BOTC - US Lacrosse Community Forum Forums NORTHEAST LACROSSE BOTC MAIN FORUM (LI, CT, WC) Girls High School Lax

We liked Liberty..the local practices worked out well and the training you get is at least as much/more than what other programs offer. Liberty plays in a decent # of tournaments that are competitive.
Compared to an Elevate, another North Shore program, it w/b a no brainer to go with Liberty--"crook" element is a lot less!

I wanted to offer some info based on the facts. Based on the "Alumni/Commitment" section of the liberty website, 11 of the 16 "Class of 2019" commitments are non-Manhasset players.

Crook element? Really? Well looks like DG is now part of that considering the speculation surrounding her firing. I would go YJ or Top Guns. Both quality programs. Liberty is winding down. Couldn’t fill 2 teams per grade this year. Good luck.

Interesting statistics but at least two of those girls or Top Guns until this summer. The only reason they left Top Guns was to play with their Garden City friends. So they weren’t committed while playing for liberty. They’re playing for liberty for fun

as many folks here have alluded to...what is the "speculation" you speak of?..please do us all a favor and shed some light on the "speculation"....

Absolutely would go with Liberty and I live out in Suffolk. Daughter does NOT play Liberty. She and her liberty staff are amazing coaches and she coached the #1 ranked HS team in the country this year. I saw somebody mention Elevate for Nassau - the coaching on that club is not good. They pull some good kids from CSH and huntington but the coaching really lacks and I wont comment on the director of that club (can leave that to others). Take Liberty hands down.

Liberty absolutely has 2 teams in age groups - we played their Red team (2nd team a few weeks ago). If you post something at least be honest and factual.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wanted to offer some info based on the facts. Based on the "Alumni/Commitment" section of the liberty website, 11 of the 16 "Class of 2019" commitments are non-Manhasset players. [/quote

Those 2 girls you mentioned are not on the Liberty list. They are still listed on the TG website, Florida and Fairfield.

No , Liberty has been way more irrelevant from their start . Has Liberty ever had the best team on LI in any age group. I would say YJ probably has the top team in every age group on LI in 3 out of every 4 age groups possibly more .YJ still dominating the amount of players on teams representing LI like UA. YJ still has much better commitments to college programs .

I live out in suffolk and my daughter played liberty, All the negative things you see posted about DG i never experienced in all my time dealing with her. She was very attentive to my daughters individual recruiting needs and was very honest and forthright with us. Meg is absolutely fantastic with the girls and my daughter swears by them. The parents, not only from 'set, but from all the towns represented on my daughters team were fun and engaging. DG is no more slanted towards her 'set girls than CR is to Northport girls, BT is to ESM girls or AB is to Mts girls. To all the parents that respect DG there is a petition on the Change.org site to support her. Anything a parent on here reads from any person that is not affiliated with or a part of liberty does not know what they are talking about. Many parents get angry (or at least they did when we were on the team) because DG actually makes cuts because she does not want any more teams than she can handle, and give personal attention to (the real reason behind having only 2 teams per age)

Thanks for the honest insight. As I said, we want a decent club close to home. We are realistic with our expectations and just want a reputable program in Nassau with good coaching. Well then hopefully, the Liberty club can continue and not wind down.

The Manhasset girls varsity lacrosse coach was not reappointed to her role about two weeks after she led the team to a Class B state championship win.

The members of the team, and many of their parents, filled the Charlie Cardillo Community Room at Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting to voice concern over the district’s decision to not reappointing coach Danielle Gallagher.

One mother said the decision robs the team of all they accomplished – adding that Gallagher’s removal taints the girls state win on June 9.

The board said they could not discuss personnel matters in public.

“Personnel is personal,” Trustee Pat Aitken said.

All coaching assignments are made as year-to-year appointments, and recommendations for upcoming coaching assignments will be made over the summer.

Board President Regina Rule said this was the first she was hearing of the situation as well.

“I had a daughter on the 2014 team, so I have a sense of what you all are feeling in terms of celebratory mood that you had and the joy that you had on the field this year,” Rule said. ” … And i just want to say my heart is with you and we wish for you the best.”

Rule added that she’s grateful to the parents and students that came out, and thanks them for “understanding what we need to go through in following up with this.”

The board suggested a group of two to four people set up an appointment to discuss with Superintendent Vincent Butera.

Butera said he can meet as early as the first week of July.

“I can understand the frustration with the process, but there are things we can’t say,” Butera said.

Efforts to reach Gallagher were unavailing.

Gallagher, a two-time first team All-American athlete at the College of William and Mary, has been coaching the Manhasset team for about eight years and coached the team to a state championship victory in 2014 as well.

She’s served as a member of the U.S. Elite Women’s Lacrosse team beginning in 1987__

____
To Manhasset Parents, Alumni, Future Girls Lacrosse Players of Manhasset, and Other Supporters,

Appallingly, the Varsity Girls Lacrosse Coach, Danielle Gallagher, was told by the Athletic Director, Jim Amen that “We are moving in a different direction”, and that her 13-year coaching tenure at Manhasset was finished. There were no other reasons given, as Mr. Amen indicated that ‘he didn’t have to, coaching is a season, to season contract”.

At this week’s Manhasset school board meeting, the Manhasset Girls Varsity Team was recognized for their incredible season, winning the Nassau County, Long Island and New York State Championships. Missing from this momentous acknowledgement was their leader and coach, Danielle Gallagher.

At the meeting, parents and team players filled the room and spoke about Danielle’s passion for the sport, the amazing season that the girls had just finished, the importance of Danielle in the recruiting process, her leadership and willingness to be a part of the girls lives 365 days of the years, as opposed to just the season, her knowledge, her critical eye, her relationship with the girls – and so many other emotions and valued comments.

Questions evolved regarding – “How does the athletic director have this power, without consulting the school board”. It was explained that in the past, the athletic director addresses his recommendations to the superintendent’s office, which is then reviewed and indicated on a personnel schedule that the board votes on every time it meets. Regina Rule, the President of the Board, also indicated that the board cannot comment on personnel matters in an open forum, like the board meeting.

The board assured that in a timely matter, they would accept letters, emails, and meetings with Dr. Butera, to establish some sort of understanding of the actions of Mr. Amen.

Of the 40 years of history of girls lacrosse at Manhasset, Danielle has been a key component for 13 years. That’s over 32% of the legacy of Manhasset Girls Lacrosse! After winning a State Championship – what other direction is there but down?

You’re not correct. Those 2 players are not on the list. I guess what you’re saying is if your daughter doesn’t want to have fun, play for Top Guns.

I was curious so I took a peek. They don’t even have all of their commits up. My niece is a 2018 (non set) who has played for liberty forever. She’s not listed and will play in college. I think DG helps those who want to help themselves. Regardless of what town they live in

My daughter plays for TG and loves it. But if I lived in western Nassau there is NO WAY I would drive to west bab for practice twice a week. It’s about time and convenience

Pretty extraordinary when past players post a public Facebook statement exposing/denouncing their coach. And over 125 past players/parents/school alum like it.

We recently played Liberty 2019 Black and they are very good. If not the best they are one of the top teams. I went and looked at the 2019 Liberty recruits and they have an impressive list which explains why they have such a strong team.

STAY AWAY from Elevate and the Directors in that club. Just awful and the coaching is NON existent.

The real question is should a varsity HS coach be allowed to take money via their club team from their prospective players and expect all families to keep their noses clean by only choosing their organization? Is there punishment if they choose a different club? Isn’t it just time to end this charade and find coaches to lead young lacrosse players minus the resentment and anger and expectations? Why does the BOE in Manhasset allow parent coaches, coaches related to players and owners of travel teams to coach at the varsity level? Time for change.

They’ve been living with this for such a long time that I think it had to be something having to do with a grade change or something academics like that.

How is that different than CR at Northport, Tracy weiner at Farmingde and all the YJ coaches? Elevate at Trinity? The other elevate director at Friends? And so on acrosss the island?

Does that include Carol Rose, Becky Thorn, and Al Bertalone

GC Coach the smartest...doesn't coach outside the HS!

NJ has a rule that prevents coaches who run club teams from coaching at the HS level. Makes it easy to avoid conflict of interests. NY should institute the same.

Agreed. Kudos to that woman for finding the strength to speak about it. This is highly unlikely a one time occurrence either. It really is a sad way to treat young women as an adult coach.

Danielle is not a teacher. Nor a full time employee of the school district. She is an outside contractor. As such, she is employed on a year to year basis. Private schools can hire whomever they want as they are well, private. CR is a teacher at Northport. I'm not sure of the others but you get the idea.

It is obviously a conflict of interest. If your kid didn't play for her HS coaches club yet some of the kids on her HS team did, you don't think that's a problem? Don't you think the coach should be beyond reproach? Do you your daughter's Math teacher to tutor her? Of course not. But it's allowed in a school sport. Can't have double standards - the policy needs to be uniform.

It's an issue across NYS not just the schools mentioned above. While this may have contributed to the firing of DG, I doubt its's the sole reason. Any insight as to other reasons?

Yes.

On the girls side, boys side is a entirely different story

what is the facebook link?..if you want to share...?..thanks

Medusa is all GC girls travel team

So....what I find interesting that not too long ago (less than 10 years) all the rage was getting HS coaches to coach summer teams. It was said......great to have my HS coach as summer coach, great that players can learn HS system, great that team will learn to play together...oh yea the infamous- great not to have a "daddy" coach.... great that the cost should be cheaper than the few very selective travel teams, etc......... Fast forward to now......and you all are saying.....Get rid of these money hungry HS coaches who don't like my kid and therefore don't play my kid......Sooooo for all you whiners what is your solution??? Cant have "daddy coach, cant have college kid coach (all they do is wear flip flops), cant have a HS coach........So WHO coaches???? The truth is chances are most of the girls playing summer travel are not good enough to play under the old travel model which only had a few highly selective teams. Now with more teams more girls get opportunity to play. I'm curious to see some of the solutions to who can/should coach.....but I'm sure will receive more stupid comments than solutions

I'd like to see it too. There's a FB page supporting DG but I didn't seeing one denouncing her. Can you share?

Maybe you feel that way with coaching in the past. However, a family should have the choice to play on any travel team not just the one associated with their town including Manhasset with Liberty and YJ with Northport. A coach cannot be objective with that type of conflict - do they choose the starter based on skill or the one that is paying them fees to be on their club? or the one that pays them money to give them privates? Their is an obvious conflict so remove it entirely. Will the coach be objective when a college coach asks about players? Perhaps but no one knows for certain. Certain teams are good and competitive but not all as you mention. Usually the top teams for most of these clubs are good and those top players get recruited to some top college lacrosse programs. I don't care who owns the club or coaches for the club but the school district cannot have that conflict - if you want to coach a HS club team or own it then you can't coach the HS team. There is an inherent conflict. School policy dictates a teacher cannot tutor their own students and the same policy should exist for the HS coaches and the players.

Amen!!!

Bottom line is every college coach returns DG's phone calls, it's a very small fraternity and she has relationships with just about every coach that matters

If you think these club owners care about anything other than your check clearing you're a lost cause. I can't imagine them taking the time to plot against your superstar daughter because she is playing for another club. More often than not, the kid is just not as good a player as the parents think, HS and Club lax can be a lot different from her glory days at the PAL field

Hope you are this interested with the HS coaches that are involved in....soccer, basketball, softball, volleyball club teams etc. So your solution is coach decides between club/travel or HS to coach. A little extreme don't you think. This whole nonsense about HS coaches involved with club/travel typically involves a marginal player who feels they are not getting playing time etc.The truth is, If you are good you play. So again I ask.... what is your solution??? If no HS coaches can coach club.....who coaches travel/club. And I cant wait to hear the whiners when "daddy coaches" return to travel/club scene.

My daughter plays for them. Not all GC. Great coaching with no connection to HS. GC needs to look at conflicts!

I totally agree with your point. While there are always exceptions to the rule, having the most qualified coaches coaching both at the high school level and the club provides the most benefit to the vast majority of serious players.

As to the DG issue, Manhasset won the state championship this year. How can one argue that club team players were favored over others when the team won 20 straight games and achieved the highest level possible at the high school level. The argument falls flat on its face when the team wins it all. The coaches obviously put the best players on the field to put them in the best position to win.

And if there were parents complaining to the AD about playing time after the team winning the state title, shame on them. What a great lesson they’re teaching their kids about being a member of a team...