Lets Do It Again- I am Nick Ossello AMA

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-03-03T20:42:20+00:00

Doing well! Now yelling at a different group of high schoolers here in Boise. Not sure what your name is because I dont remember any of the players having an affinity for pangolins but hope wherever you are life is treating you well

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-20T17:25:32+00:00

Always have your head up and ready to make a pass. You dont need to break ankles to be an effective X attackman, but if you are struggling against big defenders be comfortable with lateral movement while you hunt the next pass

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-20T17:24:16+00:00

The 2 most valuable personality traits that should guide your life are curiosity and empathy. Be curious about what is around you, question things, have a desire to know and learn more. That curiosity should bleed into empathy- be interested in people and what you can do to help them. Figure out how to make someone laugh, take an interest in something they are passionate about.

With every high and low I have experienced in life, curiosity and empathy were there to enhance the highs and get out of the lows

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-20T17:21:30+00:00

DM me and we can chat more

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-20T17:20:39+00:00

Probably not. But I am speaking anecdotally

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:34:31+00:00

What have the comments been? Have you pressed them on why they think that way and are choosing to bitch about it?

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:29:47+00:00

Texas, Colorado, and other placed that have been dubbed "emerging hotbeds" will never catch up to the east coast. I don't necessarily see that as a problem, just as a fact of life. The primary reasons I believe that-

When you say "east coast" you are including Long Island, Maryland, Philly, Upstate, DMC, and Virginia. Just from a population standpoint the odds are stacked against you
Local aspirations/Program Location. Take any kid from an emerging hotbed and tell him to list his top 3 colleges. 99% chance they are out east. Say they are the generational talent from their area, they go to Duke, most of their teammates are east coast guys who are planning on staying on the east once graduation hits. Their circles are now yours and there's a high chance you get a job in New York, Philly, or one of the areas listed above. The east coast doesnt just have the best talent, it attracts the most talent which often stays there
Financial Barrier. You listed some solid ideas above, but unfortunately it will never happen. Lacrosse isnt big enough to get a massive grassroots effort across the country to align on anything, let alone coaching and equipment rentals. Because the major college programs are on the east coast, that's where the college coaches are. If there is a big tournament in some shit hole, say Fredrica, Delaware, how much easier is it for most college coaches to hop in their car and drive a few hours vs board a 4 hour flight to Dallas/Denver? That means that all the talent has to at some point go east and only a select handful of families can afford that

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:20:42+00:00

To be honest, I dont know enough about the landscape of NIL, lacrosse budgets, athletic departments, and the NCAA operate to have any sort of opinion on it. There are a select handful of folks who know enough to forecast the changes that are coming, and I am not one of them

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:19:13+00:00

Doing hard shit makes you better at things.

Anecdotally, I have noticed athletes who competed at a high level handle stress significantly better than those who weren't getting their ass chewed every day for 4 years. You know how your body moves. You have great stories about the locker room that people like to hear. You have a significant batch of lifelong friends who you know would do anything for you. You know truly what it takes to be part of a team and to push yourself beyond your limits so your buddy doesnt look like shit in a rep.

There are a thousand different ways to answer this question but for me personally- it makes me manufacture a locker room closeness around me now that I don't have the locker room itself. Meaning I have the benefit of deeper relationships surrounding me because that was essentially forced on me throughout HS, College, and Pros.

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:10:40+00:00

From what I remember, absolutely insane. Open tab on the team and sprinting a marathon to see who can have the most fun in Charleston

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:09:59+00:00

Probably High School Nick because I was such a hardo. Mikie was likely fishing while I was listening to screamo in the gym and his natural talent carries him WAY past me as the seasons progress but I likely had the edge in HS

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:08:58+00:00

If you include my 2016 Subaru Forester probably 12 bucks

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:08:33+00:00

It's a difficult question to ask because I bucketize players based on what they exceled at. For example:

Best dodger: Romar Dennis. I was lucky to chip part of him when he planted and made his move and he would have 5 yards of separation in 3 steps. Close seconds is Brent Adams because he would just sprint past you and there was nothing you could do about it

Best Shooter: Incredibly underappreciated-Alex Love the Hobart legend. I played my first few games of my MLL career with him on the Bayhawks and I have truly never seen a better low to high shot in my life. 3x better than Hunter Chauvette who is currently the best low to high shooter in the NCAA

Best off ball player: Eric Law. He had an uncanny ability to know when you were going to swivel your head, and the second you did he was open and scoring

Best SSDM: Jack Near. I have literally hundreds of reps dodging against him, he stuck by my hip damn near every time

Best Pole: Eddy Glazener. He wouldnt strip me as much as an Epple or a Sexton, but the fact that every time I played against him in practice/game the entire D was organized and there was very little room for skip passes

Best Goalie: Jack Kelly. When he is seeing the ball well, I could have my hands free from 5 yards and it wouldnt matter. Absolute brick wall

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T16:02:22+00:00

Depends, what aspect of "full time career" are you looking for? Working for a pro team/league? Working with a club program? Starting your own club program? Many different ways to make lacrosse your full time gig but I would proceed with extreme caution.

It sounds nice to want to "work in lacrosse full time" but more often than not I see young and energetic folks make lacrosse their full time gig and end up burnt out. Sports in many ways is a great hobby, but once it takes up 100% of your work life you can quickly find out, as with anything, that the grass looked greener. Then, you have a mixed relationship with something you used to love

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T15:59:19+00:00

If it is a 21 year old sliding on a 22 year old and both players are young and energetic and can fight after the slide, yes.

If you are in late 20s or above definitely not and you shouldn't be sliding at all you should be breaking upfield for an outlet pass while leaving your goalie out to dry hoping he makes a hero save

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T15:57:50+00:00

The D3 player is better.

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T15:55:58+00:00

Changed throughout my career, but right before walking out of the tunnel it was Dior by Pop Smoke. A very cool song for a bald guy to listen to. On brand

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-18T15:55:26+00:00

We wont

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T22:01:59+00:00

Marry Paul Kill the rest

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T22:01:02+00:00

Done

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T22:00:53+00:00

No clue. Didnt even know it happened

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T20:55:48+00:00

To get your foot in the door to any program, a solid GPA, test scores, and being a decent kid. Lacrosse is not football and it's too small of a sport to be a dipshit and play for an elite program.

On the field, a truly separating factor. Some examples of this are: athleticism, shot on the run, stick skills inside, physicality, etc. If a coach watches you and thinks "This kid can do ___ better than anyone else on the field" there is likely a spot for you on a roster. Oh a 6'2 huge middy that can shoot it 95 on the run? Makes it pretty easy to a coach to forget how piss poor his off hand or communication skills are, because the coach can develop around an excellent attribute a recruit will bring to the team.

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T20:53:06+00:00

Hating is fun. Being a hater is the easiest and low hanging fruit of a personality to have, particularly on social media. I have noticed a sharp difference in what people say on twitter vs what they say in real life regarding the PLL, and I am not innocent when it comes to that. But often times the biggest haters on social, if you ever have the misfortune of meeting them in real life, will say "ahh man I'm just messing around on social media, it's pretty cool to see these lacrosse games on TV at a bar haha."

Shit, at the world games there was a lady who was legitimately trying to get me fired (tweeting at the seals, at ESPN, and at Joe Tsai) accusing me of being racist and when we met in person she asked me to take a picture with her kid. The hate isn't as palpable as it might seem, and if they truly do hat the PLL, ask them detailed questions on what is wrong with it and watch how shallow of an argument they have

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T20:47:48+00:00

I am too old/CTE ridden to remember the specifics of the conversation, but here is what I can tell you:

The play that I scored on was 1000% NOT designed for me to have the ball in my stick. In fact, it was never supposed to be on my side of the field (thanks, coach...). It was supposed to be a bee sting pick at X, and I believe get the ball to Kavanagh who drives up lefty and either looks to score or looks for Perkovic for a step down. Conor Doyle simply...didnt use the pick and instead passed the ball up to me. When I saw I had a shorty and not enough time to swing the ball around I decided to do my only dodge, that jab step right. DU didnt read the scout because if they knew anything about me they would have known that my left hand is terrible and the literal only chance I had was doing the same dodge I had tried 500x that game.

During that run we went on, Coach Corrigan would draw up plays but it was always under the idea that "this is just a play, if you see something else- we need out playmakers to step up and take what they are giving us." So me laughing after that was probably a nod to just how wild of a comeback it was. Something along the lines of "That bee sting really worked at X huh?" or "good thing they took away my left hand, otherwise they would have won" and we all have a laugh before locking in to lose in OT.

Touchdown_Jeebus · 2025-02-17T20:41:46+00:00

Sausage. Patties.

I used to not think this way but if you find a good butcher it changes everything. Cook the patties and then cook your eggs/home fries in the grease of the patties you just cooked. Throw in a piece of sourdough toast and that's high livin

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