Coach's Welcome Letter, News, U11 - Team 1, REP (Nepean Knights Lacrosse Association)

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Mar 30, 2025 | Brad MacDonald | 132 views
Coach's Welcome Letter
Hello U11 Knights Families

My name is Jeff Zywicki and I am excited to have been named Head Coach of the 2025 U11-1 Knights. I have been coaching lacrosse and running lacrosse camps on and off for the last 20 years and have been playing for 30+ years. I grew up in Nepean and played all my minor lacrosse with the Knights and am very excited to be coaching the next generation of Nepean lacrosse players.

As the Head Coach, you can expect your player to be pushed to reach their full potential as an athlete and lacrosse player. I am looking for coachable athletes that have the desire and will to COMPETE every single time they step on the floor as we will be a strong ‘A’ team this year, going up against the best U11 box lacrosse teams in Ontario at every tournament we attend.

The tryout schedule is outlined below and posted on the Knights website here. All sessions are 90 minutes long except the Exhibition Game vs Gloucester, which may only be 60 minutes, I’m still working on this. Players are expected to attend all tryouts sessions. 

Roster Updates will be posted on the Knights website here after the April 7th, 8th and 11th tryouts with the names of players invited to return to the next tryout.

Full equipment, including mouthguard outlined here, is required for all tryouts.

TRYOUT SCHEDULE:

 


For those players that make the final roster, full commitment is expected for practices, games, tournaments and all other off the floor events/activities. We will generally have two 1.5hr practices per week and may add an extra practice per week in July. Zone games, other than Gloucester (if we play them), are usually on weekends. The Zone Championship is usually on the final weekend of July. I will be looking into a day trip to the Whitby area in mid/late July to play two games vs ‘A’ teams.

We will be competing in the following tournaments:

Laker Classic               

May 23-25

Peterborough, ON

Barry Burman Shootout

June 20-22

Orangeville, ON

Dan Greer Tournament

July 11-13

Clarington, ON

Provincials                   

August 8-10

Whitby, ON


Team fees will be in the range of $400-$500 depending on fundraising and sponsorship.

Players and parents should be familiar with the Nepean Knights Member Code of Conduct.

Please complete this Google Form by Wednesday April 2nd.

Please read the following message from the Association’s Board of Directors:

Welcome to the 2025 lacrosse season. The Nepean Knights Minor Lacrosse Association is happy to have you join this year’s competitive tryout process. The Board would like to provide you with some important details that may ease the process along the way. To begin, we invite you to review our Tryout Process page on our website. This outlines the standard process your player will follow, and also lists some requirements. We encourage you to review the required equipment and have your player try on their last year’s equipment ahead of time to ensure it fits. No player will be allowed to step onto the floor and tryout unless they are properly equipped. 

Members of the Board will be at tryouts and available to you if you have any questions. We will also have competitive clothing available for your player to try on so you can order the right sizing should your player make a competitive team. We ask that you have your player do a “fit check” on day 1 of their tryout. 

The tryout process can be intense and riddled with emotions. As a Board, we recognize how difficult this can be for some players/families. We respect all feelings and encourage you to reach out to the Board when needed, however, we ask everyone to respect the 24-hr rule. This means taking the time step away and consider the message you would like to send before doing so. We will make ourselves available to you for discussions on any topic at that point. 

If you have general questions regarding the competitive program, coaches, or the Association, please feel free to contact your respective Competitive Director below, our Coach Mentor, and/or President and Vice President.

We look forward to seeing you all on the floor and running another great season with our Knights Family. 

Nathan Grenon, Competitive Director: [email protected]

Tanya Mewhinney, Girls Director: [email protected]

Jeff Zywicki, Coach Mentor: [email protected]

Josh Hornung, President: [email protected]

Martine McFarlane, Vice President: [email protected] 

 
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