyes.

UP NEXT
Following the Sunday game with Penn State, the Buckeyes welcome Notre Dame, of the Big East conference, at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 22. The No. 12-ranked Fighting Irish are 8-4 on the season and scheduled to play Cincinnati this weekend.

###OhioStateBuckeyes.com###

Alissa Clendenen?Assistant Director ?Ohio State Athletics Communications
Office 614-292-0134?Fax 614-292-8547?Cell 614-940-7693
Email clendenen.5@osu.edu?Twitter AlissaC?OhioStateBuckeyes.com

Duke attackman Ned Crotty dodges behind the cage. He splits to his left hand, then to his right. There’s no outlet.

North Carolina defenseman Ryan Flanagan waits for his opening. Crotty rolls back to his left hand — or tries to, anyway. Flanagan slaps up on Crotty’s stick and sends it propelling into the air.

Quint Kessenich barks through the console speakers, “Yard sale!”

…

Lacrosse fans have craved this kind of virtual reality in their living rooms for decades: a big-budget video game dedicated to their sport. Thanks to the social networking phenomenon, the clamor has reached fever pitch.

Karl Brummer, a rising high school senior at Trinity School in Minnesota, started a Facebook group three months ago lobbying EA Sports, a brand most recognized for perennial hits like NHL and Madden NFL, to produce a lacrosse video game.

“I felt like making a Facebook group and seeing how big it would become,” Brummer said. “I didn’t expect it to have any influence.”

The Official EA Sports Lacrosse Video Game Petition Group now boasts nearly 157,000 members, 3,500 wall posts and 160 discussion topics.

“The group is having a big influence on the lacrosse community. Most of the petitioners are lacrosse players, so this group unifies them. The group also raises awareness to Facebookers who have never heard of the sport,” Brummer said. “It is actually getting noticed by video game designers.”

One member of the group, Carlo Sunseri, has decided to do something about it. A Pittsburgh native and former three-time captain of the Robert Morris men’s lacrosse team, Sunseri left a 2007 Major League Lacrosse tryout for the Washington Bayhawks disillusioned with how he played compared to others there. He would not get signed.

“My parents asked me what I’d do if I had a million dollars,” Sunseri said, “and I said build a lacrosse video game.”

Sunseri tracked down a Scottish video game developer through Microsoft’s Xbox Live Community Games — a virtual console for user-generated content. It’s the perfect third-party community for someone like Sunseri with limited funding and contacts. He had never built a video game before, but found a developer who could fashion a lacrosse game from a soccer game recently released on the same platform.

Sunseri, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and assistant coach at Robert Morris, provides project management and lacrosse know-how.

College Lacrosse 2010 has been in development for nearly three months and will be available for download through the Xbox Community Games channel in September, Sunseri said.

“Once on Xbox, it will be available to 20 million people in 26 different countries. The potential to spread the game of lacrosse is unparalleled to anything that’s been released on the market,” he said. “I’ve played lacrosse my whole life. I’ve always played video games, as well. I’ve always dreamed of playing lacrosse the video game just like we play Madden, NHL and FIFA.”

Sunseri recently provided a virtual demo of the game for Lacrosse Magazine. Although the graphics remain under development, he said, the game’s strengths are its customization and lacrosse-specific movements. For instance, Sunseri circumvented the NCAA’s steep licensing fee by allowing users to customize team names, jerseys, colors and rankings. They can unlock the game in NCAA tournament mode or pro mode — with versions planned for both indoor and outdoor.

Game-play features include:

• College lacrosse rules, such as 10 seconds to advance.
• Offensive formations, such as 2-3-1 and circle.
• Six different camera angles.
• Networking, with the ability to play friends online.
• Various dodges, including swim, split and spin moves.
• Training mode for passing, shooting and one-on-ones.
• Defensive control for stick checks (with same planned for offense and cradling).

With its low-budget workarounds and limited availability, College Lacrosse 2010 might not satisfy the lacrosse community’s growing hunger for a mainstream video game. Others have ventured into this territory before (see below), but with limited scope.

“But if the first game is successful,” Brummer said, “then bigger companies such as EA will have to make a game eventually, as well.”

Public relations contacts for EA Sports did not immediately return e-mails seeking comment for this story.

It’s in the Game

Though mainstream brands such as EA Sports have yet to venture a lacrosse video game into the market, previous efforts by smaller companies have found varying degrees of success.

* Blast Lacrosse was licensed by the National Lacrosse League and Professional Lacrosse Players Association, produced by Aklaim Sports and released in May 2001 for Sony’s PlayStation. It features the NLL’s nine teams at the time and fast-paced play mirroring the comic book-like movements of NBA Jam and NFL Blitz.

* On Feb. 15, 2005, the NLL announced that its partner, Activision, would produce a new video game to be released for the 2007 season. Former commissioner Jim Jennings, who resigned before the 2009 season, told NLL.com that the game would be released in 2009.

* Brine Lacrosse, a video game for mobile phones published by the equipment manufacturer of the same name, was released in March 2006. Produced by wireless entertainment provider SkyZone Entertainment, it features Mikey Powell on its title screen and regionally-based teams from Baltimore, Long Island, Upstate New York, New England, the Midwest and the West Coast.

* Activision included lacrosse among its offerings in Big League Sports for Nintendo Wii, released in December 2008. It features 22 events in six sports, including a one-on-one situational game for lacrosse. Big League Sports has “a singular focus on putting players in the most thrilling situations while competing in their favorite sports,” the press release stated.

* Virtual Wall-Ball was released in February 2009 as part of the US Lacrosse Widget, powered by Lacrosse Magazine. The computer game allows users to rack up points while playing wall ball on their desktops, with a highest scores platform and varying degrees of difficulty.