SIDEBAR EPISODE - Overseas Based Players

Overseas-based players have different requirements than domestic players in terms of attending training camps. The location of the training camp is in Largs, Scotland, and players have various options for travel, including taxi, train, or hitching a ride. Players are expected to come to Scotland three times, with specific windows of time throughout the year. The third time would be for the European Championships, but only if selected for the final roster. There are eligibility guidelines and criteria to be discussed in a future podcast. All right, so welcome to this little extra episode of a little sidebar to our main newsletter, our main podcast. And we want to share all the information for overseas-based players. The first question is, why are we doing this? We definitely acknowledge that all overseas-based players are in a different position. I mean, they literally are. They are overseas, obviously. But also in all other aspects, it is a different situation because for all domestic players, for all players that live in the UK, we ask them, the requirement is that they attend every single training camp. But obviously, we can't ask that from someone who's based in Canada or in the US. It is a completely different situation. We do acknowledge that. And therefore, we do have different requirements for overseas-based players. But we also wanted to take the time to make sure that we're all on the same page, that we can take some extra time to explain a couple of things, especially for you guys who are joining the program. Because it is an important part of our program that we can include those players as well. And we just want to make sure that no information is lost in all those emails and all the communications, but really take the time specifically for that. So I'm very happy to be here again with Head Coach Matt Bagley and to go through a couple of things. And unlike the proper newsletter that we recorded, we do not have a fully written out script, but we have a couple of notes that we want to go through that. And I can see that the first thing that we put on here, where do we actually meet with the training camp? Matt, you already explained in the newsletter where it is just out of Glasgow. But maybe for our overseas-based players, maybe you can go a little bit deeper about how do I get there? Where is it? And what do I need to know? So Matt, all yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Hannes. Yes, hello, everyone. I just wanted to, as Hannes said, talk to you guys a little bit more about traveling to Scotland and our expectations for you as a player, not only on the field, but also off the field as well, just so that we're all on the same page. So the very first question that I always get asked is, when do you want us to get to Scotland? And that is really up to you. We've had players in previous cycles get there a week ahead of time, and they just stay with family or friends who are in Edinburgh, Glasgow, up in the Highlands, wherever the case is. But what I would say, bare minimum, you should really try to get in at least a day before the actual camp. So try to arrive on, like, a Friday morning. That way you can get there, start adjusting yourself to the time difference so that you're not waking up super groggy on Saturday and playing all of Saturday with your head in a fog. So I would definitely do that. In order to get to, well, Inverclyde is located in Largs, as we talked about. It's on Burnside Road. The postcode is KA38RW. So if you want to jot that down, probably a good thing to hand to the taxi driver or however else you're getting there, a friend who may be driving you out to the facility. It's about 30 miles west of Glasgow Airport. So if you want a quick trip, Glasgow Airport is the place to go to. However, if it's cheaper and easier for you to fly into Edinburgh, then by all means, go ahead and do that. It's just a little bit longer of a journey, maybe an hour or two or so, but Glasgow Airport is the closest airport to where we are. Largs itself is a small little seaside town. It's a really popular holiday destination during the summer for Scots. You might have even been there before or might have friends and family who live around that area. It's a fantastical town, has a nice little town center. It's got restaurants and bars and supermarkets and stores, all that sort of stuff that are usually open year round. So if you do forget anything, toothpaste, shampoo, whatever the case is, you can just nip into town really quickly and easily grab whatever you need and you should be all good. How do you get to the actual venue? Well, there's really three things you can do. Number one, you can get a taxi. It's expensive, obviously, the most expensive option, but you can go, obviously, at any time. It is about, from Glasgow Airport, it is about 50 to 60 quid. So as I said, it'll get there really quickly, but it is fairly expensive. You can also do the train. It costs a little bit of money, but you need to make sure that you look into train times to Largs, which is, Largs has a train station there, so you can get there. There are direct trains that leave from Edinburgh and Glasgow that will take you straight there. And then from the train station, it's about a 20-minute walk from the train station to the facility. The other way is you can hitch a ride, which is the cheapest option. So you might have to wait until later on in the day until the domestic players or maybe some friends and family get done work and can bus you out there, but obviously, it is the cheapest way to do it. In terms of checking in to Inverclyde, the wonderful thing about Inverclyde is that it's very, very easy to check in, and they're really flexible, which is great. So even if you get in on Friday morning, if you want to go straight to the facility, you can check in. They'll give you the key to your room. You can go up, drop the blackout blinds, and go to bed and take a nap on Friday and hopefully try to start getting over a little bit of that jet lag. The staff are so accommodating. They're so wonderful to us. But the only thing that we ask is, if that is going to be your plan, just let us know ahead of time. We will contact the facility. We'll contact Inverclyde and let them know that you're coming. If you get there and you have some time to kill, it's about a 20-minute walk to Morrison Supermarket if you want to get some food, and it's about a 30-minute walk down into the downtown. We're actually kind of halfway up a hill, so it's nice going down into town. You might want to take a taxi or something back up, or an Uber. But you've got, as I said before, restaurants, takeaways, all that sort of stuff that you can get on a Friday to get yourself fed and ready for the big training weekend or training camp on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, maybe to add to that from an administration standpoint, you can book two-night accommodations with us. That's what the registration form is for, but two nights means from Friday to Sunday. If you're arriving earlier, for example, on Monday or on Wednesday, the best thing you can do if you do not have family around the area is to stay maybe in Glasgow or Edinburgh, but you can go to L'Arc, to Inverclyde, to the facility on Friday, but not earlier. That may be just to add to that. So, Matt, I think that's all about the location and what players need to do once they're committed to a date and once they actually travel. But the big question, obviously, is how often do they need to make the trip? What are the expectations for overseas-based players? As I said already, for domestic players, we expect players to be there every single time. We expect players to be there even if they're injured, because they still need to be with the team. We're still doing chalk chalk. They still can help with this and that, and we really want the team to be together. But as we said in the beginning, we can't expect that from overseas-based players. So what is the expectation? What are the expectations to those players from the coaching staff? Absolutely. So players need to come over three times. The first needs to be from either coming over and attending one of our open trials, which obviously have already happened, or one of the two tournaments that we've already played. But that window for overseas players to come remains open throughout the summer, so June, August, September, October, and December. That is when an overseas player who has expressed an interest to me needs to come over. And then almost when January 1st is kind of the big split, and you will need to then come over a second time, sometime between January and also the European Championships in July. So January to June. We will give you a lot more information for that. There are a couple of training camps and or tournaments that we would actually push you more towards. Maybe it is, you know, it's much better to see you in a competitive atmosphere against an opponent, either at a tournament or if we're hosting another international team at Inverclyde. So don't worry about booking anything for that. Please wait and then we will guide you to that in a little bit. The third time would be for the actual European Championship. Most likely you would fly either to England or, sorry, the UK or straight to Hungary. But once again, we'll have a lot more information for there if you were selected for that final roster. Yeah. And maybe to add to that as well, because they obviously only are required to come to the Euros if they get selected for the final roster. And to clarify that, we do have selection criteria and so on. You will hear more about that later. And that's information to share to the entire roster, obviously. But we do have eligibility guidelines and we do have that special circumstance in lacrosse that you can have non-passport holders on your roster. You can have in total four. I know already that most of the overseas-based players that aren't on our roster, that they do have the right passport. So you do not qualify as a non-passport holder, but just general information we can have theoretically for non-passport holders. But we will talk about eligibility more in a future podcast, because obviously eligibility for Scotland is very different. Eligibility for the whole nation actually is different than all the other countries, because it's a bit more tricky about this whole passport thing, as unfortunately, something as a Scottish passport does not exist yet. But that's correct. It's three times if you get selected for the final roster. Correct. And as Ted Lasso says about the UK, how many countries are in this country? Four, right? But yeah, that's a whole different story. And that eligibility, we will talk about that more later. But I believe that I almost talked to every player already about that. So I think that's fairly straightforward. So you just talked about the attendance requirements, how often they need to come over. But of course, attendance is not the only thing that's required of a player. And this is really important for overseas-based players, because you will be less present at training camps. This means we will see you less than other players. And with other players, if you see each other every four weeks, you can communicate in a very different way. But because you guys are further away, we see less of you. There are also other requirements that we ask of you once you are in our roster. Matt, maybe you can go a bit deeper into that one. Absolutely. So in terms of player expectations, really, we're at three main things the coaches are looking for in order to be selected for that final roster to compete at the 2025 European Championships in Hungary. And that is, number one, be present. Number two, be prepared. And number three, be engaged. And let me talk a little bit more about each one. So when I say be present, obviously, we need you at training camp. You need to meet those attendance requirements, or else you will not be considered for the final roster. That being said, the things that Hannes and I just talked about, those are minimum attendance requirements. So if you would like to come over for more than just those two times before the Euros, please, by all means, go ahead. We would love to have you as many times as you want to come over and help us out. That would be great. Secondly is meeting attendance as well. If you can, and I know time difference may muck this up a little bit, but we have a meeting on Saturday night at Inverclyde. What we do is we can put MS Teams on. And if you join that, then you could actually be there for the meeting. I think that would be a fantastic opportunity for you to just say hi to the guys, say hi to the staff, and also get up to speed on what the different things we talk about. And also, a lot of the coaches will be running offensive and defensive and face-off online chalk talks about the playbook, stuff like that. I really would encourage you to be there for those so you can ask questions and be up to speed. So when I say be present, that's what I mean. Be present. Be a presence within the team. Secondly, be prepared. Whenever you come over, whenever that is, we expect you to know the playbook inside and out. You need to know the plays, the sets, the formations. All of that stuff will be posted by the coaches, not only in video format, but also in diagram format. And then the coaches are there if you have any other questions. So please feel free to reach out to them on Microsoft Teams or on WhatsApp or email, whatever the case is, if you do have any questions. But we do expect you, when you come, that you have an in-depth and intimate knowledge of that playbook. Another thing about being prepared, you've got to be in shape. Please make sure you follow Coach Rose's plans with consistent updates to demonstrate progress. It'd be fantastic if you can come over on a time when we have a fitness test, but if you can't, and I completely understand that, please be in touch with Coach Rose. Give him your progress. We've even had players in the past record themselves doing the various exercises and then emailing them or sending them to Coach Rose so he can actually log the stats and the results and put you in a spreadsheet with all the rest of the players on the roster. So that is be prepared. Lastly, be engaged. And I talked about this in the original podcast that we just did, but we really need you to be active communicators with your teammates and with the staff. So be engaged on Microsoft Teams. I know that the players have WhatsApp chats that are separate from the coaches, and we don't have anything to do with those, but be a presence there as well. Be engaged in those things. Instagram, Snaps, whatever the case is, really be active communicators. And also, as I mentioned, you want to be active communicators with the coaches and staff. We will have a mentor program that we will get into after we go through a few training camps and we get to know the players. That means a staff member will be reaching out to you individually to talk about your progress, your strengths, your weaknesses, what you need to do in order to get on that final roster. So please make sure you are in active communication with them. And if you have any questions about anything, we are always here. Get in touch with us before you either arrive in Scotland or if you have a question about the playbook or whatever the case is, be engaged. Lastly, and I said this once again in the podcast, but I really, really do mean this. We will not take the most talented players. We will take the players who form the best team. That is our strength. That is what we rely upon when we go to these international tournaments and we compete. We want to be a team that does not have any off-field issues, any drama, anything like that. We want to take the players who are team first, mentally tough, talented players. So therefore, what's really important for us coaches to see is how you interact with your teammates. So please be friendly, be outgoing, be gracious, not only with your teammates, but also with the coaches and the staff. And when we get to Inverclyde, the venue staff as well. You know, get to know the janitor's name, get to know the server who's serving you breakfast, get to know his name, all that. We really need to see that in order to get a good full picture of who you are. One of the things in our mission statement that we have is that we want you to be a good ambassador of lacrosse. And we really take that sentiment to heart. And that is something that we will be looking for in international players. Because, as Henne said, we don't see you as often as we do the domestic players. So all of these things, being present, being prepared, being engaged, so, so important. I think that's a great last word. So nothing else to add to that. This was a little sidebar to our first podcast. You'll be hearing more from us in our second podcast. We will not do another overseas-based little sidebar again, I think. But basically, our main message is, if you have questions, communicate, communicate, communicate. And then we can always figure everything out. If you have issues, problems, struggles with anything, or you just have questions because you don't know what's happening because you missed a couple of camps, let us know. There's nothing that Matt and I love more than hopping on WhatsApp, texting with players, and doing this and that. That's what we like. So please, please, please be active, be engaged. And I think then there's nothing in your way to have a very successful time with Lacrosse Scotland, and making memories for a lifetime, which I think is not an understatement. And I see, you can't see that, but I see Matt nodding heavily. So I think that's it. All right. That's it for the little sidebar. If you have any questions, hit us up. And see you on the next episode of the podcast, and in June for the other camp. Bye-bye.