Underneath a flight of stairs behind building seven, over 40 lacrosse players gather around on the concrete slab and gear up for lacrosse practice. After a week of near-freezing temperatures, the practice on Jan. 29 saw an upturn in the weather as the Varsity and JV teams took the brightly lit field just behind Sam Momary Stadium.
The team’s energy was rising, and was apparent to anyone on the team.
“So far, it’s been going great,” senior Juilan Fernadez said.
After years of inconsistency in previous seasons, entering the season with a returning head coach, and with a strong group of second and third-year players was a change.
“We’re really developing from the past couple of seasons. I think this season could be our best one yet,” Fernandez said.
One of the most important parts of a team sport is having players who can cooperate on the field together. To be able to go through games and practice as a cohesive unit had been an aspect that was sorely missing from last year’s lacrosse team.
“No one took anything seriously,” senior Drake Adkins said.
A notable visual from last season’s practices was players trying constantly to hurl balls over the bleachers while none of the coaches were looking.
“Our chemistry has gotten a lot better,” Adkins said.
To many, it would seem that the team now has all the right ingredients for a successful season. The players were having a good time. Head coach Bronson Reano, in his second year, is excited about the team, and not worried about the seniors from last season’s team who made up most of the roster.
“We have a lot of juniors who have now become seniors, and they have already taken up that mantle. I feel like they’re ready to be leaders,” Reano said.
Reano is certainly a major factor within the team’s preliminary success. As mentioned earlier, the team had struggled to find a head coach for the past few seasons.
Due to this absence, before last season, Jay Getty, the school’s athletic director, was forced to take on an additional coaching role, while still busy with track and field. Alongside him, the school’s softball coach David Stone was also handed the responsibility.
For many, it was not hard to understand why the team had struggled in recent years. Prior to the recent string of bad luck, consistent team leadership had gone hand-in-hand with lacrosse’s historic success as a program.
From 2017 to 2021, the team had gone 69-25, boasting a 72.4% win percentage.
Therefore, history has shown that the program has had what it takes to be successful, and all they needed now was similar levels of stability.
Many believe Reano’s return as head coach marks the return to certainty. Players are comfortable around a returning face, and less adjustments have to be made all around.
“I feel like I’m getting a head start on the season,” Reano said. “Everyone feels like they want to improve from last year, and just to be able to build a better program and a better legacy”
While Reano helped sand down some of the bumps from last year, a couple of players believe that things have become too smooth.
“Our biggest problem is that we’ve consistently been starting off slow,” senior Spencer Griffith said. “We need to come out and hit the ground running, be intense and play hard.”
Across the first week of practice, the team had appeared far too relaxed. Though everyone was getting along, just being friends is not enough to be a competitive team.
“We’ve had some good practices, and we’ve had some bad practices,” senior Easton Nebel said. “We just need to do better with our energy.”
Thurs. Jan. 29 was designated to be the practice where the players would assign team captains. It would be an important day for many. The plan was to, at the end of practice, let any player who wanted to go up and give their speech on why they should be captain, after which the team would vote on it.
However, as the players finished their final six-on-six drill of the day and put the goals back under the bleachers, things turned sour.
Reano called of the voting.
“Every time Coach wanted to speak, it’s like no one was listening. No one could sit still, or just be present with him,” Griffith said.
After everyone calmed down, Reano gathered everyone back up, and the players started to make their cases for team captain. On the next day, everyone voted on who they believed would provide the strongest leadership moving forward.
Spencer Griffith, 12, Drake Adkins, 12, Easton Nebel, 12 and Colton Marcentell, 10 were elected team captains.
Regardless, the thought lingered within many of the players.
“I think it gave us a reality check that we need to stay locked in every practice and keep working hard. Today we just weren’t,” Adkins said.
But it is no secret that teams, across any sport, will have their good days, and their bad ones. And just one day was not enough for players to draw conclusions.
“Like they always say, one step back, two steps forward” Griffith said.
In general, the team is still on an upward trajectory.
With a handful of practices and a preseason game ahead, the boys have a chance to take control of their growth, and build the strength that the program needs before their first game.
The team will open the year on the road at Lake Nona on Feb. 10.
“The culture has shifted into a positive direction,” Reano said. “The goal has been to build a winning culture, so that people want to play for the Hagerty boys lacrosse team.”
