It’s official: the lazy “lax-bro” stereotype is dead at Whitman, thanks to former U.S. soldier Michael Snyder.

**by John Sullivan**

The lacrosse team hired Snyder to be the team’s strength and conditioning coach in the hopes that he would help it gain a competitive edge on the field. Snyder went to Seneca Valley with head coach Mike Ricucci and graduated in 2001.  He was an All-American and went on to play D-III lacrosse at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Ricucci and Snyder have known each other since they were kids and played lacrosse together in high school.

Snyder will use training techniques from CrossFit, a strength and conditioning program used by professional athletes and military experts.  He initially used CrossFit to train for a Muay Thai boxing competition in 2007, and became a certified CrossFit trainer in 2008 prior to his deployment to Iraq.

While serving in Iraq, Snyder developed his own CrossFit program, called CrossFit Slayer, which incorporates many different exercises like Olympic weight lifting and speed training.

Snyder hopes that the players will ultimately become closer due to the difficult exercises.

“[These workouts] will build their unity, spirit and cohesion through pushing one another through challenges and coming out together on top,” he said.

The players will also benefit from a different training methodology and creative workouts, he said.

“The days of hours in the gym and hours running are over,” he said.

Snyder will additionally serve as the goalie coach this season.  He’s played the position since he was eight and attended many goalie camps when he was a player.

Ricucci said that the biggest difference from last year to this year is that the workouts have combined cardio, plyometrics and strength instead of doing them separately.

Senior midfielder Christian Sanson said that he’s already noticed changes in the workouts.  The workouts started in the fall, not in the winter like past years, and the players have tried unorthodox workouts like rolling tires.  Sanson said he hopes the workouts strengthen a broad array of muscles and the team gets stronger from the exercises.

Snyder is confident that his training techniques will help the players.

“Through buy-in and dedication, I see the kids getting a distinct competitive edge both mentally and physically over the other teams in the county,” he said.  “Hopefully we will toughen them up enough so nothing they are confronted with on the field will slow them down.”