Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/50205
ND SPORTS Irish use military training to help build team chemistry Operation Sledgehammer: The Notre Dame hockey team donned camoufage and war paint during their fall break in October to help prepare for a long season with the help of the Elite Leadership Training group. The Irish completed military simulations led by former Army Ranger and Sergeant Major J.B. Spisso (second from left). PHOTO COURTESY LONA SPISSO/ELITE LEADERSHIP TRAINING BY DAN MURPHY T he twin lakes nestled behind the Golden Dome on Notre Dame's campus are usually a peaceful place. One day this October, they were in- vaded by 27 men clad in camouflage and face paint. Their mission was to build a rope bridge across the wa- ter and use it to transport a missile and launch codes to the other side. Their goal was to create stronger team chemistry and become better leaders. The Irish men's hockey team spent their mid-semester break getting ready for a long and adversity-filled season. For part of that prep work, they employed a group of retired Special Forces leaders to put the team through some intense military simula- tions and teach them what it means to be a leader. The team broke up into smaller units and ran through a battery of dif- ferent drills designed to push them out of their comfort zones physically and mentally. A day in the field helped bring the Notre Dame players closer together and gave them an experience to call on when the team hits a rough patch. "We learned a lot about just work- ing together and just having a passion 56 JANUARY 2012 for what we do," senior captain Sean Lorenz said. "Really loving what you do and making sure you work hard 100 percent of the time — I think that's what a lot of guys took out of it." Lorenz first brought the idea of working with the Elite Leadership Training group to his coaches last summer. The Minnesota Wild pros- pect worked with them at an NHL de- velopmental camp and immediately thought they could help his current team in South Bend. Elite Leadership Training, started by Lona and J.B. Spisso in 2005, puts sports teams and executives from major corporations through the type of exercises they learned during their military careers to teach civilians how to work together in stressful situations. J.B. Spisso said he is a lifelong hockey fan and the group's first ma- jor client was the New York Rangers. They help prepare several professional and college squads each year, and have developed a strong reputation in the hockey community for bringing teams together. "Leadership is a learned trait; it's not something you are born with," Spisso said. "The military spent a ton of money on us, teaching us leader- ship, and we just try to force that on the people we work with." Spisso, a former Sergeant Major and Ranger in the U.S. Army, built a team of 10 other trainers and consultants who have all held high posts in the military and many of who have been in live combat overseas. He creates a custom program each time he works with a team. During Notre Dame's two-day ses- sion, the Irish spent one day in the classroom discussing what it means to be a warrior and one day in the field completing three objectives that he named Operation Sledgehammer. Along with swimming through the chilly lake to build their rope bridge, the players also had to build a stretcher to carry one of their "wounded" team- mates through an area they carefully scouted, and transport more than 1,000 pounds of equipment around the lakes by land. "The hardest one was definitely the one where we tried to carry every- thing around the lake," said sopho- more and alternate captain Anders Lee. "That was really tough. We were dragging this sled, and we had every- thing on it." Spisso said he likes to introduce his clients to a little bit of the "suck facto," BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED