Beyond X's and O's: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes — Kelly Amonte Hiller and the Northwestern Wildcats

This piece first appeared at InsisdeLacrosse.com on November 21, 2010, and can be accessed at the following URL:

http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2010/11/21/beyond-xs-and-os-ch-ch-ch-changes-—-kelly-amonte-hiller-and-northwestern-wildcats

From Chicago comes change. Jazz, the mafia, pizza – they all went to Chicago as one thing, and came out another. Whipped around and reinvented, they grew, evolved, historically altered. While many may snicker, dismiss or sneer, like those before it, women’s lacrosse migrated to Chicago and emerged something different. Whatever your thoughts of Kelly Amonte Hiller – aggressive or aloof, inventive or disruptive – she’s changed the game of lacrosse and there’s no going back. The dynamic individual and team styles of defense, the coordinated and inventive looks on offense, the less-than traditional players who rose to the ranks of superstardom all exemplify the many tweaks Amonte Hiller and company have been making on the banks of Lake Michigan.

The Difference

At first pass, Kelly Amonte Hiller could be confused for a coaching cliché, dropping lines like “there are consequences for cutting corners”, “we need to stay true to our roots”, and “it’s the little things that we do on a daily basis”. Even suggesting that what goes on at Northwestern isn’t any different than anywhere else, that they’re just another team. But as we know, they’re not just another team and she’s not just another coach. Northwestern has won five consecutive NCAA championships, six-straight conference championships, produced tons of individual award winners (Tewaaraton Awards, All American plaques, you name it), claims the best NCAA tournament winning percentage (78.1%) in history, and it’s easy to go on. The Wildcats of Northwestern have dominated the last decade, and they may be just warming up.

Problem Solving

In looking deeper at Amonte Hiller and her staff, the distance they’ve gained from other programs may be a result of how they’ve approached the game. Like all the top tier teams, the Wildcats work hard, but it’s where they work hard that makes Northwestern somewhat unique. They’re tireless in assessing themselves, their squad, and the best way to be competitive. In talking with her about this, Amonte Hiller shows a glimmer of the plotting tactician she’s come to be known as. “Coming up with new ideas is the key for us,” she says, lending insight into the brainstorming sessions that must regularly take place in her offices. They look to other sports, other success stories, mining from boxing, ultimate fighting, hockey, football and basketball, and then adapting it to work for them. This fall the players have been boxing once a week because Amonte Hiller believes that “it’s so much about the mental game”, and when you’re stronger as an individual, you’re stronger as a team.

“I have a great staff in place . . . good idea people,” she assures. And they have to be to keep up with the signature of Northwestern teams. They’re out of the box, creative, and they’ve looked at lacrosse the way strategists look at broader issues, large-scale problems. They’re not solely focused on what others have done to succeed, they’re also concentrating on what has to be done to achieve moving forward. It may seem like a slight, even insignificant difference, but it’s the difference between winning and losing, leading and following. Northwestern finds new ways to win, drawing on history and convention just as liberally as they pull from football or ice hockey. They’re not just coaching and playing, they’re solving problems that need different perspectives, varying streams of information in order to be solved.

Legacy

In looking at Northwestern’s resume of recent success, 2010 is an outlier. In the five previous years, Amonte Hiller’s squads ended their seasons with NCAA trophies. In 2010, they lost in the championship game. For Amonte Hiller, there seems to be a definitive moment when changes had to be made, a low that the team has been working to climb from ever since. In the week leading up to last season’s loss to UNC, it became clear that the squad was missing the pop of previous years. “It’s very hard to sustain success,” Kelly explains, riffing on how easy it is to lose perspective, grow complacent, expect achievement rather than fight with every bit of energy and focus one has.

The day before that UNC loss, the Northwestern staff began to react to concerns they were having for much of the season. “We brought it back to our roots and practiced on Long Field where it first started,” Amonte Hiller remembers. They practiced on the first field the women’s lacrosse team had access to at Northwestern, a humble track of grass and dirt that symbolized a very basic beginning. The day before that UNC game, the 2010 squad connected with the grim conditions and gritty efforts that now makeup the legacy of those first Northwestern teams, the ones that lent their blood and backs for today’s players to stand tall on. They reflected on history and thought about where they wanted to go in the future, what their legacy as a program had been and what their legacy as players should be.

The Wildcats continue to move forward, but Amonte Hiller stays true to the approach of connecting with the past. She invites players of bygone years to talk about their experiences, their efforts, their struggles. And challenges current players to dream of a legacy they’ll be proud of, and then go out and sweat for it. And why does she do this? Because the past isn’t simply trophies in a case – it’s a collection of stories and struggles about persistence and failures, friendships and fights, dreams and achievements – and gaining perspective of how much goes into the act of winning fuels the effort it takes to do it.

What’s Next

Today the Northwestern squad is working, preparing to reclaim the trophy that they’ve come to identify as theirs. While other teams around the country might be just as dogged in their work ethic, stay just as focused on achieving, Amonte Hiller has one reason to think that her Wildcats are going to be triumphant. Even if other teams work as hard, have as much gusto and determination, Northwestern is going to do it differently. Sure, Northwestern may not win the championship in 2011, but they’re going to bring something new to the field, their going to bring their tradition and swagger, and if you’re not prepared you’re going to be thrown off by a dizzying combo of skill, passion and invention. They’ve made a game of being game changers and their legacy of evolution is a powerful force. Just how far it will drive them remains to be seen, but we’ll keep watching to study how they get to wherever they’re going because after all, lacrosse went to Chicago and will never be the same.