Welcome to NLL semifinals weekend!

Only four teams remain: Albany will play San Diego, and in the time-honored tradition of the best rivalry in lacrosse, Toronto will host Buffalo.

On this week’s podcast: Rusty Krueger. He is the offensive coordinator for the Toronto Rock and also the head coach of the Orangeville Northmen in the Ontario Junior Lacrosse League. Krug Dog, one of the most renowned offensive minds in the game, joined the Rock coaching staff in 2021. Prior to that, he served as an assistant coach with the Buffalo Bandits.

We often talk about coaching trees in sports, and I always like to trace back the lineage of who guys learned their styles and philosophies from. Well, when you’re from Orangeville, the answer is usually Terry Sanderson, but it’s also the guys you surround yourself with. Josh and Phil Sanderson, the Merrill Brothers, Matt Sawyer, and Troy Cordingley, who is there now, but Rusty Kruger is also a name synonymous with Orangeville lacrosse. He’s cut from the same cloth and has brought a tradition of excellence, a give-back mentality, and a will to win everywhere he’s played and coached.

As a player, he won an NLL championship with the Rock in 2005 and played 11 seasons total in the NLL. He’s won 6 Minto Cups as a player or coach – that has to be close to if not a record – as a player with Orangeville in ’93, ’95, and ’96 and as a coach in ’08, ’09, and 2019. One of the great captains in Northmen history, he also once sucker-punched Jake Elliott in the chin – so that’s not something a lot of guys can put on a resume. And all-around beauty, really.

On this podcast, we take a look at this weekend’s semi-final series against the Buffalo Bandits, what makes Orangeville lacrosse so successful, some of his offensive principles, and striking a balance between structure and creativity.

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