Our coaching tenets
Here at Cannons, our focus is on growing the game of lacrosse and our kids having fun. Here are our tenets, which continue to evolve as we grow and as we receive feedback:
Our goal is the best kids play 60% of the time and the worst kids plays 40% of the time - Our intent is to grow the game of lacrosse through creating a large group of players ready and willing to play; 1 A player and 15 B players will more often than not beat 4 A players and 11 D players.
We aren’t just building a lacrosse team; we are building a community – We want to involve parents actively and early. Spend time explaining to parents what their kids can work on and enable the parents to be a part of their development.
We will focus and praise effort first. Winning is a byproduct – If we praise effort we create a culture of practicing and playing with purpose. Our goal is game speed, all the time.
We want our best players to be the best teammates – Our numbers are small. If we want the kids who love lacrosse already to keep playing lacrosse with a team, they need to build up their teammates newer to the game or less skilled to love the game just as much. Negative talk between teammates is unacceptable.
Nobody can tell if we are winning and losing just by looking at our teams – We will help our kids work on composure and how they carry themselves. We will not tolerate profanity or dragging and slamming of sticks.
It’s just a game, lets have fun - Always remember a good chunk of our kids still believe in Santa Claus. We want to create a safe environment to do dangerous things, push themselves and grow as lacrosse players and as human beings.
Cannons Coaching Staff
Scott Conrad
Program director and Vista Ridge HS head coach Scott Conrad is in his 13th season coaching in Central Texas. With a career record of 117-38 (76% win pct.) and three Coach of the Year awards with three different teams, Coach Conrad is one of the most experienced and successful coaches in central Texas lacrosse history. A native of the Washington D.C. area, Coach Conrad was introduced to lacrosse in fifth grade and immediately fell in love with the sport. After a successful youth and high school career, the attention shifted to coaching after suffering a career-ending injury freshman year of college at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Coach Conrad helped oversee the Youth program for years in Georgetown and also helped run camps, clinics, and travel teams across the Austin area with multiple youth organizations in the summer and fall seasons. It is his belief that great high school programs come from great youth feeder systems, and he is excited to help continue to grow the Cannons Lacrosse organization.
Coaches
Bantam Lacrosse (K-2)
Rod Houston
Rod is a passionate and dedicated coach who loves the game of lacrosse. Currently the Vista Ridge Varsity Assistant and Junior Varsity Head Coach, he has been involved in the Austin lacrosse community for more than a decade serving in various positions including youth coach, JV head coach, Varsity offensive coordinator and Varsity head coach. His coaching style is to try and be the coach he always wanted as an athlete growing up. He will challenge your boys to be their best and hold them accountable for the work that is required while at the same time supporting them and being their biggest fan and toughest critic!
Lightning Lacrosse (3-4)
Jeff Morgan
Coach Jeff is originally from the Connecticut area, and played four years of varsity lacrosse for the Boston College Eagles. A coach for our Lightning team last year, Jeff is looking to build on the success from the previous season through lots of scrimmaging, an attitude of supporting your teammates, and having a ton of fun.
Junior Lacrosse (5-6)
Jeff Kunz
Jeff began coaching in 2016 at the 3rd and 4th grade level, and was a founding member of the Cannons board from 2018-2021. He has coached grades K-6 in his tenure and is currently the 5-6 (Junior) grade coach. It is at this level that Coach strives to focus on the foundation of a successful lacrosse experience. Creating a fun environment, learning the basic fundamentals of the sport, and most importantly, the mantra of attitude and effort.
John Duchouquette
Coach JD has been coaching multiple sports "successfully" for over 20 yrs. Although he has a healthy competitive spirit, he firmly believes that at the youth level "success" is measured in the quality of the individuals experience in concert with team success. As a former professional athlete, and a father of four boys, he always promotes a respect for the coaching role and will approach each player at every level with that privilege in mind.
Senior Lacrosse (7-8)
Sean Morgan
Coach Sean is a lacrosse enthusiast who grew up in Austin, Texas. He started playing lacrosse as a midfielder in eighth grade and continued to play throughout his high school years at McCallum High School, where he was coached by Scott Aubin. He then went on to play club lacrosse at Stephen F Austin State University, where he earned his degree in business administration. After graduating, he returned to his hometown and became a coach for the Cedar Park Middle School lacrosse team, where he enjoyed sharing his passion and skills with the next generation of players. Sean says, “I started in the eighth grade myself, so I’m looking forward to giving back what lacrosse gave to me and expanding the sport to the younger generation.”
Patrick Jennings
Coach Patrick has six years of experience in coaching youth lacrosse. He is originally from Maryland, where he played as a goalie for Boys Latin, one of the most prestigious lacrosse programs in the country. He then continued his lacrosse career at Washington and Lee University, where he played two years of varsity lacrosse. Patrick has a passion for teaching and mentoring young players on both goalie and defensive strategies and looks to build on the success of Cannons from his first season last year.
Conditioning
Kristie Kwan
Kristie has been a certified personal fitness professional for the last 7 years, with a love for fitness that began at the age of 15 when she was on the high school track team and was introduced to the weight room. She has lived and evolved a life of fitness ever since. Grateful for training by both professional athletes and those who have served in the military, Kristie has chosen to focus her career on moms and youth athletes, particularly in lacrosse and volleyball.
Her favorite fitness combination includes HIIT, metabolic training, and strength training techniques. A few years after obtaining her fitness certification, Kristie became a Certified Nutrition Coach as well. Celebrating her 24th wedding anniversary this year, she and her husband, Aaron, are college sweethearts from Baylor University. They have 18-year-old boy/girl twins who are freshmen in college and a 14-year-old son who is a freshman in high school.
Her daughter is pursuing a Business major at Belmont University in Nashville, while her oldest son is the first Vista Ridge Lacrosse player to play NCAA Lacrosse, playing for Southwestern University. Proud of her younger son (and former Cannons) for making the travel team as a freshman, Kristie is excited about her youngest son joining the Ranger’s lacrosse program this year. He will be assisting all the Cannons Players on their Sunday workouts.
Above everything else, Kristie is most passionate about her faith, acknowledging God’s precise timing and enjoying watching it play out in her family's life. She and her husband made a decision to have her stay home until their family was ready for her to venture back into the world of work when they found out they were pregnant with twins. Surprised with another child, the stay-at-home mom venture played out longer than initially anticipated. Grateful for God's provision, Kristie continues to pursue certifications in additional areas revolving around health and fitness, as well as nutrition.