The Premier Lacrosse League hired Joe Spallina to be the new general manager of the California Redwoods. The current head coach of the Stony Brook women’s lacrosse team, Spallina’s previous professional lacrosse experience included being the head coach and general manager of the New York Lizards in Major League Lacrosse from 2012 to 2018; the team won a championship in 2015.

The work begins immediately in order to help California find a new head coach and reshape a roster that missed the playoffs for the first time in 2024. 

In this Q&A, Spallina shared his thoughts on why he wanted to get back into professional lacrosse, the vision he has for the Redwoods roster and what he’s looking for in a new head coach.

Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Why is now the right time to get back in the pro game?

“I had a great run in the MLL with the Lizards. With winning championships and putting together great rosters, and really forming relationships, which is a big part of what this sport is really about, when I stepped down, I needed a break from the league. When the PLL started, I had the option of coming over with some of those guys. I had to fulfill my contract obligations. I needed a break, get my summers back a little bit. My kids are all playing lacrosse. I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss too much of that. I took a little break, and then it was the right opportunity at the right time. I’ve been getting the itch the last few years. The PLL has been great and keeping communication with me throughout the last couple years, getting an idea of where I was at, different positions that may be available, etc. The timing was right, and I’ve been super impressed with what the league has been doing. It’s an honor to be part of it.”

For how long has that itch been around?

“It’s been a couple years. It’s interesting. I’ve had some coaches in the league reach out and almost consulting with teams in terms of ‘What do you think of this? What do you think of that?’ Obviously, I don’t stop watching lacrosse. My knowledge of all the current pro guys, and obviously, a lot of the top college guys, a lot of those guys like Brennan O’Neill, grew up playing for me when he was a young kid. All those guys, it’s their time. It was more a matter not if, but when. Now just felt right. For me, I had so much going on. I’m getting to a different chapter of my life, and the timing was perfect.”

With the Lizards, you were the GM but also the coach. With Stony Brook, you recruit and you coach. How is this role with the Redwoods, where you won’t be coaching, be different?

“It’s definitely different. I used to use the Bill Parcells line all the time: ‘If I’m going to cook the meal, I’m going to shop for the groceries’ It really speaks volumes of the growth of the sport where we’re at the point we have general managers that are putting rosters together. It will definitely be different. I think it adds a little more legitimacy where you have the head coach making a bond with players, and then you have a relationship with players, so you go to make a trade, it’s even harder because you have personal bonds with these guys. We made some tough moves through the years but ones that served the team very well. We made the biggest trade in the history of pro lacrosse when we acquired Paul [Rabil] from Boston. We made one of the initial free agent signings in the MLL when we signed Joe Walters from Chesapeake. A lot of those things for us, every now and then, I’m in a situation where I’m with the team as often as I can be, but it will allow me to maybe make some of the tough decisions that a coach-slash-GM can’t make.”

There was a time with the Lizards you were willing to trade draft picks because you had those connections with guys. What are your thoughts on roster construction with trades, with drafts and with player movement? There are a lot of ways to change teams, and in the past, you’ve been a guy willing to make moves, big moves, go for a home run.

“I’m not afraid to make a trade that’s going to help the team. I was nicknamed ‘Trader Joe’ back in my MLL days. To do it just one way isn’t it. You look back at that Lizards team, we had the one year we drafted Joe Fletcher and Luke Duprey in the first round. One year we had to dig a little deeper; we were fortunate, my time there, we were able to get Tommy Palasek, Matt Gibson, JoJo Marasco, guys that were fourth-round draft picks we were able to turn into major impacts. Also, the player pool, looking at the player pool with my boys playing college lacrosse, I have a really in-depth knowledge of the current college players. I scooped two guys up today that were sitting in there. I was surprised the talent was sitting there. We’re going to do it every way we can to put the best roster together. 

“My thing with the draft picks is if there’s a player that can change us immediately, that’s something I’m not shy about trading away my picks if it’s the right player at the right time that fits the right hole. When you do this, picks are unknown. There’s educated guess, but they also come with question marks where if you look at a guy that maybe has some street cred in the league, it’s a little more of a sure thing. The way I’ve always run my teams with the Lizards, we had to do it different ways. When I first took over, we had nobody; we had to start it off with the draft and the player pool. As time went on, we put together an entire roster where then you can do it different where now you can trade away some of those picks where a young guy would have trouble cracking our lineup. Why waste a pick if I can get immediate value if I can fix a roster that was ready to win championships? I’ve done it a bunch of different ways. We’ve had success a bunch of different ways.

“When you look at the Redwoods roster, you are really heavy on the back end with some incredible talent. So, we will explore. We don’t need seven PLL starters, and we’re a little light offensively, so we will kick the tires on how can we turn some of that defense into offense if the right deal is out there. If it’s not out there, we’re not going to force anything. We will be ready to go. We will be ready to pivot. I love having the No. 2 pick. I have my eyes on some players that fit what I want to bring in. It would take a lot for me to move that.”

You mentioned you have guys that fit what you want to do. What do you want to do with this team?

“This roster is built to win 8-7 or 9-8 games. I’ve got to make it so this team can score goals and take a little pressure off that defense. The defense, the talent is elite. When you play too much defense in any sport … you wear out.

“I used to always say with the Lizards, ‘Get to 14. Fourteen is the magic number. You get to 14, you win the game.’ I think with the PLL … that number is probably down a little bit, but I’ve got to put together an offensive roster that is going to get to 14 in a game and be able to alleviate a lot of pressure. We have an elite faceoff guy. We’ve got some really, really high-end pieces on the offensive side, but we need more. That’s not a secret. It’s something where we will do what we’ve got to do.”

What similarities do you see with the Redwoods right now versus those early Lizards teams you had, before the 2015 superstar season?

“These guys are disappointed. [They] are coming off a year they weren’t in the playoffs. I think when you’re building a roster, [in 2012], we pulled Brian Langtry out of the player pool, and he had an All-Star season. We had a bunch of different pieces, guys people didn’t know. Our attack group was a bunch of young guys. Rob [Pannell] went back to Cornell to finish his eligibility. We had Langtry with [Tom] Palasek and [Matt Gibson]. We had that group, and even in that playoff game, we were beating Denver by a ton, and we just ran out of gas. The similarities are that the roster is not there yet. We’re a little ahead of the Lizards roster I inherited my first year as a head coach. Like anything, when you don’t make the playoffs, and winning is standard, when you’re involved in pro lacrosse, it’s, ‘Win a championship.’ I need to make sure we put together a championship-caliber roster, not just to be respectable, not just to be in the playoffs, but to win a championship. Defensively, that’s a championship group. The faceoff, that’s a championship group. The pieces are there. It’s going to take some finesse, some vision and the ability to make some tough decisions. I’m excited for that.”

In the press release, it said the coaching search was going to be happening immediately. What does that look like? What can the team expect in terms of a head coach?

“I’m not going to speak specifically in names, but I will tell you I’ve been involved in pro lacrosse a long time. Even just the last couple years watching, I think the characteristics of a good head coach in this league are different. Coaching pro lacrosse is very, very different. Pro lacrosse is really good when things are good, but it’s really hard when things aren’t because you don’t have the practice time to fix things. You’ve got to have somebody who understands the landscape of the league, somebody that has experience in the pro game, and somebody that is able to put together a staff that understands the pro league, as well. Sometimes, you can have a practice in a Zoom. Sometimes, you have to be creative in how you get guys on the same page. How do you get guys thinking of a Saturday night game in Utah on Monday morning when they’re all at their houses? [You have to] get guys to care a lot about it and make it personal. We’re going to look for those qualities in a head coach. I’m excited to work with the head coach for us to make some personnel decisions that best fit the Redwoods organization and give them all the weapons they need. What’s good for them, as well, is they will have somebody they can lean on that has experience coaching at that level.”

What do you want to say to the fans of the Redwoods?

“We’re going to build a championship roster. The goal is to be in the playoffs this upcoming season and win a championship. We’ll build as fast as we can the right way. We’ll build something that’s made to last. Our goal is to make the Redwoods a premier destination for pro lacrosse players.”