Last year, the boys lacrosse team finished their season 13-4 and made it to the first round of district playoffs. Hoping to build on that success, the team has been working on rebuilding, as they lost 11 seniors. Luckily, new head coach Ryan Hilliard is bringing a wealth of experience and a focus on building and maintaining the basic fundamentals while working with the new team dynamics.

Hilliard has a long background of lacrosse experiences as he grew up playing lacrosse in Maryland, and played at Penn State for two seasons. This year marks his twentieth season coaching lacrosse with his last two years of coaching being at Carlisle.

Since the beginning of their season, practice and conditioning have been the root of their gameplay. Senior Isaac Beals notes “Conditioning has definitely benefited the team in physical and mental ways.” Conditioning helps when it comes to maintaining endurance during games, and that it has become a priority during practices.

“Lacrosse is known as the fastest sport on two feet, conditioning is especially important…I believe it has helped us to stay fresh in games, especially since we have less depth than usual, and rely on a few athletes to play a lot of minutes,” senior Brayden Burge explained.

To start off practice, they take the time to do some conditioning and stretching, following into stickwork. Once warmed up, they break off into offensive and defensive drills to focus on position-specific skills for about a half-hour. For the last hour, the team comes back together to work on full field drills for game-like situations.

While the current season is important, the work put in during the off season is foundational to a team’s success.  Most players spent time in the gym or they played another sport to stay in shape. Focusing on initial skills like stickwork, footwork, and shooting were also essential for staying in shape.

Putting practice and conditioning aside, Head Coach Ryan Hilliard dives deeper into team dynamics: “So far the group has had a good team chemistry with the upperclassmen and underclassmen all getting along well together.” With a roster of 31 players this year and only 3 returning starters from last season’s team, most players are coming to this season with little Varsity level experience.

With that in mind, Hilliard’s goals for this year are, “…looking to make improvements as individual players and as a team. The overarching themes include being great teammates, developing strong character, and improving in the fundamental aspects of the game both as individuals and as a team.” 

Senior Cayden Plank shares that he sees the team going, “nowhere but UP!” this season. Similar to Plank, Burge explains that with a very young team this year, “our team is focused on the fundamentals this year, working hard and gaining experience together, which we hope will benefit the team not only in this season but in other seasons to come.” Beals notes that they are just “taking it day by day, the results will follow our progression throughout the season.”

So far their record is 1-7 with a win against Gettysburg. With a few close games, there is still hope for the season as long as they keep up their focus towards the game.

Their next home game on April 18th against Palmyra!