Michael Lapham

mlapham@emich.edu

Junior Varsity Head Coach

2010 will be my first year in a head coaching position. Previous to this I have spent time as a fundamentals coach at Total Lacrosse in Wixom under Michigan State head coach Dwayne Hicks. I have also coached fundamentals at a boys residential summer camp in Massachussettes, Camp Winadu.

I am a senior at EMU, and I am graduating with a degree in Psychology and a minor in history. I will be graduating cum laude. After school I plan on working for the communications company, Lone Buffalo Inc., who has offered me a position, for a year, and then entering law school in the fall of 2011.

I have been playing for EMU for three years now, and now in my final year I am a captain and president of the team. My concentration has been in defense, but I have some experience in playing the offensive end of the field. Last year our coach, Greg Normand nominated me for Academic All-American Honors.

Previous to that, when living in New York, I played my early years of lacrosse for

the Shenedehowa Lacrosse club in Middle school, and then when I moved to Michigan for high school, I helped to start a varsity program at Ann Arbor Greenhills, where I graduated in 2006.

My basic philosophy is that composure is what wins games. As a coach, I want my players to be composed on the field, while at the same time playing with unmatched intensity. Lacrosse is a very mental game, and once a player has mastered the fundamentals, its all about who can think faster in a game situation. What I like to focus on as a coach is making sure my team has a firm grounding in the fundamentals of the game, and then teaching them to read the field, and decide what the smart play to make is.

Off the field, my interests include golfing, fishing, Notre Dame football, and traveling to Northern Michigan. I have a very relaxed and laid back attitude, which helps keep my players calm even when the team may be in a very intense situation.