The Takeaway Check, Issue #25

More from the PLL Supporters’ Groups

24 pages.

After several hours worth of interviews with members of five of the eight PLL Supporters’ Groups, I wound up with 24 pages of quotes.

I love telling the stories of fans and their love for the sport and their teams — heck, it was a big part of my first book — so this was a fun article for me to write for USA Lacrosse Magazine.

I used to do interviews, and while I asked open-ended questions, I had specific topics I wanted to talk about. I knew in my head what I thought the story would be and ask questions specifically tailored to that idea. It would handcuff me. I’d start to write the story, and be thinking about what the person said and want to elaborate on it, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have the extra detail.

Now, I’ve grown. I explore a lot of different avenues depending on what someone says. Maybe, it will be a fun anecdote but won’t quite fit the story when I start writing. Or maybe, I’ll strike gold, and they’ll say something I wasn’t expecting at all. And maybe, that changes the story or takes it down a new path. It’s really fun.

Sometimes when interviewing someone, they will give a long answer to a question and apologize. I always tell them, “It’s ok. The more detail I have, the better this will be.”

Twenty four pages is a lot, though, for a 2,000-word story. A lot, clearly, needed to be left out in order to get different voices in, cover a few different ideas (who are these super fans, why are they doing this, what are the positives of the experience, and what have been the challenges), and tell a cohesive story.

So, this is a great place to share more about the who, what, and why of these dedicated PLL fans.

James English, The Arrowhead (Utah Archers)

English has been involved in Utah for about 14 years when his oldest child started playing in first grade. English came over from England, known for its fervent fans, so said he was all in for joining a PLL Supporters’ Group.

The Arrowhead has a podcast, and guests have included current Archers goalie Brett Dobson and former attackman as well as University of Utah assistant coach Will Manny. Creating a stronger connection between the players and fans is one of English’s goals for The Arrowhead.

“In the UK, my local team, they'll have people with their YouTube channels or Instagram or you know podcasts and the players are heavily involved in that, former and current,” he said. “It helps a ton with fan engagement to see players outside of their regular kind of media engagements to engage with the fans, and I hope we'll get to that point with the PLL.”

“I think this grows faster the more engagement we can have with players, the more the players can feel like the fans have access to the players and hear from them directly,” he added. “We're trying to do things where we can get some high school players to interview pros for the podcast.”

While Utah may not be an original hotbed for lacrosse, English said sports fans in Utah are passionate, and he expects that to translate to the PLL.

“If you listen to our episode with Brett Dobson, he talks about when the NHL team got announced, and they came to Utah. It was a massive reception. Like, every kid wearing a hockey jersey for their local team,” he said. “Thousands of people showed out, filled the arena to welcome the team, just to welcome them, not watch a game, right? That's how Utah fans are. They’re passionate. You think about back in the day with you know the Jazz when you got Stockton and Malone, how loud that arena can get, that's Utah sports fans. They love, love, love their pro sports teams.”

Jack Horsman, The Battery (Boston Cannons)

Horsman started playing lacrosse in 2011 partially because of a misunderstanding of what he was supposed to do at school.

“I started off playing Little League. I was a baseball kid and then in fifth grade, I made the switch from public school to private school, and the school I went to, they had lacrosse, but they actually didn't have baseball,” he said. “It was a really small school, and so it's one of those where you are required to do an afternoon activity. My options were either play lacrosse, play what they call non-travel which is essentially gym class, or, if you did another activity outside of school, you could get a waiver for it, and you basically just went to the library and did your homework.

“I looked at my options, and said, ‘Oh, I can either play lacrosse or do extra homework?’” he continued. “I said, ‘Well, that kind of sucks. I guess I'll give this lacrosse thing a shot.”

He fell in love with the sport as well as with the Boston Cannons. In 23 seasons of memories, one stands out as his favorite.

“The Brodie Merrill two-ball at the end of the game,” he said. “I remember watching that game at home and you know, you think, ‘Oh, it's over. We lost. Dang. That sucks.’ Just somehow the ball finding the back of the net there and just in total shock and awe, losing your mind. Then, at that point, it seemed like it was a foregone conclusion that you have to win in overtime when you tie the game up like that.”

Bo Francy, The Den (California Redwoods)

Francy is a youth lacrosse coach in San Diego. He talked about trying to educate young players about the athletes playing at the highest levels and how, in California, there’s a large number of people who still don’t know what lacrosse is. He talked about how what he says when he’s at schools to hook kids into lacrosse.

“It is the fastest game on two feet,” he said. “If you want to play a game that you're not standing in the outfield waiting for a hole to get hit or get up to the plate, maybe strike out or hit, just a game that's going to keep you constantly moving and digging.

“I think all kids should play all sports,” he added. “I think you should play baseball because I think that transfers over to lacrosse. Hand-eye coordination is great with baseball. You’ve got to hit 100 all our fastball with the baseball bat. Basketball, that's all motion offense. I want you to play these sports, but then bring it over to lacrosse.”

Matt Hettiger, The Snake Pit (Maryland Whipsnakes)

Hettiger went to the Naval Academy. Once he was off duty, he moved to Maine and coached high school for over six years. In 2022, he moved back to Maryland. He’s been a fan of the Whipsnakes since the league’s inception in 2019 (he loved the snakeskin look of the uniforms).

While Maryland is a hotbed for lacrosse, and the PLL games at Homewood Field at Johns Hopkins University have had some of the best atmospheres, The Snake Pit faces a unique challenge that other Supporters’ Groups haven’t faced.

“For our people that were maybe casual lacrosse fans or who aren’t into it as much, having that home team I think definitely helps them get more excited,” he said. “The unique challenge that we've had is because so many people in Maryland are already familiar with the game … there are a lot of people that are ingrained with other teams. So our challenge come as, ok, they like lacrosse. They like the PLL. Why should they become Whipsnakes fans? Why should they become part of The Snake Pit?

“We don't have the challenge of trying to teach people what lacrosse is,” he added, “but we gotta’ sell on why our team and why do they wanna’ be Whipsnakes fans?”

Michael Harrison, Red Legion (Carolina Chaos)

Michael is known in the lacrosse world as the superfan with the base drum (the above photo is also from him; he sent it to me to show me the cookies the group received from a kids’ birthday party that I wrote about in my story). He was a passionate fan of the MLL’s Charlotte Hounds and the drum was back at American Legion Stadium this year, just with a new logo.

He shared with me the origins of the drum.

“The drum was just a $20 Goodwill find, which is a great deal,” he said. “It was just kind of making noise, doing some chants of some sort whether it be just like simple like ‘Defense’ or ‘Let's go Hounds’ kind of thing, but yeah, making noise and getting others involved because others will see that and feel that and begin chanting as well, and then you create just this whole fan atmosphere rather than pumping some music or something.”

Harrison said most of Red Legion is new members that were not part of Hound Legion. Because of how well-known they were in Charlotte, though, expectations were high for Red Legion, which provided Harrison some slight levels of stress.

“I know a lot of people were hyping us up, like, ‘Hey, they've already had a group down in that area,’” he said. “It's a lot of different people that were helping out this time, so I'm thinking, ‘Man, it's only gonna be like five of us making any kind of noise.”

He also wasn’t sure how the rest of the fans would take to the group or if they would understand what they were doing.

“We're standing the whole time so my personal anxiety usually is I'm standing in front of somebody,” he said. “To have no one to say anything was a good thing. I felt they’re not like, ‘Hey, sit down, buddy.’”

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