From Professional to Coach: Meet the new head boys lacrosse coach

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PLL

Tim Troutner will continue having a career in playing lacrosse professionally plus being head coach of the boys lacrosse team

Taylor Chronert, Staff Reporter

The Vandegrift lacrosse season is about to begin and to kick off the season, Vandegrift welcomes new lacrosse coach, Tim Troutner. Tryouts for lacrosse will begin next week, the season officially beginning Feb. 5.

“What I am most excited for with coaching is seeing the boys play and having them do what they love,” Troutner said. “I don’t want to be too hard on them, it is a high school lacrosse game. I don’t want them to over think it and treat it like a college or professional game.”

Lacrosse has been a big part of Troutner’s life and he’s grown up playing the sport. He first started playing when he was only four years old. 

“That’s when I started playing for a team, I actually played for two years off,” Troutner said.” I got into the game because my dad played it, my older sisters played it. Being that I am from Maryland, lacrosse is so big, we have more fans at lacrosse games than football games.”

Troutner said that what he loves most about lacrosse and the sport is the relationships you build from the sport and how small the community is.

“It’s almost like a fraternity in that aspect,” Troutner said. “When you see someone in the airport wearing a lacrosse sweatshirt, you’re like ‘oh my gosh, they play lacrosse, that’s so cool!’ compared to other sports where you just don’t think about it.”

As Troutner grew up so did his love for lacrosse and he knew he wanted to carry that passion on, which is why he decided to play lacrosse for his school, High Point University, then went professional years later. 

“I got a call from Kylie Harrison, a guy I used to look up to when I was a kid, and he told me ‘I think you  should really do this, it’d be great for you,’” Troutner said. “So as someone I used to look up to and to get a call from a legend like that, and I was like ‘you know what, I’m going to do this thing.’”

Currently Troutner plays for the PLL Redwoods where he plays goalie. Troutner says that what he likes about being a goalie is having the last line of defense. 

“A lot of pressure is on you and you can have an impact on the game,” Troutner said. “If you play really bad it’s noticeable or if you play really good, it’s noticeable, so I like having that player impact mentality where if I do well, I know we’re going to do well.”

Troutner said that one of the things he likes best about playing for PLL Redwoods is that it’s a travel base team.

“I graduated from college in 2019 so I’m still young when I graduated, but it’s a tour based model so we travel around different cities and play,” Troutner said. “I graduated from college and I got to travel to twelve different cities and play lacrosse there, so that’s something I love, just getting to travel and play.”

When Vandegrift announced that they were looking for a new coach to coach the boys lacrosse team, Troutner said he put his name in the hat as he has coached some of the kids before, but didn’t feel like he was going to get the position.

“I’m super young, I’m only twenty-four years old, when everyone else’s coaches are a little older and a lot more experienced,” Troutner said. “However, I just know that with my play and my IQ of the game, I thought it’d be a great fit to spread the game, which was my biggest goal when I moved out here two years ago.”

As being a new coach, Troutner said that what he’s most nervous about for coaching is adversity. 

“What that means is that you never know when it’s going to happen at any form or you can never prepare for it,” Troutner said. “Right now there’s nothing really that I’m nervous about, but there might be something that pops up like someone gets really hurt or something happens, COVID breakout, there’s adversity that I think worries me that happens throughout the year.”

Even though Trourtner said the adversity makes him nervous, he also mentioned that he’s looking forward to having an impact on the kids. 

“Right when I went to high school, the first two years we had an older coach and the last two years, we had a coach that is just like me, a guy that played professional and a super young guy,” Tourtner said. “He talked to me and my friend group and I don’t think I’d be where I was without them, so it’s my goal to have a positive impact on these kids and always help them out.”

Balancing both coaching and playing professionally has never been hard for Trourtner and he mentioned that he’s lucky to have both seasons be spread out. 

“My season is not till the summer, I play the summer,” Troutner said. “So right when our high school season ends, my season starts, so I play lacrosse from January till September, so it’s a long time for coaching and playing.”

Some of the teachings and strategies that Troutner said he’s going to give to this team of high school lacrosse players is building a good culture.

“I think any culture beats schemes, and what that means is I think a good team that really cares about each other then all this other scripted stuff, so my goal is to build a team atmosphere with everyone playing together,” Troutner said.

As a new coach, something Troutner would love to see from the boys this season is everyone buying in and pull the rope the right way. 

“No one cares if they are playing or not, everyone is just all in, and I want the team to succeed so that’s my goal is to have everyone bonded, and it doesn’t matter if you are the best player or the worst player, but everyone wants to be there for a common goal,” Troutner said.