ZACK GREER

Check out the new “Joe Knows” blog from the Minnesota Swarm website.  I am trying to figure out how to add the video right to the site but I’ll have to get back to you on that.

http://www.mnswarm.com/videoplayer.asp?IS_PLAY=Y&MM_FILE_ID=232

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Took this pic with a huge Swarm fan on Friday. It’s this kind of thing that makes the whole lax life worth while.  

Still getting used to life in St. Paul MN.  The apartment is great and we are meeting a bunch of new people.  All the local guys, myself, Joe Cinoski, Colin Achenbach, Sean Pollack, and Ryan Ward, member of the Edmonton Rush who lives in the area, have been working out with a guy named Tim Pelot.  Its been and awesome prep for camp coming up next weekend. The guy is legit and obviously its easier to get jacked up when you’re working out with some of your boys.  It’s been great getting to spend some time with the fellas too, hopefully making the transition a little easier for me. There’s lots to learn in this league and these guys have already been and will continue to be a big help to me.

Basically just getting ready for camp now, Im off the wagon or on the wagon whatever the saying is when you’ve stopped drinking.  The body needed a rest post Hawaii and its been a big help in getting my strength and conditioning back up.  The facility we are working out in also has a big turf area with NLL goals, courtesy of Wardo, where we’ve been able to throw the ball around a little bit.  It’s definitely going to take some time to get accustomed to shooting on those nets, and making quicker decisions again, but luckily our team is stacked with veteran guys that will hopefully be able to help me speed up that process.  Camp is going to be a battle this year.  From talking to guys on the roster, and people in the know, looks like everybody is in great shape, and we are going to have a ton of good players at camp.  Should be fun, we head up to Six Nations on Friday to get things started.

Last night we had a meet and greet at Alary’s Bar in St. Paul. It was a real nice chance for me to get to meet some of the fans and people in the area who are going to help make this a great year.  This place might be my new spot too.  It’s only like 5 blocks from where we are living and its for real.  A ton of tv’s and a beauty sports bar atmosphere.  This week we will get a close up look at camp on the video, and figure out how to get some of that stuff up online.  I’m attaching a link to the media day Cino and I did the other day at the Excel Center too.

http://www.mnswarm.com/videoplayer.asp?IS_PLAY=Y&MM_FILE_ID=229

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Finally settled in St. Paul. I;m living in a killer apartment with Joe Cinoski right downtown, and it looks like one more guys is going to be moving in, maybe Andrew Watt.  Should be a good time. Our place is decked out and comes with an indoor pool and hot tub, which has already been awesome. I’m gonna try and get some pics up in the near future once all the walls are hooked up and everything. Also got some from the Bubba Gumps Carving for Kids event that Cino and I hit up a couple weeks ago. A good time and a good cause to raise some money for.

Last week I went to Waikiki for the Hawaiian Lax Tournament with the Crease Monkeys. Special thanks to Harry Mazaheri for putting together such a great time with a great crew of people. It was a ridiculous time, the scene there over halloween is unreal with thousands upon thousands or tourists looking to have a good time. Our team got along real well and certainly took full advantage of being in Hawaii.  I’m going to throw up some pics from the trip, I’m definitely not a photographer but some of these things actually turned out pretty well.

We played three Japanese teams in the round robin, who weren’t the best competition, but they really remind you what’s important in the game of lacrosse. They just love to play, no matter what the score or scenario, they are out there enjoying it. It was a pleasure to take some pics with these guys and trade a jersey or two. In the semis we played a team from San Fran which gave us a little scare early on. We went down 3-0 in the first 5 mins, and were able to come away with a 14-6 win I think. Obviously we weren’t a good starting team because in the finals we went down 5-0 then 6-1. Wimmer Solutions was a real good team and we managed to pull away in the 4th a little for a 14-9 win. Great competition especially for a club tournament.

We then spent the next 3-4 days on the North shore in an absurd home right on the beach. I’m trying to get ahold of some pictures of this place cuz unfortunately my camera died at this point with no charger on the trip. Rookie move. Anyways, great time, got a few souvenirs and a place I will definitely be going back too. Check out these pics, let me know what you think.

I’m losing my mind and can’t get these pics to upload. I’ll get back to it tomorrow and get that figured out.

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This has been a crazy couple of weeks. Including a long drive to Minnesota, a ridiculous trip to Hawaii and moving into a sick apartment downtown.  I’ll be filling in more when I get some time tomorrow but I hope the life of a professional lacrosse is always like this. I’ve got a ton of pics and some video coming up real soon too.

International: Update from Team Canada’s training camp this weekend

October 10th, 2009 by Sean Burns

This update is courtesy of Team Canada Lacrosse

Zack Greer, Garrett Billings, Adam Jones and Stephen Keogh are pushing hard to make Canada’s world field lacrosse team.

They are impressive young attackers trying to win spots during a three-day selection camp that began Saturday in Toronto. They’ve got their work cut out for them, but they’re not intimidated in their quest to be part of Canada’s defence of its world title in Manchester, England, next July.

“You have to come in here with a confident attitude,’’ says Greer. “A lot of us young guys have had a lot of success at different levels so we come in confident but, at the same time, there are a lot of great players here so you need to find a way to make a difference.

“You have to tread that fine line between trying to do too much and doing what you’re good at. It’s certainly exciting to be playing with some of the best players in the sport.’’

Greer was a junior box lacrosse standout in Whitby, Ont., starred in U.S. college field lacrosse at Duke and Bryant and was the No. 3 pick in the recent NLL draft by the Minnesota Swarm. He whipped in a powerful sidearm shot for a goal during the camp’s first intrasquad game. The hitting was heavy.

“It’s the Canadian style and you’ve got to be ready for it,’’ he said. “I definitely expected that coming in, for sure.’’

Head coach David Huntley has his pick of such pro shooters as Dan Dawson, Shawn Williams, Jeff Zywicki, John Grant, Mark Steenhuis, Gavin Prout, Merrick Thomson and Jordan Hall, so the rookies are going to have to be eye-popping good to win a roster spot.

“It’s nerve wracking,’’ a sweaty Jones said as he left the St. Michael’s College School field after the first intrasquad test. “You’re out here with people you grew up watching, some of your favourite players.

“You try not to get starstruck. It’s really neat. It’s a great opportunity.’’

Jones plays field lacrosse at Canisius College in Buffalo. The native of Owen Sound, Ont., was named Minto Cup MVP when he helped the Orangeville Northmen win the 2009 Canadian junior championship.

His father, Brian Jones, played on Canada’s team that won the world title in 1978, also in England. Did he get any advice before attending camp?

“He just said, `Work your hardest. Keep your head up and good things will happen.’ He said it would be pretty neat to have both of us, father and son, play for Canada.’’

Hopefuls had to pay their own way to the camp, and Billings came all the way from Langley, B.C.

“I’ve wanted to play for Team Canada since I was a little kid,’’ he said. “If I make the team, it’ll be the fulfillment of a life-long dream.’’

Billings was drafted by the NLL’s Toronto Rock last month out of the University of Virginia. He tried out for the 2006 world team and was one of the final cuts.

“I’m competing with a lot of other righty attackmen and we’ve got quite a few good ones,’’ he said. “I’ll give it my best shot.’’

He always seems to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner in Langley.

“This is the fifth year in a row I haven’t been home for Thanksgiving so I’ve learned to deal with it,’’ he said with a grin.

Players pay their own transportation costs to take part in the three-day camp.

“I couldn’t let this opportunity get away from me just because it’s costing a few bucks,’’ said Billings.

Keough is from Toronto so he would have been home from Syracuse University for Thanksgiving anyway. He was a teammate of Jones in Oranageville and preceded Jones as Minto Cup MVP.

“It’s a great experience playing against the best players in Canada,’’ Keogh said. “It’s a great opportunity. I’ll work hard. Representing Canada has been something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid.’’

He took an overhand shot that sent the ball into a bottom corner of the net.

“Everyone is going hard,’’ he said. “They’re working their tails off.’’

Huntley stood alone watching the action.

“They all played pretty well,’’ he said after the first scrimmage when asked about the wave of young talent. “You can kind of tell the different levels of experience.

“Zach and Billings are a couple of years more advanced than Keogh and Jones. You look at decision making and things like that. You can see their maturity a little bit more. On the flip side, you also saw a lot of energy from Keogh and Jones. It’s a matter of bottling that energy and sending it in the right direction.’’

Canada’s team will try to play a hybrid style combining field and box strategies.

“We try not to play college field lacrosse,’’ Huntley explained. “We’re not very good when we do that.

“That’s one of the challenges for some of our younger guys. They’re in college programs right now and some of the stuff they do there doesn’t mesh as well with what some of our other guys do.’’

Wow this weekend was intense.  Anytime you can put on the uniform representing your country it’s a huge honor.  This was obviously a tryout camp, but we were still wearing the leaf, something everyone was excited about.   It was set up so that we would play five games over the three days of Canadian Thanksgiving.  Four of those games were intersquad and the other game, Sunday morning, had the 55 players split into two teams where we played against Notre Dame at Orchard Park High School in Buffalo.  Obviously, the talent was absurd. So many great players at this camp all ready to compete.  The first game wasn’t spectacular, most of us were trying to get our legs going, and attempting to figure out the style of play.  There was a fine line between doing too much and making sure you were still making a difference on the field.  The coaches didn’t seem pleased with the decision making early in camp, but everyone seemed to pick it up a the sessions went on.  All in all I thought everyone deserved to be there and its going to be a real tough decision for the staff.  Looks like we are going to be finding out the team sometime this week, which is nice.  Its much better knowing we won’t have to wait weeks. You can check out the website, they’ve got some cool stuff going on.  www.teamcanadalacrosse.com

This week is going to be great.  I’m going to be moving out to Minnesota at some point, I can’t wait to get out there and get settled.  Also, I have just confirmed that I’ll be playing in the Hawaii lax tourney over Halloween.  There’s a solid crop of guys going out there and the Crease Monkeys are looking forward to taking home a title.

Been a while, been real busy lately.  The edge weekend went real well we didn’t end up winning but the boys competed real well and put out a show for both Yale and Bryant.   This weekend is Team Canada tryouts up in Toronto at St.Mikes school.  We are also playing a couple of games this Sunday s Notre Dame in Orchard Park, NY.  There’s a ton of good players out at this camp, it’s going to be real competitive. Its going to be fun, my bro is going to be out there too trying to D-me-up.  I feel good, pretty healthy, the hand is coming along so looking forward to getting out there. 

Coming up we are going to have some serious video on here.  Went ahead a grabbed one of the Flip video cameras, these things are becoming legendary.  You can follow me this weekend and we’ll be keeping tabs from now on, including the move out to Minny right through camp and into the season. 

Heard today that another local boy from Whitby that I grew up playing with has signed with the Swarm and will be at camp.  That makes four of us trying out for the squad from my hometown so it’d be nice if we all can do out part.  Jay Winder, Steve Hutchins and Alex Henderson are the boys.

Keep checking back things are heating up.

Big things going on.  Contract negotiations seem to be going well, looking forward to making it official and getting out there.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about the St. Paul/ Minneapolis area.  This weekend I will be getting to do some stuff with Edge Lacrosse, a company I work for from Canada.  We are playing games at Yale and Bryant this coming weekend, those teams getting to use their International date for the fall.  I’m also jacked up about going to the Bruins Game Saturday night, they open up on Thursday and then play again at home on Saturday against the Hurricanes.  Need some payback for knocking them out of the playoffs last year. 

We got some legwork done for the Foundation in the past couple of days, there’s alot of behind the scenes stuff that takes a ton of work.  Found out some of the legal issues we need to take care of in terms of the IRS and tax exemption stuff.  We are still working on the site, getting some video ready, should be solid.  Other than that, Team Canada tryout camp is getting closer, that’s the weekend of Oct 9th.  Going to be a battle with so many talented guys, especially those who play my position.  Still working hard, hitting the weights, the track and the cage.

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My cousin Shawn for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ8bZIj-HAE&feature=fvsr

So I headed down to Smithfield RI the past few days to officially receive my diploma from the grad school and get some runs in on the practice field.  So the grad dinner went real well, but Coach P had to change practice plans from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday morning at 6 am. Terrible.  I need to get as much prep as I can before Team Canada tryouts in two weeks, so I decided to go out there anyways.  It was a good time, nice to get out there with the boys and run around a little bit, got a few middie runs in as well.  It was however the worst 4:45am wake up of all time.  I finally got to get some serious reps in with the new Reebok gear, it was dynamite.  The 10k just rippin’ G’s. 

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