As Chris Bates dug into his taco salad at Casey’s Public House in Newtown Square, Pa., he mulled over what Tom Schreiber was telling him.
It was October 2018. Schreiber was breaking down the new professional lacrosse league that he was helping to found. He told his former college coach about the league structure, the touring model, the corporate backing, a national TV deal and all the other intricacies of the soon-to-be-announced Premier Lacrosse League.
He was doing so because Paul Rabil and Kyle Harrison, Schreiber’s two favorite players of all time, had asked the 26-year-old two-time MVP to help them build a professional lacrosse league from scratch.
“It was pretty awesome,” Schreiber said with a wry smile.
Eight years prior, Bates had arrived on the Schreibers’ front porch as the newly hired Princeton lacrosse coach, hoping to get high school junior Tom to keep his commitment to the Tigers.
This time, it was Schreiber seeking out his former college coach to pick his brain on the idea of the league, both on the business side and the lacrosse front, in the lead-up to its announcement. As he explained the Rabils’ vision for a league by the players for the fans and detailed the backing it would have, Bates got excited at the potential.
“This has a chance,” he thought. “These are forward-thinking people that are looking at something that currently exists and appropriately addressing what is not good enough and what can be improved.”
The two didn’t discuss any potential role for Bates with the league at that time, but it set the groundwork for interviews that occurred shortly thereafter.
As Bates was actively interviewing for a coaching position with the league in the following months, he ran into longtime friend and former teammate Tony Resch at a Philadelphia lacrosse event.
“Hey, they’ve been talking to me,” Resch told Bates, referring to the league.
“Oh, awesome,” Bates responded, encouraged for the league’s sake, but uncertain if the two Philly-area legends were competing for the same job.
“If this thing works out for you, I’d love to talk further,” Resch said.
“Done, sold,” Bates said, giddy about the prospect of bringing Resch onto his staff.
In December 2019, the PLL announced its six head coaches, including Bates. The matching of coaches to teams and players to rosters waited until the spring.
Schreiber, who was involved in recruiting players to the league and lending a hand wherever he could, took a step back from any decision-making around coaches, rosters and the lacrosse product, considering he’d be competing come the summer.
He knew there would be thoughtfulness behind piecing together teams that fans from different regions and college and professional fanbases could get behind. He hoped that would mean a reunion with Bates.
On March 1, 2019, the PLL announced Bates as the Archers head coach alongside assistants Resch and Brian Kavanagh – Schreiber’s best friend and former teammate at Princeton. Three days later, the rosters went live, with Schreiber headlining the Archers’ squad.
“I don’t think I was surprised,” Schreiber said about when he learned that he and Bates were paired up. “But it was an exciting couple of weeks.”
“The opportunity to get another crack at everything with your college coach is not something many guys can say they’ve had,” Schreiber added. “So I’m just pretty grateful that I’ve had that.”
“It’ll always be a coaching highlight and a personal highlight,” Bates said. “I love Tom’s kids. I just love the human being, and to know him as a parent, to know him as a dad and a father and a husband and all that, it’s priceless. It really is.”
That first Archers roster was a mix of players from the Ohio Machine (Schreiber’s former team) in the MLL, some Carolina flavor and a handful of Ivy Leaguers. Much of the roster had a connection to Schreiber. Will Manny played with him in high school. Ryan Ambler was a teammate at Princeton. Marcus Holman, Dominique Alexander, Matt McMahon and others, including Ambler, played with him on the Machine.
The league’s first training camp at IMG Academy marked the next step in the process. There was a different, fresh energy in the air for the players. Schreiber watched as the Rabils’ pitch deck that he’d seen two years before came to life in front of his very eyes.
“This is really cool,” he told himself.
The league’s opening weekend at Gillette Stadium was a tentpole moment for everyone involved. The Archers played in and won the league’s first game, capped off by Manny’s overtime game-winner.
The moment that stands out in Bates’ memory, however, is a second-quarter goal that Holman scored. While the way he wrapped the shot around his defender was impressive, the sideline shot of the goal was what struck Bates after the game.