In the sweltering sun of Homewood Field, Pat Kavanagh needed a spark.
The second-year attackman had started to find his groove with his new team. But the 2024 Tewaaraton Award winner wasn’t shooting the ball the way he wanted. As he headed out of the locker room tunnel and back out on the field, Denver Outlaws head coach Tim Soudan asked him a question:
“Do you want some magic dust?”
A confused Kavanagh couldn’t make heads or tails of what his new coach was talking about. Soudan explained the lore of his magic powder, sprinkling a little something on an attacker’s stick if he was in a tough spell. It’s worked for guys in the past and still works now.
And Kavanagh was all in.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, let me get some of that,’” Kavanagh said.
In the weeks since, Kavanagh’s become one of the best goal-scorers in the PLL and led the Outlaws to the top spot in the West. It’s yet another success story in the tale of Soudan’s magic dust.
The magic dust, a secret concoction of powder Soudan keeps in his pocket or hat, dates back over a decade to his time leading the Rochester Rattlers.
No one person meant more to professional lacrosse in Rochester than Soudan, who played for the Rattlers in Major League Lacrosse from 2001 to 2003 and was a stalwart indoors with the Rochester Knighthawks.
While the Knighthawks were a steady force indoors throughout those years, the Rattlers had taken a rockier road. The franchise moved to Hamilton, Ontario, in 2008, before a reborn Rattlers team arrived in 2011.
The team was seemingly in good hands, being led by BJ O’Hara. O’Hara guided the franchise to its greatest heights in the 2000s, including Rochester’s lone championship in 2008. He also happens to be the winningest coach in pro lacrosse history.
The roster also featured a bevy of young stars like Ned Crotty and rookies John Galloway and Joel White. But despite an experienced hand and a core of young stars, the Rattlers were having a terrible year.
Rochester opened the season 0-6, limping to the bottom of the Eastern Conference halfway through the season. The Rattlers needed a fresh voice, and they found it from a familiar face: Soudan.
Soudan is one of the best professional lacrosse players of all time, but in 2011, his coaching resume was light. He’d spent time in the Knighthawks front office but never took the sideline in the pros.
Even with this light resume, nobody else could’ve taken the reins for the next era of Rochester pro lacrosse.
He may not have coached himself, but he knew professional lacrosse better than anybody. He also brought a loose energy and player-focused approach to the Rattlers. He understood the needs of a professional lacrosse player.
“If you try to manage the pro players like they’re collegiate players, that doesn’t always necessarily work,” said Kevin Leveille, a Professional Lacrosse Hall of Famer who played his last two seasons in Rochester.
As a former professional player himself, Soudan understood the commitment of pro lacrosse, especially in the MLL days. For the players, the commitment of traveling every weekend and staying dialed in was hard.
But when they came for a Soudan-led weekend, it was always fun.
“He wanted to make sure that he created an environment that rewarded us,” said three-time All-Pro attackman Jordan Wolf. “If we did all the right things, we were going to have an unbelievable time on the weekends on the field, off the field with each other.”
Among the many ways Soudan keeps things light with his players is through his magic dust.
Wolf, who spent most of his professional career playing for Soudan in Rochester and with the Chrome, would be hard on himself in a shooting slump. For Wolf, a national champion and all-time great in college, the transition to pro lacrosse was difficult.
The grueling travel schedule and level of competition weighed on him early in his pro career. But Soudan was there with a soft touch and a handful of magic dust.
“It’s an easy way for him to lighten people up and make us remember that we’re playing a game we love,” Wolf said.
Soudan sprinkled magic dust on the entire Rattlers organization as Rochester blossomed into one of the premier teams in the league.
After a 2-10 finish in 2011, the Rattlers built into a consistent force.
Rochester made the playoffs three times and reached two MLL Championship games. The core group of players including Wolf, Galloway, White and Mike Manley were regulars on the All-Star team.
In 2014, Soudan won Coach of the Year honors as the Rattlers went 10-4 and played for a title.
Despite all of their successes, Rochester never hoisted an MLL Championship under Soudan. But even without a title, the Rattlers players built a culture envied by even the most successful teams in the league. And that came from Soudan.
“I’ve been most proud when players from other teams, star players from other teams, reference that like, ‘Man, you guys just seem like you enjoy being with each other,’” said Galloway, the Rattlers’ longtime goalie.
When the PLL formed in 2019, many of the Rattlers core formed the base of the newly formed Chrome Lacrosse Club. However, they were without Soudan in that first season as they slumped to a last-place finish in the league.
But when the team was looking for a new head coach ahead of the 2020 season, Soudan was there to sprinkle some more magic dust on his core group of guys.
As the original Rattlers crew started to hang up their sticks, the continuation of that culture and bond fell on the shoulders of the next generation. And there was still Soudo to lead the way in the locker room.
Many of the same traditions that defined the 2010s in Rochester have carried through to the Denver Outlaws of 2025. It starts in the locker room, where the team still makes it a point to spend time going out together after games, a longstanding Rattlers tradition.
And yes, Soudan’s magic dust survives to 2025, perhaps the magic spark for Denver’s run to the Western Conference’s top seed.
The dust found its way to goalie Logan McNaney earlier in this season. The rookie brought plenty of his own magic to the table to start his career, but against the Boston Cannons, he was playing below his lofty standards.
At the end of the third quarter, Soudan reached for his secret weapon: the magic dust. While usually reserved for an offensive star in a shooting slump, Soudan gave the rookie netminder a little sprinkle in his oversized goalie pocket.
In the fourth quarter, McNaney closed the door. He allowed one two-pointer, making several key saves as Denver pulled off the 18-17 comeback victory.
“I’ve kind of never really seen anything like that,” McNaney said. “Whatever it may be that I need, that dust provides it.”
The modern PLL has a different culture compared to the old MLL days, but the Soudan culture has remained the same. With a roster full of the best players in the world, there’s no need to overcoach or force players into boxes.
On the Outlaws, players are encouraged to be themselves and make plays all over the field. If there’s one phrase that’s never uttered from a Tim Soudan-led sideline, it’s, “no, no, no, no, YES.”
For Kavanagh, joining the team after a frustrating rookie season, this player-driven culture was a breath of fresh air. The freedom to play at attack and make the crazy plays that define his game have helped Kavanagh catapult to superstar status, turning him into a finalist for MVP.
“You don’t want to micromanage things at the pro level because all the guys are there for a reason,” Kavanagh said. “Why guys really love playing for him is how much trust he puts in his players.”
Soudan’s teams have always played with freedom and passion. Few have been as purely talented as this year’s Outlaws crew. With four Tewaaraton winners, countless All-Americans and more end-of-year award nominees than anyone else, Denver’s built the best team in the league.
With the best roster he’s ever assembled, Soudan is two games away from his elusive first title as a head coach. He’s the winningest coach in pro lacrosse history without a ring. For his longtime players, like Manley, this is an opportunity to close out a fairy tale ride.
“We’ve been through this a lot with him,” Manley said. “It would mean the world to both of us.”
The playoffs can be a crapshoot. A hot goalie or bad shooting luck could sink even the best teams. For the Outlaws, it’ll take a little something special to turn a dominant regular season into a championship.
Perhaps a sprinkle of magic dust will do the trick.
