Boys’ Lacrosse Prepares for Success: Captains Alex Farley and Jimmy Young Excited for Team’s Prospects

After last year’s successful season, the boys’ varsity lacrosse team has set their hopes high. Aiming for a high winning season, the team plans to start out in full drive, according to co-captain and senior Jimmy Young. In fact, its members have already been attending daily practices for almost a full month. “We’ve had a great couple weeks of practice starting in Florida and now back in Exeter. We are improving everyday,” Young said.

Their preseason training began in St. Petersburg, Fla., where the team spent a week practicing during spring break. “We had a great few days down there and everyone really bonded,” upper Jake Malasek said.

Since getting back to Exeter, the team has been working hard in preparation for their first game. “We are preparing by doing a lot of game-like drills and a lot of scrimmaging,” lower Tanner McGowan said.

The team has placed a strong emphasis on defense, with considerable work being put towards implementing an effective system of plays and communication on the field. “As a defender, I think coach has made it clear that to win, we must execute team defense,” lower Peyton Weatherbie said.

“One of our goals will be to execute our fundamentals and communicate effectively for all four quarters.”

“The first few games should be fun,” Malasek said. He described their first game against St. Sebastian’s as a tough one to start with. Weatherbie, however, was optimistic about the rest of the season.“If we can execute our schemes and talk on defense, I think we can find success,” he said.

Senior Ben Solin agreed. “For the first few games, we’re looking to start fast, but we’re still working out some quirks like the new defense we put in,” he said. “We should do well. Our offense this year is really good and our defense is even better, especially once the new systems that we put in place are polished up.”

Yesterday, the team traveled to St. Sebastian’s Country Day School in Needham, Massachusetts for their first game. The final score was a disappointing 6-7 loss.

As the team looks towards the rest of the season, one of their biggest challenges will be staying consistent from game to game. “I think one of our goals will be to execute our fundamentals and communicate effectively for all four quarters,” Weatherbie commented. Malasek agreed, adding that “we want to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistakes we made last year.” In addition, the team faces a tough schedule with some of their hardest games back to back.

Citing Deerfield Academy and Andover as two of their most challenging rivals, senior Charlie Russ admitted that an undefeated season was a very ambitious goal. Nevertheless, the team is “very sound,” according to Malasek. As long as they don’t overthink things too much, he expects them to do very well. “We expect to come out with the win in all of them,” McGowan concluded.

The team has its first home game against Buckingham Browne & Nichols School at 6 p.m. this Friday and another home game against Roxbury Latin School at 4:30 p.m. next Wednesday.