ABOUT ETS
Dennis Short | Elite Girls Lacrosse Coach

The idea of Elite Training Systems stems from my experience building the Rollins Women’s Lacrosse Team from a fledgling program in 2008 to one that reached its first Final Four in just 4 years in 2012. Now I know what you are thinking, “Well that’s pretty good, but so have a lot of other teams.” This is true. However, it is the conditions we were able to achieve that level of success so quickly that make this unique. Girls Lacrosse Training

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This is not an all-inclusive list, but just a taste of some of the things our Rollins team dealt with when I was hired to start the program. We shared a field with men’s lacrosse – at the same time – we each had half a field. Our practice field was a public park 25 minutes from campus. It was so bad that I would show up every day 2 hours before practice to fill in holes with a wheelbarrow and shovel. Each day I would have to check the bathrooms to make sure no one was sleeping in them and to pick up drug paraphernalia we would find there. We played our “home” games at 11 different fields around the Central Florida area during our first 4 years because we were not permitted to use the one field we had on campus – because that was for “soccer only.” When we were ranked #1 in the country and earned the right to host the 1st round of the NCAA tournament, our school told us we couldn’t because it was graduation weekend. So instead of playing at home in Florida, we had to fly to Pennsylvania to play on our opponent’s campus – where it also was graduation weekend. We had 0 athletic scholarships. The players, coaches, and athletic trainers who experienced it firsthand will all tell you that words will never truly be able to illustrate the dumpster fire that it was. And that is where ETS was born!

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ETS became our motto, our creed, our badge of honor! EMBRACE THE SHIT!!! We had every reason to fail – but we THRIVED! I was relentless as a coach. During my interview with my AD I showed her my 5 year plan of how we were going to win a National Championship. I wasn’t going to allow a bad field, a lack of scholarships, or a lack of home-field advantage to get in my way!

Practices were intense. Details mattered. Everything was a competition. If you screwed up, we ran as a team – and everyone screwed up. The team was only as strong as its weakest link and I wasn’t going to allow weak links. Our strength coach was even more intense. What we did in the weight room mirrored what we did on the field. Someone didn’t follow instructions, out the door and a sprint around the building in 60 secs. Most days the team did anywhere from 12-15 sprints. Pressure was everywhere!

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But so was BELIEF! We recruited players with a certain mentality rather than a lacrosse skill set. We wanted kids who LOVED to compete! We wanted kids who LOVED to train and work their butts off!! ETS wasn’t just some slogan we would throw around from time to time – it was what we were willing to CHOOSE to do every day! Poor practice field – it doesn’t impact my effort. Coach is going to make us run sprints every time we screw up – means I am going to be mentally tougher than my opponent. The college won’t let us play games on campus – we'll show them - we are going to become the most successful team at the college!!

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To say we had an edge about us would be an understatement. But I wasn’t going to allow egomaniacs on the team either. ETS was internal. We didn’t talk about it outside of our team. If you knew, you knew – but it was something you had to be a part of – you had to be “in it.” We protected it – almost like a secret society. Away from the field, away from the locker room, I expected great citizens. Standards off the field were just as high – if not higher. When you are part of a team, you are easily identifiable and stand out in public. We were going to stand out – for all the right reasons! When we traveled, we thanked the bus driver when getting off the bus. We held doors for people at restaurants. Tables were always wiped down, chairs pushed in, and no trash was on the floor. I expected to get compliments from hotel and restaurant managers about how we were the nicest and most respectful team they had hosted. On numerous occasions, I received emails from hotel guests who struck up conversations in hotel lobbies or at breakfast with my players, complimenting them and saying how well they represented Rollins College.

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ETS was about setting extremely high standards; being extremely competitive; recognizing pressure and adversity is what makes you stronger – makes you better! But it was also about compartmentalization. We created in essence, a superhero identity – mild-mannered Clark Kent off the field and Superman when you step on the field. 

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That is a brief history of ETS.

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We had every reason to fail—but we THRIVED.

Pressure was everywhere. But so was BELIEF.

ETS wasn't just something we said. It was something we CHOSE.

We created our unique IDENTITY.

Dennis Short | Elite Girls Lacrosse Coach