2008 Woodie Awards
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM
Emily Erickson '06 takes time out to talk lax
Tom McCann
Issue date: 3/16/06 Section: Sports
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The Campus: So, why lacrosse?
Emily Erickson: Well, I played lacrosse, basketball and field hockey in high school and I thought about playing all of them here, but decided that there was other stuff that I wanted to do. I kinda thought lacrosse would be a cool sport to play since we've done pretty well traditionally at Middlebury, so I went for it and it's been great.
TC: When did you start playing?
EE: Eighth grade. My dad actually played lacrosse and he said, "why don't you try this?" and so I did - and I liked it a lot better than softball.
TC: Why is Middlebury so good at lacrosse?
EE: I don't know - I think a lot of it starts with the coaches because they do a great job of recruiting and trying to get great players to come. The first time that the team was successful drew players to recognize it and Missy Foote has been around for 25 years or something like that so she knows what she's doing. I think that's probably the main reason and just the fact that I think the mindset of the team is really positive - it's competitive, I mean we work hard in practice, but we don't go at each other or get competitive within the team and that helps us be tight on the field and we hang out a lot off the field too - we get on pretty well.
TC: Do you do anything tactically that's different from other teams?
EE: We play a zone defense - that's sort of different from a lot of the other teams. A lot of them play man to man. That's something that we work on a lot and it's something we're pretty proud of because we work really hard to make it pretty tight and successful. A lot of teams have a hard time playing against it because they don't have one to practice against. That's probably one of the main things - we try to fast break a lot too - we have a pretty good transition game.
TC: What will you miss least about Middlebury lacrosse?
EE: [Laughs] Probably some of the conditioning that we do. One thing I will actually not miss is the pre-season conditioning tests that we do on our first day. It's pretty rough - it's the day before we start practicing with sticks so it's push-ups, sit-ups, abdominal stuff, sprints, two mile runs etc… Fortunately, we just do it at the beginning of the season - it's a part of tryouts and then from there we just kinda do conditioning at the end of practice a lot, but nothing that intense.
Emily Erickson: Well, I played lacrosse, basketball and field hockey in high school and I thought about playing all of them here, but decided that there was other stuff that I wanted to do. I kinda thought lacrosse would be a cool sport to play since we've done pretty well traditionally at Middlebury, so I went for it and it's been great.
TC: When did you start playing?
EE: Eighth grade. My dad actually played lacrosse and he said, "why don't you try this?" and so I did - and I liked it a lot better than softball.
TC: Why is Middlebury so good at lacrosse?
EE: I don't know - I think a lot of it starts with the coaches because they do a great job of recruiting and trying to get great players to come. The first time that the team was successful drew players to recognize it and Missy Foote has been around for 25 years or something like that so she knows what she's doing. I think that's probably the main reason and just the fact that I think the mindset of the team is really positive - it's competitive, I mean we work hard in practice, but we don't go at each other or get competitive within the team and that helps us be tight on the field and we hang out a lot off the field too - we get on pretty well.
TC: Do you do anything tactically that's different from other teams?
EE: We play a zone defense - that's sort of different from a lot of the other teams. A lot of them play man to man. That's something that we work on a lot and it's something we're pretty proud of because we work really hard to make it pretty tight and successful. A lot of teams have a hard time playing against it because they don't have one to practice against. That's probably one of the main things - we try to fast break a lot too - we have a pretty good transition game.
TC: What will you miss least about Middlebury lacrosse?
EE: [Laughs] Probably some of the conditioning that we do. One thing I will actually not miss is the pre-season conditioning tests that we do on our first day. It's pretty rough - it's the day before we start practicing with sticks so it's push-ups, sit-ups, abdominal stuff, sprints, two mile runs etc… Fortunately, we just do it at the beginning of the season - it's a part of tryouts and then from there we just kinda do conditioning at the end of practice a lot, but nothing that intense.