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He Loves Lacrosse So Much He Coaches 3 Teams

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Do you love lacrosse? You can't possibly love it as much as Aime Caines.

When Caines is coaching, he's all in, giving his team every ounce of his energy and every octave in his vocal chords.

Caines is the head coach of the East Ridge High School boys lacrosse team. And he's also an assistant coach with the Gophers college club team. And he's an assistant coach with the Minnesota Swarm professional team.

That's right, three teams, at the same time.

"It's crazy balancing everything," he said.

To pull it all off, Caines is one of the most organized guys you'll meet, bringing the same level of skill to his schedule as he does to the sideline.

"I have a little paper calendar, which the guys make fun of me when I bring it to the office, but it keeps my life balanced," he said. "We have two more calendars with my wife's, the children's and school events, and so the first thing I do in the morning is look at the calendar."

He'll often be coaching more than one team on the same day, like last week, when he coached East Ridge in a game, then went straight to Gophers practice.

"With being the head coach here at East Ridge, I can schedule the practice times and games around the Swarm schedule, and the U of M typically practice late at night," he said. "It does conflict a little, but we work around that."

Coaching at three different levels -- pro, college and high school -- requires a wide range of talent and temperament. He's learned how to adjust to what each team needs.

"A little different atmosphere, but I still try to bring the same kind of intensity to each team," he said.

But why coach three teams at the same time?

He loves it, of course, but there are also practical reasons for each: Pro lacrosse is his first love, college is what he'd eventually like to coach full-time and he coaches high school because he lives in Woodbury and wants to be part of the sport in his home community.

Caines also coaches lacrosse at B.E. Emerson Prep Academy, a specialized school for lacrosse and hockey players.

He doesn't take a break in the summer either. He coaches the Swarm's youth team as well as his 4-year-old son's team. And he runs lacrosse camps.

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