Stylin Strings went on a very special trip for the first day of the spring NCAA lacrosse season. Gerry Byrne and Jon Rodak contacted us on behalf of the men's lacrosse team to take care of their stringing needs to make sure each player has every opportunity to be consistent and play their best this year.
This was our second attempt to fly out to visit with the team, the first time we were thwarted by a FAA facility fire at Chicago O'Hare airport back at the end of September 2014. The team contacted us again and set up a new departure date on January 10th & 11th of 2015.
This time there was no such incident and T-bird, Dustin, Justin, and Van packed our bags and headed to South Bend, Indiana. We arrived in our rental SUV after a drive from Chicago to shake hands with the players at their team dinner. When we arrived we were greeted with a full spread of Italian food, as we shook hands with the players as well as their head coach, Kevin Corrigan.
After our initial meet and greet, we headed over to the basketball arena with the team and were ushered in to our front row seats to watch No. 8 ranked Notre Dame play No.2 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. At one point in the game a player headed straight into the stands after a ball nearly running us over. The play made it to ESPN and if you were watching you would have seen us trying to help the player up as well as waving to the camera. It was an exciting game however the Irish fell to UVA by a score of 62-56.
After the game was over we were taken up to the illustrious trophy room, which was everything it should be. Display case after display case of the universities accomplishments so overwhelming that they were running out of space for the engraved names of their outstanding student – athletes.
We were up bright and early out of the hotel to enjoy a full complimentary breakfast with the team and to meet Gerry Byrne, assistant coach to the 2014-2015 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse team for a rundown of the days’ schedule of activities. After and amazing tour of the campus and a few photo opportunities in front of the spectacular dome, we were off the locker room facilities and practice field.
Head Coach Corrigan gave us a proper introduction and we started analyzing players cradling and shooting motions to see each players overall style to best outfit them with the high end pockets that they will be using this year.
During the break in their practice we joined the team for a lunch catered by Chipotle. Stylin Strings provided the team with a presentation outlining everything we can help them with this year. Each player also received one on one time with our stringers to take notes and testing out a few demos, even a couple games of Ping-Pong. With all of the information we needed, we stopped by their second session of practice so the players could use the demos on field and to finalize the process of making sure every player has the highest quality pocket possible.
We want to thank coaches Kevin Corrigan and Gerry Byrne as well as John Rodak and the entire Notre Dame Lacrosse organization for the hospitality, and we look forward to our new partnership and helping the team to play the best lacrosse possible this year.
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