The UA Long Island Games has many attributes that make the games so special, and for coach Joe Spallina, the best attribute of the UA games is the absence of previous titles for the players and coaches. “What I love about Under Armour is it takes away what high schools the kids are from. It takes away what club teams the kids are from, and it regionalizes a major event,” says Spallina.
Spallina and his coaching staff of Mike Hungerford and Tom Rooney are coming off a campaign the year before where they won the entire UA Games. Now, they are making the move to the older team where they look to repeat the success they found last year.
Spallina’s UA team will have a little more meaning for him. He will have the opportunity to coach his son. His son, Joey Spallina, is the No.1 recruit in the class of 2022 and is committed to Syracuse. “It will make it special for sure,” says the Stony Brook men’s lacrosse coach.
Spallina provides a unique perspective as he coached in the MLL, and is currently the winningest coach in Stony Brook program history. For him though, it is not so much about Xs and Os. “For me, being a coach isn’t always about X’s and O’s It is about being a good mentor, and allowing them to buy into what you are doing, to be able to teach, not manage,” says Spallina.
As Spallina enters his third season being a coach of the UA games, he says the ultimate goal is to “Win baby win.”
