Life In The PLL Bubble with Three Blue Hens

In late July, before the NBA and NHL resumed their seasons, the Premier Lacrosse League was one of the first professional sports leagues to return to play, hosting a championship series in Herriman, Utah. As the league played in front of a national television audience in a wildly successful tournament, three Blue Hens, each at different points in their careers, were making their mark on professional lacrosse.

After a decade of being a star in the indoor National Lacrosse League, veteran attack Curtis Dickson played in his first PLL action as a member of the Chaos, while rookie goalie Matt DeLuca was making his professional debut with the Waterdogs and Chris Collins was coaching in the PLL for the first time with the Redwoods.

But before any lacrosse could be played, the PLL bubble had to be airtight. Players had to quarantine for 14 days before traveling to Utah, then for 24 more hours once they were on-site and had taken another COVID test to ensure nobody had been infected during transit. Each team had a separate bus that took them from the hotel to the fields, and there was security at the hotel to make sure nobody came in or out of the bubble. In addition to testing throughout the tournament, masks were on in all shared spaces that weren't a game or a practice.

"They crushed it, I was super impressed. You're talking top to bottom, from league ownership all the way down to the plays and the staff," Collins said of the buy-in for the health and safety protocols. "The only time I didn't have a mask on was when we were on the field at practice or for a game."

From July 25 to August 9, the PLL played 20 games without a single positive COVID test. And while it was a massive success to execute the tournament in a pandemic at all, it was also a successful time for the Delaware alumni involved.

Dickson, who was a two-time All-American and played in a Final Four during his Delaware career from 2007-10, was a key part of the Chaos offense. Transitioning from box lacrosse to field lacrosse always requires an adjustment period, but the Canadian attacker quickly took to the PLL's unique, fast-paced style.

"It was awesome. It's a little bit of a hybrid of the outdoor lacrosse game, and obviously my background in box," Dickson said. "The shorter field, shot clock, everything they've implemented I think has really helped speed up the game and made it more fan-friendly and enjoyable for people watching at home."

Dickson was one of the most prolific offensive players in Utah, tallying 12 goals and six assists for 18 points, all of which ranked in the top 10 for the league. While his Chaos squad struggled in group play, dropping all four games it played, they rallied in the knockout rounds, defeating both Chrome and Archers before falling to Whipsnakes in the championships final.
While Dickson had years of professional experience to draw from in an unusual situation, DeLuca had to adjust to life in the bubble while also learning how to be a professional lacrosse player on the fly.

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"I definitely did whatever I could as a rookie, just trying to help in my way, wherever I could," DeLuca said. "At the time I wasn't playing, so I was seeing shots after practice, letting the guys just hammer the ball, working on their shots rather than working on what I need. Which would ultimately help me adjust to the speed of the game."

That extra work after practice paid off when the Waterdogs' starting goalie, Charlie Cipriano, went down with an injury late in the game against the Chrome. DeLuca, himself a two-time All-American in 2019 and 2020, entered in the fourth quarter and did not allow a goal as the Waterdogs mounted an epic comeback effort.

While the Waterdogs's comeback against the Chrome ultimately fell short, they would win DeLuca's first career start the next day, 10-9 over the Chaos behind 11 saves from the rookie goalie. The Farmingdale, N.Y., native finished the tournament with a save percentage of 59%, the third-best mark in the league.

"Super excited for next year, because I was able to build a foundation," DeLuca said. "That's why I'm grateful for even playing the games."

Although this was his first season as an assistant coach for the Redwoods, Collins is far from a stranger to high-level lacrosse. After three years as starting goalie and captain for the Blue Hens from 2003-05, he jumped right into his coaching career as an assistant for Delaware, including UD's Final Four appearance in 2007, and most recently was on the staff at Drexel.
All of this coaching happened while he was also playing professionally in the NLL and Major League Lacrosse. He also represented Team USA at the Federation of International Lacrosse World Indoor Championship in 2015.

In fact, his time in the bubble was reminiscent of his world championship experience.

"It was one of the best lacrosse experiences of my life," Collins said. "It had some big-time similarities to playing for Team USA and that type of being on the road for a month, and kind of being locked in that hotel, in the classroom, on the practice field with the guys."

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Collins joined the Redwoods staff just months before the pandemic hit and immediately had to be adaptable in terms of preparing for the draft, designing a condensed training camp, and scheduling practice and meeting times in the bubble. Before they got to Utah, the Redwoods would have meetings over Zoom to go over the playbook and team concepts so everybody hit the ground running once they were able to practice together.

"Playing this game for a long time, you try to pull bits and pieces from experiences you've had in the past," Collins said. "It encouraged us to be creative with how we wanted to team-build and everything that goes into a month of preseason. Now we have two months, but we're not going to physically be with each other."

The Redwoods went 2-2 in group play, and made the semifinals, falling to the eventual champion Whipsnakes in overtime.

Although they weren't able to interact with each other as much as they would have in a normal year, one thing that all the Blue Hens in the PLL bubble valued was being able to represent the University of Delaware and be a part of the fraternity of Blue Hens that have played professionally.

"It's awesome to see, guys like [Dickson], John Grant Jr., Alex Smith, they give you hope when you're in the recruiting process and maybe not getting looked at by the biggest schools," DeLuca said. "If you work hard, you could do it with what we've got here. So just trying to continue that message for recruits coming in, just because we're not Syracuse or we're not Duke, which we want to be and which we're growing to be, doesn't mean you can't take your game to the next level."

"To have that Blue Hen connection, it's special," Collins said. "There's not a lot of schools that can say that and we rock that proudly."

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