Austrian Experience a Game Changer for Toronto’s Josh Dawick

You might be surprised to see that Josh Dawick is the leading goal scorer on the Toronto Rock right now. You might be even more surprised to learn that Dawick has scored more goals than the Rock’s entire offensive left side of Mark Matthews, Corey Small, Daniel Craig and Bryan Cameron combined.

But, that is the case for the third-year Toronto righty.

You might also be surprised to learn one element of what is behind Dawick’s hot start and the confidence that has both inspired and been reinforced by it: suiting up for Austria at the World Lacrosse Box Championships in Utica this fall.

Dawick saw other players representing their heritage nations and thought, “That would be a great opportunity to play for the country that my grandma was born in. So I reached out to them, we were talking for a while and it finally came to fruition that I was going to play in the world box championships,” he says.

If your hear Dawick’s comment and think that it probably didn’t take long for Austria’s national team, which had finished 14th in its only previous box worlds, to green light an NLL player joining them… well, not so fast. Austria takes the development of the game within their borders seriously, and since Dawick wasn’t able to get over to Vienna for training beforehand, he was put through a thorough vetting process.

“Although we usually have the rule that you have to be in Austria at least twice before a tournament, we made an exception for him,” says Austrian captain Adrian Balasch, who has represented the country in multiple field and box championships. “I am usually rather strict on that, since I care more about development than tournament placements. I had quite a few talks and chats with him beforehand, and I let in to my gut feeling about him, that was extremely positive.”

Swinging the tide in Dawick’s favour was the time and effort he put into meeting with Balasch and members of the Austrian coaching staff via Zoom and other online platforms. Balasch and Julian Kolb, who has been coaching with Austria for almost a decade and was the head coach in Utica, were thoroughly convinced that Dawick “bought into everything, he understood everything we were trying to do,” as Kolb says.

Still, there was some hesitation on the part of other players on Team Austria, until they met Dawick.

Kolb says that Dawick meshed smoothly with the team at the very first practice they held ahead of the tournament in Utica.

Balasch is even more emphatic. “He had put all doubts away within half a day. He was part of us immediately and that’s something I credit him very highly with,” Balasch says.

The results of Dawick fitting into the team so seamlessly showed up at the tournament. He was one of the leading scorers at the worlds, finishing third in both goals (39) and points (53), in just seven games. But it wasn’t all about Dawick scoring. Both he and his new teammates were committed to the development of the entire squad.

For one thing, Dawick tended to draw the top defender from other teams, which opened space for players like Balasch and Klaus Hauer, another Austrian veteran.

“Klaus Hauer is 40; he’s been doing this a long time. He worked more off ball in Utica than I’ve seen in the entirety of the time that I’ve known him,” says Kolb. “I think a big part of that was having a guy like Josh there that took some of the pressure off Klaus or took the pressure off Adrian, and allowed them to free themselves up more because he’s getting doubled or getting the tough assignment. It allows them to excel.”

Another huge factor was the effort that Dawick put in to helping his teammates in any way that he could. That approach stems from the way Dawick viewed joining the team. He wasn’t coming in to be a star or a saviour. He saw being part of Team Austria as a privilege, with a responsibility and an opportunity to share.

“Just getting to know Adrian, you can tell the passion that he has for the program and for the sport. To be able to interact with these guys… I’ve grown up playing this game for 20 years now, to be able to share some of the things that I’ve learned from coaches or teammates over the years, to be able to try to provide a little bit of help for their game, was super awesome,” Dawick says enthusiastically. “Really, just cool for them to allow me to join their team. This is something that they’ve built from the ground up by themselves and it’s all reliant on passionate people over there. They obviously don’t have all the resources that we have over here, so it really is special what they’ve done. To get to know all the guys and their stories and their passion for lacrosse was really cool.”

As it turns out, while Dawick was committed to doing whatever he could to help his Austrian teammates, he was getting something valuable in return the whole time. It would really show up when he got back to the Rock.

Often, serving as a coach or teacher can help you to better learn what it is that you’re learning.

As Dawick says, “When you have to verbalize it to other people, when you teach things to other people, you really have to prove that you understand it yourself. You really try to dumb it down as much as you can at first then get into more advanced stuff as you go. It really helps you develop stuff in your own game, as well as just cement that understanding.”

Added to that was an unfortunate development in Toronto: the early-season injury that has limited Tom Schreiber to part of a single game for the Rock.

“Our team, our offence is unquestionably better with Tom in the lineup. He’s one of the best lacrosse players in the world. His value out there can’t be understated,” Dawick emphasizes. “But with him out, it requires other guys to step up and I’ve tried to kind of put that on myself and take a little bit of responsibility. Especially on our right side, I think I put myself in the best opportunities carrying the ball and I think I can produce other opportunities for my teammates in that situation.”

Combine the teaching/coaching he did with Austria, the need to step up in Schreiber’s absence and the confidence that Dawick has regained thanks to his performance at the Worlds, and you get his hot start to the NLL season. He needed that confidence boost because, like so many players and perhaps even more so in his case, the pandemic eliminated huge swaths of development time.

“I didn’t play as much at school as I would have liked, so I think that had an impact. [The 2020] Junior A season getting cancelled, then we had that shortened season at the TRAC and I blew out my knee.” That really impacted his growth as a player, Dawick notes. “Over the past couple of years, it’s just getting back to where I know I can be as a player. I’ve been working really hard in the gym, because that’s something I need to add to my game, a bit more strength and a bit more speed.

“I’ve found a newfound confidence, gotten back to how I felt growing up playing lacrosse and being more confident. As it relates to the world championship, I think that was a great experience for me because I did get to take more of a leadership role, more of a command of the offence. For my skillset, that’s where I’m at my best, when I have the ball in my stick.”

Kolb cites an example from the Week 2 game between Toronto and the Albany FireWolves, for whom Kolb is a scout and an assistant coach. Dawick scored a goal on a shot that Kolb, and members of the Rock organization, think he may not have taken before his time with Austria.

“He probably took more shots with us that he may or may not have taken in years past. Thirty-five feet out, far side high, I’m not sure he takes that shot last year. It’s awesome. I probably saw him take it with [Austria] 30 times and he probably hit 15 of them,” Kolb says.

Dawick also scored a diving goal against Georgia in Week 3 that reflects the work he mentioned that he has been doing in the gym.

Before he takes too much credit for himself, though, Dawick is emphatic that his Rock teammates and coaches deserve the bulk of that credit.

Dawick recognizes the impact that Dan Dawson has had on him, both as a teammate and now in Dawson’s role in player development with Toronto.

“He focuses on things like body position and as an offensive player, little movements that you can do with your body that can give you an advantage over a D guy,” Dawick says. “Especially me, as I’m not one of the bigger guys in this league, I have to take advantage of those opportunities and be really specific on those things.”

Dawick also notes that when Mark Matthews is at the top of the offensive formation and Corey Small is at the lefty shooter spot, opponents are going to focus plenty of attention over there. That provides him space and opportunity, and he needs to take advantage of that to help the team.

Small, in particular, has been a role model.

“It’s been awesome getting to play with him for these last few seasons,” Dawick says. “Normal guys are trying to hit any area in the net; Corey can hit a diamond in the mesh if he wants to.”

But there is so much more than just the shot, which is only the culmination of a play.

“It’s all-encompassing, whether it’s footwork and setting yourself up in the right spot to shoot. Whether it’s floor awareness, or knowing where you have to be at what time to have that opportunity present itself. Then all the technical aspects of actually shooting the lacrosse ball. He’s one of the best in the world at it and he has been for a long time.”

It has been a tough start to the season for the Rock, who enter their Week 5 Matchup with the Ottawa Black Bears at 0-3 after having gone 15-3 last season. Things are starting to come together, though, as witnessed by the exciting one-goal game Toronto had in Georgia in their last outing.

One goal that stood out in that game was Dawick’s crease dive, which reinforced the importance of the work he’s been putting in to increase his athleticism.

While Rock fans loved to see that goal, there may not have been a more excited group of viewers than Dawick’s teammates in Austria. With NLL+, launched by the League this season, games are far more accessible in Europe.

“For the growth of the game worldwide, you look at some of these guys and they built their program from the ground up. The passion that exists in lacrosse across the world is super cool,” Dawick says. “For products like NLL+ to be put out so guys in Europe can watch games for free, you just can see the benefits of that because people will stay up in the middle of the night to watch NLL games.”

Especially when their new favourite player and teammate is a featured attraction.