Nick Hernandez

The speaker discusses their lacrosse team's current season and their background in the sport. They mention the changes they've observed in the current generation of student-athletes, such as a lack of mental toughness and a focus on individual play and social media highlights. They also discuss the impact of COVID-19 on high school sports, noting a decrease in participation and a preference for easier sports. The speaker also mentions a decrease in parental pressure and commitment to practices. Hello, hello, hello. Testing, testing. Hello. It's going pretty well. We are six and five right now overall on our schedule. So, you know, one game above 500, which isn't too bad. And all we have for the rest of the regular season is just going to be league games. So we're just playing, you know, every night on the clock. Nice. All right. Looks like a relatively successful season. So tell me about your kind of background in lacrosse, because I kind of I played at Grosvenor High School as a tennis player and now I'm a coach, so I can kind of speak to like both sides. Kind of talk about your background and like how you how you landed on becoming a coach. So I actually went to Grosvenor High School as well. I graduated back in 2013. When I was here, the program overall, you know, we had a full varsity team. We had a JV team and a novice team below that. So we had, you know, almost three times the amount of numbers that we have currently. This is back in, you know, 10 years ago. So, yeah, so I played at Grosvenor all four years. Graduated from there. Went on to play college lacrosse at the, I think, what, three-level? And then, you know, at the three-level four years, graduated, finished with schooling, and then moved back to New York. And also, like I said, New York kind of just got fantastic for lacrosse and league games. I played with everybody already, so I just kind of made sense to help out as a coach. And, you know, I felt like I wanted to give back to the same community that I got a lot from when I was playing. So it was important for me to make sure I helped out, you know, the same group of kids that were in my community. So I've been coaching lacrosse a lot. This is my sixth season as head coach. But, yeah, it was a year to get back and help out. And so, yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure it's even not that close. So it's been pretty interesting ever since COVID. I was curious when you reached out about your whole story that you're doing, because, you know, I actually work at a lacrosse company, and 90% of the employees here, we all coach at the high school level here in San Diego. And so, you know, we talk about all kinds of work, just how different things look now post-COVID, just with numbers and notification naming, but at all. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think a lot of your experience will echo some of the stuff I've seen in tennis, too. So I'm glad you have that, you know, experience as a player and as a college player, too. So I remember when I was playing, you know, I graduated in 2018. So those teams from, like, 2015-2018 was so fun, and we were really good, but it was also, like, such a team atmosphere. We all kind of, like, pumped each other up, and it was just – it felt like everybody wanted to be there every day. And I've noticed a little bit, and whether that's COVID or whether that's, you know, the generation of, you know, student-athletes we have now, that's kind of shifted a little bit, and maybe the motivation to be, you know, the best player you can be is not necessarily the same as it was, at least what I've witnessed. What is the biggest change, you know, from your playing days back in – I guess we'll focus on back in high school, those teams that you remember compared to the teams you're coaching now? Yeah, so the first thing that is, like, you know, big for me that I've noticed is one of the bigger changes is I kind of call it, like, mental toughness and mental resilience. It seems like, you know, back when I was playing, you know, you were down against a team or maybe, you know, a week just wasn't going your way, but you knew, you know, your teammates were there for you, and you'd get through it and be better on the other side of it. I feel like the current generation of student-athletes that I have, when they're met with any sort of, you know, event or thing that doesn't go their way, whether it's home field, off the field, there's zero resilience or toughness to get through that and to use any of the support they have. They, like, more or less, you know, crumble at whatever is facing them. They don't like those problems. They want to just, you know, choose to not play the sport anymore or blame somebody else for something that happened to them because, you know, it's easier to point a finger at somebody else and not take accountability. So that's the main thing. And then to kind of speak to what you were saying about, like, you know, wanting to be the best you can be, for me, what I see is that I see guys that want to be, they want to make, like, a highlight play so that, you know, it gets posted on social media so they can look cool in front of their friends. And, like, you know, for me, when I was in high school, Instagram was, like, just part of what was new. There was no presence for girls on the team or Instagram or anything like that. And so there was none of that, like, mentality of, like, wanting to make somebody else look silly on the field just to get a highlight moment. It was just saying we wanted to just be better so we could win at the end of the day as a team. Because I feel like there's a lot of, like, individual play. And lacrosse is, like, you know, a team sport. It's cool. And right now we have so many kids that are individuals out there that want to do their own thing and not for the betterment of the team, but just so they can look good, you know. Yeah. No, that's really hard. And, yeah, we don't see that as much in tennis, just the nature of it. There's not a super amount of, like, you know, highlight plays you can make, per se. But, I mean, we see it. I don't know if you see it, too, like, in, like, the AAU scene in basketball. Like, all these guys are just kind of playing one-on-one and trying to, you know. Yeah, like you said, make the Instagram highlight. So I think that's, yeah, that's a big thing, too. And I actually brought up social media in the article, too, so I'm glad you mentioned that. So the whole kind of point of this article, I guess, is to kind of figure out to what extent, you know, the COVID shutdown affected high school sports. So what, if anything, what do you think the pandemic did to affect not only the numbers, but, you know, the overall attitude towards playing high school sports? Yeah, so, you know, just to speak to participation first, I think, you know, as the prof, we would typically like the kind of sport that got all those fringe students that were kind of on the border of, like, being a student athlete and not. And we would, in general, get those kids to come out and play. Also, we would get those kids who, you know, maybe tried out for baseball and didn't make the team or were trying to find a team playing, you know, basketball, tennis, and they ended up coming out and playing lacrosse. So, you know, we've always, in general, the sport is sort of San Diego for each county. It's not, like, the main sport for a lot of kids. And it looks like they're studying to find out about it for high school lacrosse. But we used to get, like, a lot of those fringe athletes who weren't necessarily, didn't necessarily have these big goals of playing a high school sport or doing anything like that, and they just ended up coming out. With COVID, though, we noticed that all those students, you know, perhaps were those fringe athletes who, you know, were confused about what they wanted to do because the sports were not, they just didn't really come out. They didn't even, like, you know, and I did a pretty good job of reaching out to those players and those students, you know, through the school and everything. But there was just less interest out of them. So that was one part. Part two is we noticed the kids who came out, and I actually had a discussion about this with the AD, Megan Long. The kids who did come out, they didn't want to do something that was challenging, that challenged them. They wanted to do something that was going to be easy, that they could make the team without any effort given, and they could more or less just, like, cruise through the season in the sport. And Steven told me, she was like, how do students come up with their own time? And they asked me what sports don't cut, because they want to go after the sports that don't cut, which, like, prior to COVID, I didn't think that was a thing. I don't know where I'm standing from, like, what the root of that is. I just know that that's happening. And I know that, you know, even for me and my team, kids who came out in the process were pretty physically demanding and challenging sports. And I get, you know, third and sixth at the beginning of the season, and especially at the JV level, it's all new players mostly. And then, you know, by the time we're halfway through the season, at least 10 or more kids dropped out because it was too hard, or they say they have too much on their plate at the moment, when, like, you and I both know how it is in high school. Like, certain things come up outside of your sport, but, like, never too much. You know, usually there's certain cases where maybe that's true. But, you know, in general, a lot of kids will be like, I just have too much going on right now, and I can't do it. And usually those kids, and I see them struggling in practice, and they just want to, you know, quit, and, okay, you quit. And so, yes, I think those are the main things that I see as being different. And then, again, you know, I guess to the new, to being a head coach, I'm like, you're doing it. But just all in all, from the parenting side of things, I just feel like there's less embarrassment and less pressure from their side to actually make sure that the kids are showing up to every practice or, you know, coming to practices on time, you know, ready to go when they're in need. And I just notice that, like, you know, one thing that's a super minor thing for me that, like, I didn't think I'd say that for years is that all of a sudden birthdays became an event that you missed a practice with. And so, for me, when I was in school, you didn't miss it. If you had a birthday, you were at practice. Like, that wasn't a thing. And even parents come up to me now and be like, hey, Johnny's got a birthday on Thursday. We're going to have a dinner party. And I'm just like, no, you can't get practice. Like, it's a three-day practice. You need to go. And they're like, no, he's going to miss practice. And that's it. So, you know, I just feel like, in general, there's less support from the loss of a parent, or there's less commitment. Like, they're not fully committed to doing that thing. They let their players or their kids, you know, be half in and half out at all times, which is, like, really weird for me. It's like, I don't want this to happen to you. You're not going to miss practice. You just think it's okay to do that. And, again, that can just be me being, you know, new to coaching, and having to deal with that right now. I'm not sure if that's something that's always been an issue with the high school generation. Yeah, and with the high schoolers, you know, we're coaching now that we're, like, almost three, four years out of COVID. All those kids, I was talking to my head coach, Wayne. Like, all those kids were kind of in middle school, honestly, when COVID was happening. So, I mean, do you think that hurt, like, the development mentally at all? And that could be maybe another reason why, you know, they're not as committed or they're not as, like, willing to challenge themselves? Well, 100%. Yeah. I think that really said it all. You know, I think a lot of the development that was stunted was that maturity and mental toughness. And I think that, you know, whatever it was, even when they're in middle school that they're going through during COVID, like, I just can't think exactly what caused it, you know, to really come up with a team like that. So, there's definitely a difference in this generation of kids that's coming to high school right now. Specifically, you know, I talk about this all the time with my coach this year, because my coach has different high schools in San Diego. And specifically, the senior class right now is the most challenging class that we've ever had, the 2034 class. They seem to have the most issues with just behavioral issues in general and are really hard and challenging to deal with. Yeah, I guess I'll circle back to the birthday thing is so funny to me, because, like, honestly, like, if I had a birthday during practice, I would want to go to practice and be like, yeah, I get special treatment today, like, oh, shit. No, I would, like, I would, like, hand it up that way. But I think it really just, it might come down to that, you know, that period of, you know, kids were not really expected to do a whole lot for, like, a whole year in school. And it almost just quickly became like, oh, this is what school is now. So, and I've, you know, I've talked to a few of the teachers at Gross-Mont and they're, yeah, they've noticed it for sure. They've pinpointed the senior class this year also. So that's now two people that have said that. What are your numbers looking like right now? Yeah, you said you guys used to have, like, a varsity JV novice, right? What are your total numbers? Because I, right now, our tennis numbers, we only have a varsity team and we have, like, 10 guys total. So what are your numbers looking like compared to, you know, back in your day? Yeah, so we currently, right now, we have about 40 guys in the program who are JV and varsity, which is actually the most amount of kids that we've had in the past three years. Last year we had, I want to say, maybe 30 kids total, which made it so that we only had half of a JV season because we ended up, due to grades, not being able to play, so we ended up pulling the JV team. So right now we're at about 40 kids total in the program, which is pretty solid for us in the past three years. But prior to that, you know, back when I was in high school, we had at least 20 kids on each team, so it was, like, 60-plus kids in the program, which was pretty standard for all four years of high school. But after that, too, when I first got back from college in 2017, we still had at least, like, 50 to 60 kids in the program between our two teams, and we had good numbers. Okay, so last question. This has been great talking to you, by the way. You're giving a lot of answers that I guess I agree with because I've seen it, too, in sports. So I think it's – sometimes I was thinking, like, man, like, I was talking to my head coach. Is it us? Like, do they hate us? Like, why is no one coming out? But it's good to talk to some of the coaches and understand that we're not alone in this, I guess. But what was I going to say? I totally lost my train of thought. Can you go ahead? You were saying, I think, you know, for me, I'm pretty lucky because what the company does is all coaches. And so I actually have these conversations all the time. Okay, yeah. And so, you know, everything I'm trying to tell you right now seems to be pretty standard across the board. And, you know, I work with coaches who are at Coronado High School, who are at HHS High School, Walter High School. You know, so kind of alternating, but they're definitely different types. So they seem to be all going through the same thing. Do you get the sense that – you know, you said your numbers are kind of up over the last few years. Do you get the sense that this problem was just kind of like a blip in this, like, you know, four or five-year period and it's kind of on the way back? Or do you think it's kind of more of a long-standing problem, I guess? Oh, that's kind of tough to say. I mean, there's one thing I definitely noticed is that this freshman that I have right now who did decide to come out and stick with it, it seemed like, you know, these kids were tough and they want to stick with it. And it kind of seemed, you know, just very different from the other sophomores through seniors that I have on the team. So it almost is leading me to believe that maybe it was a blip in, like, you know, when we phase out. Or, like, you know, the next three to four years, we might be phasing out the kids of the COVID generation who, you know, were impacted the most by it. And it might, you know, start to look more similar to how it did before COVID. Yeah. But then also, like, I started the season and I didn't have enough birthday people. I did, like, the tryouts for our season, and then I had to go around and talk to teachers and actually went to the football team and went to the later sessions and just recruited kids. And so the reason I was able to get more kids out of the team, which I, you know, I was happy to do it. It was cool. But, you know, prior to that, we kind of had to do that. And I still work to kind of get teenage kids to come home, you know. Yeah. I was able to talk to, like, one of the PE classes one day. I don't know how much that worked, but, honestly, we got, like, ten kids, or, like, we have ten kids right now, and we were worried that we wouldn't even be able to fill the varsity at all. So, yeah, it's really kind of straight from the bottom of the barrel. But that's kind of it I have for you. Great talking to you. I hope you guys have a great rest of your season. Good luck with all that. And, yeah, take it easy. Yeah, thank you. All right. See you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.