National Teams International
08:00 AM
Aug 16
GER
USA
Tracey Kelusky had a clear message for his players the first time the Panther City Lacrosse Club roster got together for training camp.
“I said to the guys, ‘My expectation is we’re no longer an expansion club,’” Kelusky said. “We’re one of 14 teams competing for an NLL championship.”
But through the first nine games of the season, Panther City certainly looked like the National Lacrosse League expansion teams of the past. Little mistakes piled up for a group learning to play with one another, and so did the losses. PCLC found itself at 1-8 and at a crossroads.
A weak team might pack it in, falling back on that expansion excuse. Panther City wasn’t weak. Since, PCLC has rattled off five straight victories, inserting itself into the thick of the playoff picture.
“We’re finally clicking,” forward Will Malcom said. “That just stems from us finally understanding that we’re not a lineup with a bunch of stars. When we have success, it is when we all buy in together and work as a team. We all finally bought into that, and it is showing in the standings.”
So what changed in this recent stretch? The most tangible variable was the addition of two major facilitators on the offensive end, Cam Milligan and Dean Fairall. The pair had a combined four games of NLL experience prior to being picked up by the team, but they’ve made an enormous difference. Milligan has 26 points in five games. Fairall is right behind him with 25 points in six games.
“The main thing with those two is just unselfishness,” Malcom said. “They’re always just looking to get other guys open.”
But from the inside, Kelusky knows that was far from the only factor. Importantly, there was always a belief that the team was closer to its goals than it appeared. Three of those eight losses to start the year were by a lone goal.
Now, consistent work is starting to show with results.
“No one really pushed the panic button,” Kelusky said. “It was certainly there in the forefront and we were looking at it, but to that point, we made sure we stuck with what we said from day one. Let’s stick with the process. Let’s get better every week that we’re playing. Let’s make sure we’re mindful of doing all the things we need to have success.”
Kelusky made clear they’d have to be more attentive to those winning actions than anyone else. As you’d expect from an expansion team, few on Panther City were proven commodities in the NLL prior to this season. No one had the luxury of coasting to success.
Kelusky, who built a reputation as a hardnosed player during his Hall of Fame career, talked about the origin of the Panther City nickname for Fort Worth in his first pregame speech. The story goes it was such a sleepy town in the 1800s that a Dallas attorney joked he saw a panther resting in the middle of the street downtown. The insult was flipped into a sign of pride as the city grew.
It took time, and plenty of effort, for the people of Fort Worth to build. That was a message that hit close to home for the city’s new lacrosse team.
“People rally behind hard work,” Kelusky said. “People rally behind blue collar. People rally behind someone who’s got a chip on their shoulder and the underdog. We’ll rally behind that as well.”
It obviously takes more than hard work to succeed in the top box lacrosse league in the world. You need some talent too. Much of Panther City’s success can be attributed to incredible finds for the team, Malcom and Patrick Dodds among them.
Dodds, selected from Calgary in the expansion draft before ever playing an NLL game, leads PCLC with 68 points and ranks seventh in the entire league in assists as a rookie. Malcom has taken a major leap from his rookie season in Vancouver, slotting just behind Dodds with 66 points.
Dodds was Mr. Clutch for the team early, starting with the franchise’s first-ever victory against New York on Jan. 15. After his first attempt at an overtime game-winner was called back, he capitalized on a second chance to make history. Following an 0-4 start to the year, the win marked the first clear sign the tide was starting to turn.
“There’s something to be said about learning how to win as a new team,” defenseman Liam Byrnes said. “Since all these teams are so competitive and everyone is so skilled, it is never just going to be a walk in the park. Teams that are obviously more established, they know how to get these wins. … That was the case early on in the year, but I think we kind of found our stride.”
The recent winning streak started with another Dodds game-winner, one scored in the final minute of regulation to break a tie with Vancouver. A week later it was Malcom’s turn, as he sealed an overtime triumph against Saskatchewan.
With each win, the confidence grew. The offense reached a new level when it dropped 20 goals on the Mammoth, then they backed it up a week later with 14 against Calgary. In Panther City’s most recent outing, it was the defense that carried the torch in a 10-6 victory over Colorado.
Byrnes is no stranger to building a team from the ground floor. In college he was a part of Marquette’s first class of lacrosse players, a group that took an upstart program to the NCA tournament in the program’s fourth year of play. Last summer, he joined Waterdogs Lacrosse Club for its second season in the Premier Lacrosse League. The team jumped from a fifth-place finish in year one to top of the table last season.
“What makes these new teams successful, it starts at the top,” Byrnes said. “Having a coach that understands that it’s going to be a slow build. It’s not just going to happen overnight. A coach that’s willing to accept some of those defeats early on and spin those into learning lessons, and also never make an excuse that just because we’re a new team we’re going to be OK with losses. Once you have that attitude, you’re dead in the water right away.”
Panther City general manager Bob Hamley was clear when talking to USA Lacrosse Magazine prior to the season that the team was willing to take the long view. Early moves helped paint that picture. The club took Jonathan Donville first overall in the draft knowing he’d return to college for another year. They traded for Randy Staats knowing he’d miss time with a torn ACL and sent veteran Ryan Benesch to Albany in an early-season trade.
Even so, this young core can realistically talk playoffs in the franchise’s first year of existence. At 6-8, Panther City sits a game back in the loss column of the final West Division playoff spot and is tied with Philadelphia for the wild card, which goes to the best team remaining outside the top four in the East and three in the West.
“It’s given us something to play for,” Malcom said. “At the start of the year, it wasn’t looking so great. It wasn’t looking like we were going to make the playoffs. We were going to be like every other expansion team, but now we’re right in the thick of it. It’s really motivating and it’s really exciting.”