Walsh University Girls Lacrosse Camp
Walsh University, North Canton Ohio
North Canton, OH 44720
Overview
GameBreaker Lacrosse is excited to announce that will be running a day and overnight camp in North Canton this summer at Walsh University. Lacrosse campers will work on their individual stick skills and positional training, learn team concepts, and situational gameplay daily. Join us this summer for a great week of lacrosse training and improvement!
About Our Coaches
Erin Smith is the Head Women's Lacrosse Coach at Walsh University. Smith takes the helm of the two-time, defending Great Midwest Champions after working as an assistant coach here for the last four seasons. She will be the third head coach in the program's 11 seasons. She was a part of a coaching staff that went 37-19 in the last four seasons, along with a 26-9 G-MAC mark. The Cavaliers appeared in three Great Midwest tournaments and have picked up back-to-back regular season and tournament titles. Since her start at Walsh, she has coached six individual award winners and 23 All-Conference honorees. 59 players have been awarded Academic All-Conference and three of them were named IWLCA Honor Roll members in 2021.
Prior to her time as an assistant at Walsh she was the assistant women's lacrosse coach at Queens College in 2018. She also coached the Snipers Elite lacrosse team in Rye, N.Y., from 2016 to 2018.
Prior to coaching Smith was a member of the New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) inaugural women's lacrosse team in 2017. In that year she was named First Team All-East Coast Conference (ECC), First Team All-Eastern College Athletic Conference, First Team All-North Region, and Second Team All-American. The conference coaches also voted her as ECC Defender of the Year after being selected as Preseason Defender of the Year. In the fall of 2017 she ran cross country and earned her bachelors of business management.
From 2013 to 2016 Smith attended and played at Dowling College. There she was a two-year starter. In the 2016 season she was named First Team All-ECC, Second Team All-North Region, and Third Team All-American. Here she also ran cross country from 2014 to 2016 and was named the team's MVP for the 2015-2016 season.
While at both Dowling and NYIT Smith helped anchor one of the nation' top scoring defenses. In 2014 Dowling won the first ECC tournament by upsetting then-No. 2 LIU Post in the championship game. The win had also snapped LIU Post's 40-game win streak after previously being crowned back-to-back national champions.
In 2015 and 2016 the team made it to the conference finals. After being named regular season conference champs in 2016, Dowling made their second NCAA tournament appearance and won their first NCAA tournament game in program history. In 2017 NYIT made its first appearance in the ECC and NCAA tournaments.
Camp Details
DAY CAMP
Check-in/out: All campers check in daily at 9:00 am. The full-day campers will check out daily at 3:00 pm with our half-day campers checking out at 12:00 pm.
Age & Ability: Our camp is open to girls ages 6-16, Our half-day camp option is open to ages 6-10 and our full-day camp option is open to ages 9-16. All abilities and levels are welcomed.
Meals: Campers are to bring their own lunch to camp.
Camp Curriculum:
Fundamental Stick Work- Specialized stick routines and targeted fundamental drills
Position Specific Training-
Defense- including a rotation of midfielders
Footwork - pivoting, recovery and angles
Stickwork - clearing, carrying, grounds balls and stick protection
Field Awareness - man up or man down situations, on and off ball defensive play
Body Positioning - ABCDs of defense (for 1 on 1 defense)
Attack-
Situational Awareness - spacing, vision and offensive flow
Shooting - 8 meters, on the run, shot placement and selection, and faking before shooting
Dodging - from X, face dodge, split dodge, roll dodge
Transitioning- Riding the ball
Midfield-
Situational Awareness - spacing, vision, and offensive flow
Shooting - 8 meters, on the run, shot placement and selection and faking before shooting
Dodging - from X, face dodge, split dodge, roll dodge
Defensive Play - body positioning and field awareness
Transitioning- Riding the ball, fast breaks both offensively and defensively, settling
Goalie-
Communication - ball positioning, dictating the defense’s positions and player positioning
Mechanics - placement in cage, off stick and stick-side movement, reaction time, hand/eye coordination
Clearing - moving the ball quickly, communicating where to go with the ball and stick work
Draw Specialist-
Mechanics - footwork and body positioning
Taking the Draw - pushing , pulling, or self-drawing, ball tracking
Circle - speed work, ground balls, ball tracking, and reaction time
Unsettled Situational Game Play, focused on special awareness specific to game-like situations-
2v1, 3v2- Fast play from the elbows and X
Crossfield 3v2 continuous play
3v4 off ground ball and clears
Full field transitional continuous play
Grouped Position Specific Training- Attack vs. Defense, Midfield vs. Midfield
1v1’s, 2v2’s 3v3’s, 4v4’s– from all positions on the field focusing in
on specific game philosophy’s, techniques and spatial awareness
Specialized Team Building and Leadership Events-
Lacrosse capture the flag, lax baseball, lax water balloons, lax maze runner, ultimate lacrosse, lacrosse tic-tac-toe racing, lacrosse head-shoulders-knees-toes-ball, and other leadership and team building activities
Game Play- 7v7, small sided games, full field scrimmage, situational gameplay, clearing and riding the ball
Chalk Talk- Reviewing techniques and game theories regarding specific positioning and game-like situations
*Curriculum Varies Per Location and Director*
*For Sample Times of Daily Schedule, Visit Highlights Page*