By Jack Willmore ’24
THE ROUNDUP
After an overtime loss in last season’s Lacrosse State Championship game, Brophy Lacrosse has started off the season winning seven out of their nine games and is striving for another State Championship appearance. Brophy seems to be cruising through the season so far, only losing two games so far.
“This year we have a lot of humility knowing that we are a good team but knowing that there is always room for improvement,” said Lacrosse Head Coach Mr. Patrick Harbeson. He notes that they fell short of their goal last year and that they need to finish out games as they lost three games last year in overtime.
In their second game of the season, Brophy lost to Mater Dei, a school from Santa Ana, CA with 5 D1 commits and kids with multiple D1 offers. Harbeson thinks, “We firmly believe we could have won that game” and that, “It was good early on to get a loss to provide perspective and keep us humble.”
After that loss to Mater Dei, Brophy went on to win their next game against Chaparral High School in a 19-5 game. After the win, they went on to win the next four games.
Noah Burdick ’24, a long stick midfielder, said, “The best thing we worked on is being a little bit more confident and a little bit more relaxed…we need to have a little swagger by ourselves.”
The community aspect of the team has also grown a lot during the offseason and the start of the season. Burdick said that this year the offense is getting more goals per person rather than last year where their offense was based primarily on solo dodges, which are one-on-one matchups.
“You are starting to see guys play for each other, give an extra pass instead of taking a goal,” said Harbeson. He credited the teamwork to, “having off-season tournaments, spending time in the weight room, and spending time in the locker room together.”
For the team and Harbeson, every single day of practice and games is important to them. Two games that pique the teams interest are against Higley High School on March 8, which they won 16-8, and Boulder Creek on April 12. Burdick says the final goal for the team is making it back to the playoffs this year. Halfway through the season, Brophy Lacrosse seems to be on the right track.
