NLL Insider

NLLInsider.com is the top website dedicated to covering the National Lacrosse League and the Canadian summer scene. Published and founded by Inside Lacrosse, NLL Insider launched in December of 2007 as a full-service home for all news related to indoor and box lacrosse. Featuring video, lifestyle, breaking news, scouting reports, stats, opinions, rankings, game coverage and more, NLL Insider covers everything for the NLL as well as Jr. A and Sr. A lacrosse. With longtime Canadian lacrosse journalists like Brian Shanahan and Paul Tutka leading a team of editors that covers North America, and lacrosse stars like Brodie Merrill, Lewis Ratcliff, Geoff Snider, Jim Moss and Chris Hall leading the elite group of Insiders, no one is as close to the game as NLL Insider.

Insiders

Chris Hall - Insider

Chris is one of lacrosse’s most accomplished coaches. A former All-Star Game coach in the NLL who led the expansion Calgary Roughnecks to the Champion’s Cup in just three years, Chris is also a longtime coach for the Victoria Shamrocks in the Western Lacrosse Association and for Team Canada. He’s won two Mann Cups as a coach and one as a player, and also led Team England to a bronze medal as head coach at the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships in 2007. The Victoria, B.C., resident has done color commentary for lacrosse games both on radio and on TV, most recently for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) at the 2006 ILF World Championships in London, Ont. Contact him at chris.hall@nllinsider.com.

Ted Jenner - Insider

Ted has six years’ NLL experience, with Rochester, Anaheim and Edmonton. He also has six years’ WLA experience, winning the Mann Cup in 2003 and ‘05 with the Victoria Shamrocks. This past summer he put up 20 points in 13 games for the Shamrocks. Ted also spent four years playing NCAA lacrosse at Mercyhurst College, where he was a standout midfielder for the Lakers from 1997-2001. Email him at ted.jenner@nllinsider.com or go to JennerChev.com.

Tim Knab - Insider

Proudly based in Rochester, N.Y., Knabber is the NLL’s ultimate fan, having started the Knighthawks Krew in 1997 and growing it to more than 300 members in 13 states and six countries. He’s been a season-ticket holder in the NLL since 1992 (Buffalo) and with his hometown Knighthawks since their inception in 1995. Also the founder and head of the Rochester Rattlers Rowdies in the summer, Knabber helps organize the annual Fann Cup, a charity lacrosse game between the NLL’s different fan clubs. Email him at tim.knab@nllinsider.com or go to AreYouKrew.net.

Brodie Merrill - Insider

Deemed the “Best Lacrosse Player in the World” by Inside Lacrosse Magazine in 2006. Brodie is a star in both the NLL and MLL after finishing his NCAA career at Georgetown University as a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist. The first pick in the 2005 NLL Entry Draft, he was the ‘06 NLL Rookie of the Year and Defender of the Year. He’s also won two MLL Defensive Player of the Year awards, and helped lead Canada to the World Championship in 2006. He plays for the Portland LumberJax in the NLL, Rochester Rattlers in the MLL, works for Reebok and is the assistant athletic director at The Hill Academy in Ontario. Email him at brodie.merrill@nllinsider.com or go to TheHillAcademy.com.

Jim Moss - Insider

The Brampton, Ontario native and current resident of San Jose, Calif., Moss is one of the NLL’s most accomplished defenders. Before coming over to Colorado prior to the 2007 season, Moss was named the 2003 NLL Defender of the Year for Albany. He played three seasons each with Albany and San Jose before joining the Mammoth last year. Moss also helped lead Canada to a World Championship in 2006. A regular NLL All-Star, Moss works the West Coast for STX Lacrosse. Email him at jim.moss@nllinsider.com or go to STXLacrosse.com.

Lewis Ratcliff - Insider

Lewis has won two Mann Cups as a star for the Western Lacrosse Association’s Victoria Shamrocks, and he helped lead the Calgary Roughnecks to the NLL Champion’s Cup in 2004. The 2006 NLL All-Star Game MVP is one of the game’s deadliest scorers. He’s amassed nearly 400 regular-season points in his first five seasons with Calgary, increasing his point total every year. Last year he finished third in the league with a career-high 104 points. He’s totaled nearly 700 points in 10 Jr. A and Sr. A seasons for Victoria. Email him at lewis.ratcliff@nllinsider.com or go to WarriorLacrosse.com.

Frank Resetarits - Insider

A first-round (fifth overall) NLL Entry Draft pick by the San Jose Stealth this year, Frank was one of five finalists for the 2007 Tewaaraton Trophy as a senior at the University of Albany. The Hamburg, N.Y. native sit second on Albany’s career scoring list with 241 points and was as first-team NCAA All-America as a senior last spring, leading the Danes to within an OT goal of the final four - their best season ever - and finishing third nationally in points per game and second nationally in goals per game. Email him at frank.resetarits@nllinsider.com.

Tom Ryan - Insider

A nine-year NLL veteran (Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia) with more than 200 career points, Tom was named the new coach of the Boston Blazers in 2007, having served as head coach of the U.S. Team at the 2007 World Indoor Championships. His prior coaching experience includes stints as head men’s coach at NCAA Division III Connecticut College and assistant women’s jobs at Towson University and Loyola College. Also a longtime player and coach for the Crease Monkeys, Tom recently debuted a DVD entitled “Stir It Up”. Email him at tom.ryan@nllinsider.com or go to StiritupLacrosse.com.

Brian Silcott - Insider

Brian may be one of lacrosse’s most versatile and experienced executives. He spent two and a half seasons as a head coach in the MLL with New Jersey and San Francisco, and has also served as head coach at NCAA Division III Trinity College and Wentworth Tech. A longtime player in both the NLL (Buffalo, New York and Rochester) and MLL (Boston and Bridgeport, Brian was the DIII Midfielder of the Year and a national champion at Nazareth College. After filling a variety of roles as Portland’s vice president last year (including color commentator), he is the LumberJax president this season. Email him at brian.silcott@nllinsider.com or go to RhinoLacrosse.com.

Geoff Snider - Insider

The Alberta native was an All-America at the University of Denver and the No. 4 overall draft pick by the Philadelphia Wings in the 2006 Entry Draft. He spent last summer playing for the MLL’s Denver Outlaws, and is renowned as one of the sport’s top face-off men, and best fighters. He was named the biggest jerk in the MLL by his fellow players in a 2007 Inside Lacrosse Magazine survey. He finished second in the NLL in looseballs, first in face-off percentage and third in penalty minutes as a rookie last year for the Wings. Contact him at geoff.snider@nllinsider.com or go to WarriorLacrosse.com.

Paul Stewart - Insider

Paul enters his first season as an assistant coach with the New York Titans, after having served as the Minnesota Swarm’s Director of Scouting in 2006. A former high school and Minor coach, Paul will be helping out the Titans on the defensive end. Also a longtime Junior and Major player, Paul was the first-ever captain of the Irish National Team at the 2002 ILF World Championships. The York Region police officer is a former editor and writer for LAXMAG. Email him at paul.stewart@nllinsider.com.

Jamie Taylor - Insider

A seven-year NLL veteran 2000 first-round Entry Draft pick, Taylor was traded from Minnesota to Toronto last year, and will play for the Rock again in 2008, after having last played there in 2001. He’s also played for Rochester, Columbus and Buffalo in the NLL, Burlington in Jr. A and Brooklin in Sr. A. A self-trained screenwriter that currently works in the film industry and does freelance copywriting for various businesses in Toronto, Jamie wrote last season for Inside Lacrosse Magazine. Email him at Jamie.taylor@nllinsider.com.

Editors

Bob Chavez - Managing Editor

Bob is a newspaper journalist in Rochester, N.Y., and has been doing work for Inside Lacrosse Magazine for seven years. The lacrosse scene in Western New York keeps him busy year-round with plenty of team previews for area NLL and MLL teams, as well as keeping up with news from the local high schools and colleges. After some club lacrosse in college, Bob has played lacrosse all year in a Rochester men’s league since 1998: in the box during the winter and on the field in the summer (including the last three Lake Placid Tournaments as a defenseman with the Buffalo Soldiers).

Even with all those years of practice, Chavez was still nowhere close to being good enough to even try to guard John Grant Jr., the subject of a story for IL’s December, 2007 issue, when Grant showed up last October to run a few games in the box with the guys before his Knighthawks season started. Email him at bob.chavez@nllinsider.com or go to RochesterSports.com.

Paul Tutka - Managing Editor

Paul actually started out his writing career at Inside Lacrosse, first as IL’s Canadian Correspondent and then serving as the magazine’s NLL Editor from 2001-05. He also worked as the Media Coordinator at Rudeboys Lacrosse, published his own indoor lacrosse-specific magazine, LAXMAG and currently works as a Web Editor for Mixed Martial Arts company, Triumph United.
Based in the Toronto area, Tutka has worked as a scout in the NLL with both the Minnesota Swarm and San Jose Stealth. Email him at paul.tutka@nllinsider.com.

Brian Shanahan - Senior Writer

Shanny has 34 years of lacrosse experience, including five straight Mann Cups (1992-996). After playing one year in the NLL as a 37-year-old rookie for the Ontario Raiders in 1998, he jumped to TV in 1999. He is in his 10th year as a television analyst for Rogers Sportsnet in Canada, and he has also done games for The Score, CBC, NBC, FoxSports and ESPN.
Before joining Inside Lacrosse in 2005, he wrote a regular lacrosse column for the Toronto Sun. Email him at brian.shanahan@nllinsider.com or go to ShannyLacrosse.com.

Steve Kojima - Editor

Steve began covering lacrosse in 2003 as a journalist for LacrosseTalk, before joining Inside Lacrosse in 2007 as IL’s top correspondent during the Mann Cup. A native of Victoria, B.C., Kojima’s lacrosse accomplishments include two All-American honors at Simon Fraser University. His only year of Jr. A, he led Coquitlam in scoring and was voted one of B.C.’s Top 15 Jr. A players. Steve now competes for Team Bermuda at International Lacrosse Federation events, while working as a business consultant for some of Canada’s largest corporations. Email him at steve.kojima@nllinsider.com.

Kevin Fixler - Editor

Hailing from the suburbs of Denver, Kevin covers pretty much everything Colorado for Inside Lacrosse Magazine and InsideLacrosse.com. A 2006 graduate of the University of Denver, where he also played lacrosse at both the DI and club levels, Kevin double majored in journalism and history, and performed nearly every role at one point or another during three years working for the student newspaper, the Clarion. Since then, he has run the gamut of freelance writing, most notably being published on ESPN.com. In his free time, he can usually still be found hacking it up on the lacrosse field. Kevin is also a local high school coach, and is very excited to be functioning as NLLInsider.com’s fantasy columnist for the 2008 season. Email him at kevin.fixler@nllinsider.com.

Ty Pilson - Editor

Ty began covering the NLL in 2000 when it was announced the league was expanding to Calgary. He covered the team and the league for the Calgary Sun as one of the NLL’s top beat writers until handing off the Roughnecks’ responsibilities when he was promoted to the post of sports editor at the paper. He continues to write for Inside Lacrosse Magazine and follow the league closely. Pilson grew up playing lacrosse in Calgary, where he still resides with his wife Tara and children Aidan and Abigail. Email him at ty.pilson@nllinsider.com or go to CalgarySun.com.

Lauren Ward - Editor

Lauren’s career in lacrosse coverage began in 2005 when she accepted the position of associate and online editor of The Lacrosse Journal, eventually assuming the role of editor-in-chief of the now-defunct publication in 2006. Based in Hamilton, Ont., she spends her winters at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre and her summers arena-hopping throughout Southern Ontario. Email her at lauren.ward@nllinsider.com.