Feb. 13, 2012
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Head coach Jeff Tambroni and sophomore goalkeeper Austin Kaut (Morton) met with members of the media Monday at Spring Sports Media Day.
Jeff Tambroni
Head Coach
Q: What will the new facility do for the program?
A: Hopefully it's a sign of things to come. Just looking back and reflecting on the 18 months that our coaching staff has been here with this particular group. We've tried hard to maintain the traditions of Penn State University athletics, but we've also tried to just grow and have a bigger sense and larger dreams into the future. Just having that stadium, I think, will give us a little more identity. We played on three different sites last year - the indoor site (Holuba Hall), the Bigler outdoor turf and Jeffery Field. I never felt like we had a home-field identity or a home-field advantage. Being able to practice now is much more comforting for our guys. This weekend is our home opener against Michigan and I think it will be a neat way to christen that particular facility against a team in the Big Ten. So hopefully as the stadium continues to grow, the program will continue to grow and we'll be symbolic in one another.
Q: How have you seen the program grow?
A: It's minor steps but I certainly feel coming into this year the understanding of our overall mission in the community, in the classroom and on the field has certainly taken much more shape this year. I credit our guys. They have taken a lot of the leadership roles on themselves this year. I felt like last year it was always coming from the coaches more so than the players just trying to get to know one another. This year they've done a wonderful job of really reaching out in the community and trying to create more awareness for our sport, as much as we're trying to grow the program. We're also trying to help grow the sport in this community and they've done a wonderful job in all outreach. We're doing a better job in the classroom and on the field. Again it's a work in progress but I feel like the understanding of the schemes, offensive and defensive, are there. We just need to do a little better job of executing and hopefully that will come in time.
Q: What does the new facility do for recruiting?
A: You can talk all you want about what you think you're going to look like going into the future as a coach or as a team. We had designs of what we thought it was going to look like but once the facility goes in there and people start to see the commitment that our University has made to lacrosse, knowing it's a men's and women's program, I think it speaks volumes, much more than we can articulate as coaches, about the commitment of our University and about the future of the lacrosse program. So when these recruits and their families take a look at it they realize how serious Penn State is about growing the sport and about men's and women's lacrosse. I think at this point we've been talking to 15- and 16-year-old sophomores right now who come up and their eyes are open wide when they see that facility. I think once we get the stands in there and develop that second and third phase it's going to help considerably having those kinds of options to compete against the schools that we want to compete against out there in Division I lacrosse.
Q: What were your thoughts on first game of the season (a 14-10 loss to North Carolina)?
A: I think at this point there are certain key areas that we're going to have to do a great job with if we're going to compete with teams like North Carolina and teams of their likeness. Those teams are in the top 5 or 6 (in the country). Possession time is certainly one of them. We're not built at this point to be a team that comes from behind against those types of teams and possession time was completely lopsided. We had 21 possessions. They had I think 37 or 38 possessions, and when you play a team of that caliber you're just not going to win games there. Having said that, there were some young kids that played very well for us and we were very impressed with the freshmen trio that started for us defensively, JP Burnside, Jack Donnelly and Michael Richards. So we were pleased there and we also learned that we've got to get a little more production out of our attack if we're going to take the next step. It's a group that we have some maturity there. All three kids have played over the last year. So, we just need to continue to keep pushing right there at the attack position and have a little more balance in the offense. I think if we can do that it was a good lesson learned at the appropriate time of the year being the first game of the year. With 13 games left were hopeful that we'll just buckle back down today at practice and do a good job of focusing on Michigan with the idea that we're not that far off. But unfortunately when we came out of the game, I didn't think as a team or as a staff we were as close as we were hoping to be at that point in the year.
Q: What is the mindset and mentality of PSU men's lacrosse?
A: We would like to think it's a blue-collar, hard-working, team first kind of mentality. There are certain days that I think we would question that when we finish practice or finish games but again it's a work in progress. Practices are much more competitive this year than they were last year. We're trying to create an identity similar to Penn State and Penn State athletics. One that cares more about their teammates, more about their team and goes out with a more blue-collar like mentality. I think that over the last 18 months it has developed and I believe each and every day these guys take more of that personality to the field and I think success will follow.
Q: Going into your second year, how much has the program moved in the direction you wanted it to?
A: It's night and day from this point this year to last year at that exact point. There were just so many changes for myself as a coach and for each and every one of these players. I look back 18 months from now, that's when I first started, and it's completely different. I've used this a number of times, it's that first year, it's basically a wash in a lot of different ways because the relationships are just starting to form and just starting to develop and until you go through the first year and reflect on what happened you really don't have a genuine relationship with one another that is meaningful enough to create the success into the future. That foundation will be essential and it is something we'll stand on right now and as I look back now as to where we are, I feel like we're miles ahead of where we were. Not necessarily goals scored or defense played as much as in terms of who we are, kind of the mantra of our program. Taking better care of our teammates, doing a better job in the community, doing a better job in the classroom, those things. There is a sense of identity in the leadership from our seniors on down who have done a much better job at this point with the understanding and now execution.
Q: Which games are you looking forward to this season?
A: I'm hoping (the players) are looking forward to all of them. Right now when we talk to our team about this, we say this is phase one. We're in phase one right now. The best anybody in the locker room has been is 2-3 through the first five games. And that signifies that the first five games are out-of-conference games and then UMass - the sixth game - will start our conference, the CAA. Our goal is to win phase one. That's what we stated in our first meeting in January that we wanted to win phase one. Just have a better record than we've ever had with anyone in that locker room. If we can go 3-2 or 4-1, we'll feel like we've accomplished that goal and it would have been against some pretty good competition so I think that would be a great start for us. I'm hoping each and every opponent will be something that is going to excite our guys. I don't know maybe from a player's perspective you get something different.
Q: Do you have goals as a team? What are they?
A: It's probably more simplistic goals. Not so much quantifying wins and losses. I know it may sound cliché but just reaching potential of our team in those three areas: the community, the classroom and on the field. For us we try to look back and ask ourselves and, you know, at the end of the day whether or not you gave your best effort or not. That's on a daily basis and at the end of the year we have to ask ourselves if it was it a meaningful journey. Did we invest all this time into something that created meaning, not just for a scoreboard or record, but the way we conducted ourselves in every facet along the way? Try to grow as young men, try to grow as a team to believe in something far bigger or stronger than yourself and hopefully create memories for a lifetime. These young men are creating the foundation for which we hope will last a lifetime and I'm hopeful that those goals we talk about become their goals. We talk about a gold standard, not so much we want to win a national championship this year, next year or three years down the line. I think that would be a little shortsighted of us in our parental role as coaches to create guidelines like that. Now along the way, I'd be lying if I said we didn't want to win conference championships or national championships but the goal to blend the way these young men prepare and the feeling they have when they graduate has been our mission since day one when we walked on campus and it will continue to be as we go through.
#19 Austin Kaut
So., Goalkeeper
Q: How are you looking to follow up your breakout year last year?
A: I just have to go to the practice field and keep working hard. Last year, coming in as a freshman I think I had an advantage because no one really had any film on me to scout my weaknesses and everything else like my technique. Coach Tambroni, coming in, worked on my technique and really made me to what I was last year. The defense worked hard and helped me a lot of the way through by giving up the shots that I could see and make the saves on, and not giving up a lot of inside shots. I just have to keep working hard. As a defense as a whole, we have to keep working hard to get better.
Q: What do you think of the makeup of the team?
A: It's a future outlook. I know we're just working hard as of right now but we have to build the younger players into the program right now. We have to make sure they know the defense, work hard and just keep working hard.
Q: How would you rate the younger guys on the team so far this year?
A: I think it was a lot easier to adjust this year because, coming in last year, we had a whole new coaching staff and the upperclassmen were built on a different aspect of the game. The old coaches had a different way of playing and coming in with the new coaches everything changed. The style of play changed and it was harder to adjust last year but this year with the younger players having the upperclassmen already being in the program for a year and knowing everything they know just helped them grow and understand information more because we can teach them as well as the coaches.
Q: Which games are you looking forward to this season?
A: Just what Coach said. You have to look at one game at a time. We work throughout all the weeks. From next week to the next week, you start at one week and work to the first game. It didn't work out to well; we didn't play to our capability this past weekend, but now it's focused on Michigan this weekend at home in our home opener, hopefully on our new field. You just have to work on it one week at a time and work hard throughout the week.
Q: How did facing Johns Hopkins (in an exhibition) and UNC help you grow as a goalie?
A: As a goalie, having those good shooters will make any goalie grow. They can mix up their shots better than average players. They are the best players recruited in the country as of right now. It helps the defense, as well as me, grow. Having three freshmen starting on defense play against those players makes them grow. Just playing those good players and having to do the things that they have to do and put up with makes them grow as players.