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.
Brian Hess
Midfielder - #2
Blog 3 – #theBoysGoWest
Last Thursday was a huge day for a couple of reasons: Villanova was looming and it was Valentine’s Day. Let’s start with Valentine’s Day. There were a couple highlights for the Lehigh lacrosse team, as Kyle Stiefel set the record for most social media posts in a day regarding his girlfriend. Alan Henderson was Valentineless on Thursday, but he made up for that with his performance with the ladies on Saturday. Fortunately for myself, Alex, my high school sweetheart, was my valentine. All my buddies call her “the one that got away,” but I am working hard to make sure that is not the case. On a bit more of a melancholy note, Miss Baldwin has been travelling abroad this semester and wasn’t around for the big day. This left our’s truly Derek “the Ocho” Bogorowski pretty upset…
…Alright now, let’s get back to the game. The amount of time and preparation put in by the coaches this week was unlike anything I have ever seen before. I honestly believed that we, as a team, felt this was the most prepared we had ever been schematically for another opponent. The coaches and everyone on our team had one word on our mind: Revenge. Last year, Villanova gave us one of the worst losses in program history, a 17-7 whopping on our home turf. Many people outside the program noted this game as the one that specifically turned our season around last year – an opinion that definitely had some credibility to it. However, no one on the team wanted to experience that feeling ever again. In a hard-fought, windy game at Villanova, we ended up getting a huge 11-9 win. We started off slowly, which is something our team is trying to figure out, and fell behind 2-0. Thanks to a huge faceoff win/goal by Ryan Snyder, we got it back to 3-1. On a quick side note, shout out to one of my absolute boys Ryan Snyder, who just got nominated for the 2013 Senior Class Award, which is a combination of academics, community service and athletics. I couldn’t think of a kid who deserves it any more. But back to game action, where our attack and defense yet again carried the squad. Dave DiMaria had another amazing performance with 3 goals and 4 assists, Dante had 4 and 1 and Dan Taylor had 2 and 2. After the game, we got to meet up with some of the 2012 seniors who came to support us and of course, Dana Frye was a classic no show (shocker, but he is definitely “For the Boys”- so he says). Reuniting and talking with some of the guys last year really helped to put this season in perspective.
As always, we learned from our mistakes in film on Monday and began to prepare for our toughest test of the season: back-to-back tilts against Denver and Air Force. Denver is extremely talented and going out there is never easy. We also got a bit of motivation from the newest releasing of the polls, where we decided as a team that the #2013RespectTour has officially been launched. All we can do is control how hard we play, but we definitely still have a chip on our shoulder. As we prepared for Denver, we know they are going to be a great team. We went through their scout on Wednesday, a day earlier than normal, because of the coaches’ eagerness to dive into their schemes. I think a special recognition needs to go out to the White offense (the auxiliary offense) because of how hard they’ve been playing this season and giving our defense unbelievable looks in practice. Patty Doc is definitely a key guy down there and has never seen a shot he doesn’t like. Everyone reads about our Defense and how successful they are, but it really would not be possible without the white O. Another new aspect that was instilled this week were “Landslides”, by Coach Callahan. A landside is essentially a conditioning drill, and for every penalty/curse word in practice, we had a corresponding “quick set of five” at the end. Taking care of the details is something that Coach Cassese reminds us of all the time and those are two things we must cut out of our game if we want to reach our goals.
Everyone is extremely excited to head out to Denver. These long trips are a great chance to bond as a team and get to know guys that much better. The unity built over a season of cramped buses and crowded hotel rooms is invaluable and really allows our team to come together as a family. Everyone is super psyched to find out who their roommates are going to be, and I’ll be happy as long as I don’t get paired with Matty Ice (#45) for a third year in a row, who is an expert at girlfriend voice. As we continue to work hard on Thursday and Friday, we know this weekend will be a defining point in our season. To reach any of our goals, our team knows it is essential that we win back-to-back games, and this weekend is a perfect test against two very talented teams.