Celebrating Our Flock: Matt Hogan
Published on August 21, 2019 under Major League Lacrosse (MLL)
Chesapeake Bayhawks News Release
Matt Hogan
(Chesapeake Bayhawks)
ANNAPOLIS, MD - The Naptown National Challenge comes to the Annapolis area and the Chesapeake Bayhawks' home Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium every year to showcase the top talent in high school lacrosse. Each year, Matt Hogan watches on, patiently waiting for the first whistle of his three-day tournament to blow, and for the festivities to begin.
"The greatest part of every tournament is the first whistle of the first game," said Hogan. "It's time to play."
"Once the first whistle goes, it's like 'Let's go,'" continued Hogan. "There's a very deep breath at that time and you hear 16 teams at one time, or one site, all playing and having fun. That's what we enjoy more than anything else, seeing the kids just have a lot of fun just playing the game we really love."
The Naptown National Challenge is just one of Hogan's many annual tournaments that his organization, HoganLax, coordinates throughout the year. This tournament, as well as the others, highlight top talent for college coaches and provide opportunities for lacrosse players to run onto the field and simply enjoy playing their sport.
Before HoganLax was formed, Hogan, a West Hartford, Connecticut native, served as an assistant coach with Maryland, Delaware, and the United States Naval Academy. This experience, as well as a head coaching stint at Clarkson, lead to Hogan becoming the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania.
Throughout his collegiate coaching career, Hogan developed relationships with his staff and players that allowed him to build a network inside the lacrosse community which helped his eventual business become successful and engrained in the lacrosse world.
"I developed a tremendous number of relationships with high school coaches, college coaches and my own players," said Hogan. "I see at least three ex-players every tournament I go to - at least."
The first tournament that Hogan cites as the beginning of his enterprise was in 2002, in the June immediately following the September 11th attacks. As the coach of UPenn, Hogan conducted a tournament called HERO outside of Philadelphia that paid homage to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the tragedy.
After HERO, Hogan moved back to Maryland. Seeing the success of his Philadelphia tournament and knowing his coaching reputation, Hogan was asked by Anne Arundel County to host a tournament in the Annapolis area. This clinic became the inaugural edition of his annual Summer Exposure tournament.
"It slowly evolved," recounted Hogan. "Summer Exposure had 245 teams this last year (2019). It was eight teams the first year."
This growth was true of all of Hogan's tournaments, which he began to add to his slate as the business grew. Eventually, he stepped down as the Dean of Students at St. Mary's High School in Annapolis to devote all his time to HoganLax.
One person who has been instrumental as a part of Hogan's tournament business is Chesapeake Bayhawks Head Coach and General Manager, Dave Cottle. Cottle, who had met and kept in contact with Hogan since 1983 when Hogan was an assistant at Maryland and Cottle was the head coach at Loyola, has provided teams and athletes development and growth feedback at Hogan's tournaments.
"It's pretty funny," chuckled Hogan. "He and I were actually negotiating against each other for a [tournament] site over in Kent Island. I knew there was somebody else. He knew there was somebody else. And I don't know how both of us figured out it was each other."
The two ended up jumping on a call when they discovered they were the other's competitor and were prepared to talk out the issue.
"We came to the agreement that we didn't want to compete against each other, so what we decided to do is to do a tournament together in Kent Island on that weekend, and it worked out great," said Hogan.
Hogan was effusive in praising Cottle's ability to work with the teams and provide solid constructive developmental feedback, especially at their Florida Team Training tournament.
"[Cottle] has a skill that very few have, and the coaches down there can't believe it," said Hogan. "He can watch a team play for about a half an hour and come back to the coach and tell them, philosophically, how they should play with the talent they have. He can see that and make decisions on that which are unbelievable."
Cottle is not the only Bayhawk involved with Hogan. Veteran goalie Brian Phipps assists Hogan with his Annapolis Hawks club teams as the Goalie Coordinator.
"He does a great job," said Hogan. "He provided feedback to the coaches on who has upside ... And that's the things we don't see that guys like Brian Phipps sees."
"He's fantastic, he has a real calm about him, and his knowledge is through the roof," continued Hogan. "I think he's doing a fantastic job with [Archbishop Spalding High School] right now. I'm really interested what his future is like - I think it's really bright."
Hogan, as his business continues to grow and he adds talented staff members like Cottle and Phipps, still tries to keep his true passion in the tournaments alive - letting kids play the game they love.
"I think the pressure - the parent and player expectation - is too high," said Hogan. "We should be playing lacrosse because we love playing lacrosse ... I want my players playing because they love playing lacrosse."
"I can remember one time one of my [player's] parents being upset about how engrossed her son was in lacrosse," recalled Hogan. "And I said, 'If he was a concert pianist, would that be okay?' and she said 'Yes.' And I said, 'Why? Why isn't it okay to have a love and a passion for the game of lacrosse?' There is nothing wrong with having a passion and a love."
"If people love it, what's wrong with doing it a lot?" concluded Hogan.
Hogan has been a season ticket holder for the Bayhawks for several years and watches every game he is able at the field that hosts his Naptown tournament. His joint effort with the Bayhawks in running the Naptown National Challenge has only led to success as his tournament empire continues to grow.
"We have enjoyed being season ticket holders for the Bayhawks since [Owner Brendan Kelly] bought them," said Hogan. "We enjoy going to the games and we enjoy their support for what we do and we want to keep on supporting them."
The Bayhawks are honored to have Matt Hogan in their flock and are excited for the many years of partnership in the future.
To learn more about HoganLax, please visit hoganlax.com.
For more information on Hogan's club lacrosse team, the Annapolis Hawks, please go to annapolishawks.com.
If interested in purchasing tickets to a Bayhawks game this season, please visit thebayhawks.com/tickets or call the Chesapeake Bayhawks Ticket Office at 866-99-HAWKS. Chesapeake's next home game is on Sunday, August 25th at 5:00 PM EST as the Bayhawks take on the Dallas Rattlers.
Images from this story
 Matt Hogan |
Major League Lacrosse Stories from August 21, 2019
- MLL Week 11 Players of the Week Named - MLL
- Celebrating Our Flock: Matt Hogan - Chesapeake Bayhawks
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
