Navigating the Blowout: Coaching Strategies for Managing Lopsided Lacrosse Games

In the gritty, tumultuous world of lacrosse, where the stakes are as high as the energy and the disappointments can be crushing, there's a peculiar beast known as the blowout game. It’s like a badly balanced meal—too much of one thing and not enough of another, leaving everyone feeling either bloated or starved. For the losing squad, it's like dining on ashes—bitter, joyless. For the victors, it's a hollow feast; the thrill of competition replaced by the mechanics of a too-easy win.

Blowouts are the dark alleys of youth sports, where humiliation skulks and dreams are mugged. They are where the cheers die down and parents become sideline tyrants. Despite our best intentions—our schemes and plans to balance the teams, to even out the schedule—blowouts happen. They're the sudden downpours in what should be a fair contest, where a quirky bounce of a lacrosse ball can suddenly escalate the score line, leaving one team drenched in goals and the other parched for points.

So how does one navigate this? How do you coach through a game that's lost its pulse, where the outcome is decided long before the final whistle?

First, you keep coaching. It's not just about tactics and plays; it’s about maintaining morale, about pushing through when the scoreboard is an unfriendly witness. You preach the gospel of the possible comeback, the long shot, the against-all-odds rally that sports lore is built on. Yet, you also recognize when the gig is truly up, and pivot to damage control, turning what could be a demoralizing slog into a teachable moment.

You set goals that don't hang on the game's score. You challenge your team to play better, to try harder, to learn from every pass and catch, every ground ball and check. You teach them that character is built not on the easy wins but on the grinding, brutal days when the gods of sport are against you. You ask them what kind of players they want to be—the kind that fold or the kind that fight back?

And you move the goalposts. You redefine success. Maybe today success isn’t about outscoring the opponent, but about making fewer mistakes, or about perfecting a certain play. You find victories in the fragments of the game that still matter.

Then there are the intensity goals—short bursts where you demand everything they’ve got. Play fierce defense for the next five minutes. Win the next faceoff. Complete the next ten passes without a turnover. It’s about stoking the small fires that keep the competitive spirit alive.

Postgame is where the true flavors of sportsmanship and character either shine or tarnish. You teach your players to walk off the field with their heads held high, no matter the scoreboard. You teach them to shake hands with their opponents with their eyes up, respecting their effort, acknowledging their struggle, because today it’s them, but tomorrow it could be us.

Blowout games are an unavoidable part of the sports landscape, bitter pills that every coach, player, and team will have to swallow at some point. But like any good chef knows, it’s not the ingredients but what you do with them that matters. It’s about cooking something nourishing from whatever you’ve got. In the end, it's not just about lacrosse—it’s about crafting a team that knows how to handle not just a lacrosse stick, but adversity and success with equal grace.