The 2013 season is here and we wanted to work closely with college programs to bring a part of the excitement to you. Throughout the 2013 season we will highlight lacrosse programs on our space for all of our readers to follow. Player blogs serve as a unique outlet for programs to showcase their season as it develops, plus highlight everything they have to offer a student-athlete. In contrast, families and fans get a glimpse into the program’s athletic and academic regimen.
Maxen Haveles
Freshman – #7 – Attack
RPI Lacrosse
Hi my name is Maxen Haveles and I am a freshman at RPI which is a division III school In Troy, New York (about 10 minutes outside of Albany). We started practice on Monday after a team meeting in the morning and it was easy to tell everybody was excited after they showed up to the locker room over an hour early. We had gotten most of our team gear and everybody was antsy getting dressed before coach came in and told us to get out on the field and start warming up.
The first couple of days of practice were pretty uneventful because most of what we were doing were just drills and reviewing things from the fall. All of the attackmen were doing shooting and ball protection drills before we got into rides and clears. Monday’s practice ended with what all of the freshmen had been hearing rumors of since we had gotten through the fall. Intervals. These are sprints we do after practice to get into shape and so Coach knows who had done the prescribed running during winter break. Everybody on the team had been dreading these, but the upperclassmen knew how to pace themselves and made sure we did not tire ourselves out too early. It seemed to take forever to get through the running, but the general feeling afterwards was that they were not as bad as they were built up to be.
The next two days, we had to fight the freezing cold weather. The temperature was around zero both days so we were only allowed to be outside for a little while on Tuesday, had a day off on Wednesday because it was so cold, and practiced the entire day inside on Thursday. All we did was a lot of line drills and running which is not that exciting to hear about. Finally on Friday we started doing one on ones and other fun drills like four on threes. The energy on the field was a lot higher than it had been earlier in the week because we finally were able to compete with each other.
Saturday we started with an offensive film session with one of the assistant coaches and then went out. It had snowed a couple inches the night before, but the field was mostly plowed with strips of snow and ice. The weather started out nicer than it had been, but then it dropped to what seemed like colder than anything we had practiced in. After stretches, I had pieces of turf frozen to my shaft and midway through practice I had to scrape the ice out of my hair. Besides the cold, practice was a lot of fun; it was the first day we ran up and down the field in some transition drills and unsettled situations. Practice ended with full field fast breaks, which as an attackman, I loved.
After a full week, everyone is trying to get through the preseason running and get to the scrimmages and games which will also mean warmer weather. Tonight most of the freshmen got rides from the seniors to go watch our Division I hockey team play our biggest rival Union. Unfortunately we lost the game, but on the way home we stopped by a local pizza and wing place and one of the freshmen goalies, Troy Manchester, decided to try their Burning Human wing challenge. To claim victory you have to eat ten of their hottest wings in three minutes or less. Even with the pressure of everyone watching him, he completed the challenge in 2:50. Through the tears of pain, he got his picture on the wall of fame. I’ll let you know how next week is.