Podcast: Chris McGuirk of Kings on N.H. vs. Mass., parents, more

Kings Lacrosse youth director Chris McGuirk joined the guys on the "Chasing The Goal" podcast this week.

On this week’s episode of New England Lacrosse Journal’s “Chasing The Goal” podcast, hosts Kyle Devitte and Owen Hart welcome Kings Lacrosse youth director Chris McGuirk.

McGuirk grew up in Norwell, Mass., and played soccer, lacrosse and hockey at Thayer Academy. He went on to Vermont and was a two-year captain for the lacrosse team as a midfielder, getting selected for the NEILA East/West Game in his senior season.

He started coaching high school in Portsmouth (N.H.) from 2003-08, was instrumental in the growth of its youth program and took the high school team to the NHIAA Division 3 final in 2008, getting voted D-3 Coach of the Year.

After moving back to Norwell and coaching that high school team until 2013, he later went on to have coaching stints at Hingham (Mass.) and, most recently, Thayer Academy. He is currently the youth director of Kings Lacrosse Club, and a founding director of that program.

Watch the full podcast below on YouTube. It’s also available on all major podcast platforms. If you enjoy it, please leave a rating and a review. Watch more episodes on the Chasing the Goal podcast channel.

Here are some excerpts from the pod.

Owen Hart: Talk about your time at Portsmouth. New Hampshire is a little bit behind Massachusetts, and you were there a decade-and-a-half ago. What was the New Hampshire landscape like when you first got there?

Chris McGuirk: It was really cool to be involved in the sport in New Hampshire at that time. I will say it was pretty organized. I was in my mid- to late-20s, just over the moon and excited for the challenge. There were three divisions back then and Portsmouth was in Division 3. It was in my mind, anyway, that it was pretty high-level lacrosse. I remember I called a couple of my buddies after our first tryout and I was like, “Fellas, half these guys are more skilled than we were.”

So, it was an absolute blast. I remember the battles with Laconia and Dover and St. Thomas; it was great. And we had some success. I think we went to the state finals twice. Didn’t come through either time, but it was my first taste of being a high school coach, and it really drove me in a lot of my decisions going forward.

Kyle Devitte: I feel like there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who are parents, and I think that they don’t get it. These coaches, first of all, are not compensated very fairly, but second of all, we’re not here for that. We’re here to help your kid. No one plots against your kid. 

And B,  I’m just one dude. I don’t have the influence of a college recruiter. That’s not what I do. And one of the things I said when I took (a college coaching job) was, “I’m gonna be an analyst, but I’m not gonna be negative.” Because previously in my career, I was smashing all sorts of player boundaries, because I was covering pro guys. My hero is Bill Simmons and Bill Simmons says stuff like this. I get that aspect way more now. I did not get it as a college coach. 

Chris McGuirk: I would say that the biggest thing that has changed me as a club director and a lacrosse coach is the perspective that I now have as a parent. As a parent of lacrosse players and as a coach in general. It’s having that perspective, when you’re talking to parents or even when you’re coaching kids, and you’re thinking about the way the parents are.

The first 10 years I was a club director, all I did was bitch about parents that didn’t read their emails or complained on the sideline by themselves or whatever. And then I got a kid playing club soccer, and I’m not reading the emails, and I’m bitching on the sideline about his playing time.

And it’s like, OK. So, the longer I do it, there are a lot of parts of me that know that I’m not quite the coach I was; there’s elements of me as a coach that I just can’t reproduce in the 50-year-old me that I had when I was 30.

@TheKyleDevitte
kyle.devitte@laxjournal.com

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