💭 FCL Weekly Thought: Friday 1/31/25

Happy Friday, and welcome to all new subscribers! This weeks email covers some thoughts around the 2025 college season and modern lacrosse trends as we head into week 1 tomorrow. We launched our first in-season podcast episode today and had some great college coach webinars in our coaching communities between Maryland’s Jesse Bernhardt and Army’s Charlotte Sofield.

This Week at a Glance:

🎙️ FCL Podcast:

• Episode 1 of FCL’s In-Season NCAA Podcast

🔐Coach Community Webinars:

• (1/28) Jesse Bernhardt: Maryland On-Ball Defensive Drills & Techniques

• (1/28) Charlotte Sofield: Army Small Sided Competitive Drills

 ✍️ FCL Blogs:

• 10 Predictions for 2025 NCAA Season

• 3 Ways to Defend Passing Lanes

WEEKLY THOUGHT

💭 The 2025 College Season is Here

The first weekend of college lacrosse is upon us. We shared some thoughts on this week’s FCL In-Season Podcast, diving into early season matchups, key takeaways, and the big-picture trends shaping the sport. One of the biggest themes we kept coming back to? Lacrosse is becoming more fluid, dynamic, and positionless—and it’s changing the way teams build their offenses and defenses.

The Era of Positionless Lacrosse is Here

If there’s one thing we’ve noticed over the last few years, it’s that traditional lacrosse positions don’t mean what they used to. Attackmen aren’t just sitting at X anymore, waiting to feed, and midfielders aren’t just dodging from up top. The best offenses are built around movement, adaptability, and putting players in spots where they can be dangerous, no matter what their listed position is.

We saw it last year with guys like Pat Kavanagh and Connor Shellenberger, who didn’t just operate from one area of the field—they dodged from the wings, from up top, from behind, wherever they could create an advantage. Defensively, that puts a ton of pressure on teams. You can’t just match your top pole on an attackman and call it a day. Now you need defenders who can handle a guy at X one possession, then slide up top to cover him as a midfielder the next.

This isn’t just a trend—it’s where the game is going. We’re seeing more two-man games in space, more offenses that flow instead of following set patterns, and more teams putting their best dodgers wherever they have a mismatch instead of sticking to traditional roles. Defenders have to adapt, too. The days of being just an on-ball cover guy are fading. You’ve got to be able to navigate picks, communicate through switches, and understand how to defend off the ball in a constantly shifting offense.

It’s still early in the season, but we’re already seeing these trends play out across the country. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be watching to see which teams lean into this modern, positionless approach and which ones try to stick with a more traditional style. We’ll break it all down as the season unfolds.

Best, 

Coach Dunn & Coach Class

IN THE COMMUNITY

Our online community is firing with webinar guests leading up to the season. We cut each webinar into usable drills and tips for you to get the information you need easily.

Watch our most recent webinars with Coach Jesse Bernhardt and Coach Charlotte Sofield.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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Best In Class D3 Showcase

☀️ FCL Summer Camp

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