Joyce DZ

We are proud to announce that Joe Pankratz and Matt Crist are Co-Head Coaches for the Lakers. We look forward to the upcoming season!

When I travel around doing culture building with different colleges from around the country one of the things that I'll do is I'll ask every player in the room to raise their hand if they've ever won a championship. In a typical college locker room you'll get around fifty percent of the players that will raise their hand. The next question that I'll ask - for everybody that has their hands raised - I’ll ask them to keep their hand up if that championship team was the closest team that they've ever been on. And very few players, if any, put their hand down. There's a very real correlation between the tightness and the bond of a group away from the rink and how much they sacrifice for each other and play for each other at the rink. I’ve never been a part of a championship team where there wasn’t a genuine love throughout the locker room. Close teams block shots for each other. Close teams take short shifts. Close teams take hits to make plays. Close teams stand up for each other on the ice. Close teams sacrifice a little of the me for the betterment of the we. And because of that, close teams wins championships.