Patriots head coach Bill Belichick addresses the Baltimore media during his conference call on Wednesday, September 30, 2009.
Source: Patriots.com
On his passion for lacrosse and his relationship with Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramalla:
Patriot's Coach Bill Belichick, sporting his Hopkins hat at a game
“Well, it’s a strong one. Coach Pietramalla has been a good friend, and certainly it’s been a joy talking to him and exchanging ideas about just coaching and preparation and things like that. Staffs and players, I know the sports are different and all, but coaching is still coaching to a large degree. And handling your team, there is a lot of carry over, even though the sports are different.
Hopkins Coach Dave Pietramalla
You know, he’s given me the opportunity to be around his teams on the practice field, at games and in meetings and preparation, things like that. I’ve learned a lot, and I’ve taken a lot of things that he’s done and incorporated them into some of the things that we do. And again, [it's] more in terms of coaching and preparation style and that type of thing, but he’s come up and visited us a few times in training camp here and at games. I have a great exchange of ideas with him, and he’s been a huge help. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what he’s done, what he’s done with that great program, which I’ve always admired, even though, of course I grew up at the Naval Academy and bleed blue and gold.
But, being close to Hopkins and the program that they’ve run there from when he was a player to now as the coach, I just have a tremendous respect for him and the entire Johns Hopkins lacrosse program. It’s first-class. They do things the right way, and it’s been a great opportunity for me to watch them up close and see how they do some of the things they do so well.”
On whether he is well-versed in the nuances of lacrosse:
“Well, I’d like to think so, yeah. I grew up with it and had the opportunity to play it all the way through college. And I’ve been involved with it with my kids, coaching them to a degree and the youth programs and so forth. I’ve followed it at the collegiate level and spent quite a bit of time talking to players, guys like Paul Rabil, that I have great respect for, and [Michael] Kimmel and [Stephen] Peyser and [Michael] Evans, and guys like that, who are just good lacrosse players, that know the game, that are smart players.
And, watching my son Stephen play and in their program, yeah I think just being able to be up close and be right around those guys and see all the little things that they do. You know, just being at practice with Coach Pietramalla and having him coach face-offs, and man-down face-offs, and man-up face-offs and just all the little things that they do, it really gives me an appreciation for how… The difference between lacrosse and football is that at the end of each play, we get to go back in the huddle and get reorganized.”
“In lacrosse, the game never stops. There is always a flow and there is no real time to set up a play, for the most part. Maybe after a timeout or something, but that’s not the game. The game, it’s a free-flowing game. And so, the decisions and the parameters that you set up for your players to deal with a game like that, they’re interesting, and in some ways they’re a lot more complex than a game like football.”
“But football is a lot more complex from the standpoint that you have more time in between plays to put in new formations and new personnel and new plays and things like that. So it’s different, but I think there is a lot of good learning and application going both ways.”
