By Tyler Conrad ’17
THE ROUNDUP
The lacrosse team hopes to approach this new season with a sense of modesty and work ethic to follow up last year’s defeat in the semi-finals.
“Based on the result earlier in the year, some of us may have gotten a little too confident, so there’s always that unfortunate lesson learned,” said head coach Mr. Zach Widbin of last season’s end.
“I think the goal is to remember that [loss] on a daily basis, and to remain humble and use it as fuel,” Mr. Widbin said.
Lacrosse was set to face rival Chaparral on Friday, Feb. 26.
“Nothing makes us want to win our game game against Chap and earn a state ring more than our playoff experiences last year,” said returning varsity player Grant Hushek ’17.
Lacrosse is one of Brophy’s club sports on campus, and one of the most successful and popular. The team has won five state championships in the past nine years, the most recent being in 2013.
In addition to the main varsity team, there is also a Varsity 2 team as well as junior varsity. Tryouts for team placement spanned over a week and a half.
“As a coach, some of the decisions are not fun, there’s a lot of good guys who we sometimes just can’t find room for on the team,” Mr. Widbin said on the rigorous process.
As a result of these tryouts, the team is often one of the more diverse on campus in regards to tryouts.
This year, Tommy Moore ’19 is a freshman playing at the varsity level.
“It has always been a dream of mine to play a varsity sport at the high school I’ve always dreamed about going to,” Moore said.
Regardless of differences in age, the team and coaches insist chemistry is still incredibly strong among the players.
“We’ve been pretty fortunate over the years with players bonding, so I don’t think the age difference plays a big part in team interactions,” Mr. Widbin said.
Moore agreed, saying he felt part of the team from the beginning of practices.
“They have all been accepting and made me feel like part of the team right away,” Moore said.
One of the contributing factors to this breakdown is not only the difference in age, but also personality types.
“It’s great because we’ve got different types of characters,” Mr. Widbin said. “We have guys like Alex Paul ’16 who are quiet and always hardworking, like workhorses, then you have guys like Tom Dye ’16 who wear jean shorts and cowboy hats to their finals exams.”
