Tom McCabe joins GoPlay Sports Tours as Lacrosse Director
GoPlay are delighted to announce that former Wales and Slovakia Lacrosse Head Coach, Tom McCabe, has agreed to become our Director of Lacrosse.
McCabe has a wealth of experience coaching Lacrosse at college and national levels and he has a bug for travel which makes him the perfect candidate to drive our Lacrosse programs forward.
We caught up with Tom and asked him about his Lacrosse background.
How did you get into Lacrosse?
I came into the sport pretty late. I did a post-graduate degree at a school called Bridgeton Academy, and I picked up the game and played at Springfield College for four years both lacrosse and football.
I loved Springfield and I did a Masters degree and was the graduate assistant coach. I then took a job in New Jersey and was an assistant at Rutgers University. Then I took a job at Bridgeton Academy for 11 years coaching lacrosse there and then following Bridgeton I got hired at Bowdoin and was a lacrosse coach for 22 years. And I’m back there, I’m an Assistant Coach at Bowdoin now.
Where have you traveled?
In between Bowdoin, about nine years, in 2012-14, my wife and I did a stint with the Peace Corps. It’s funded by the Government who send people around the world to countries that are in need. And we spent almost two-and-a-half-years in Tanzania. It was terrific. So we’re doing volunteer work, it was all health related stuff, such as HIV education, malaria education. We lived in a small village and cooked on charcoal for two years and went to the bathroom in a hole! It was tough, but so rewarding. We had a great experience in this little village and we still have friends there today.
Getting back into Lacrosse
But then following that I ended up coming back to the US and I got a phone call from my local prep school and they they were looking for a lacrosse guy and wanted to know if I knew anybody. I said ‘let’s talk’, so I coached there at Hebron Academy for two years.
Then I got involved with World Lacrosse, the organization that is in charge of development around the world. They also run the world championships and the U19 championships and all that and I was in charge of lacrosse development in Africa.
We went to Africa a few times to run clinics in different things and that was an amazing experience. I also coached the Wales national team in the European championships and the world championships back in the 1990s and had a great time. And then two years ago I coached the Slovakian national team in the European championships. I’ve jumped into a bunch of international things and they have been great experiences.
Sample 10-day Lacrosse trip to the UK
It was fun, Slovakia was interesting, about half the guys spoke English and half did not, but the guy who was coaching with me was a former player of mine who spoke fluid Slovakian so we we got through it OK. The level of lacrosse wasn’t as strong as I’m coaching now at the university. My players now are a much more talented group and have been playing longer but they love the sport and so I have some good ties and friends in Europe.
When I came back after Slovakia I was asked by the Bowdoin head coach if I had an interest in helping out so I’m I’m in my second year of helping back out at Bowdoin.
Lacrosse in Europe
One of the first strong countries in Europe was England. England has got a pretty good lacrosse base with the likes of the University University of London. A lot of the private schools are playing now and yes it’s grown a lot in there and growing slowly in Wales and in Scotland.
France, Italy, Germany all have very good programs, but everybody in Europe, even Slovakia is kind of getting there. For our University teams is an opportunity to play a little bit and then maybe do some clinics and share the sport and try and develop the sport.
What do you do in your spare time?
I was in Chile last week fly-fishing. It’s great there and Argentina. I’ve been lucky, I’ve been able to fish fish around the world, I’ve been really lucky.
I fished in Scotland on the River Tay and in England too. When we were training with the Welsh team I would take time out when everyone had to go back so I would travel to Scotland or Wales or do something like that.