Men's lacrosse builds on season

"There is tremendous enthusiasm about lacrosse on the Norwich campus. This year the Norwich University men's lacrosse team's focus is on making the Pilgrim League Playoff, and coming together as a team," said Neal Anderson, head men's lacrosse coach.

According to Anderson, the coaches sat down with the team captains two weeks into the season to set the team's goals. "This year we have the strength to score eight or more goals a game," Anderson said.

"Magic number eight is the goal that we set as a team: score eight goals on offense and let in less than eight goals a game," said Tyler Woods, 20, a junior geology major from Essex Junction, Vt.

"The other thing we focused on and set as a goal this year was to hustle. The upperclassmen showed us that you could be the best player or the worst player on the team, but if you hustle you can make things happen and succeed," said Garrett Shufelt, 18, a freshman political science major from East Greenbush, N.Y.

According to Patrick Sikora, 20, a junior criminal justice major from Montpelier, Vt., Anderson made it clear that "the upperclassmen needed to set the tone and tempo for the underclassmen on and off the field."

"If we can do that, we can make it further than just the Pilgrim League Playoffs," Sikora said.

As the men's lacrosse team winds down another season, players reflect on what made the 2010 season successful, attributing their motivation to each other. 

"This year our freshmen (were) a very important key on the team: they make us better, they make us fight for our spot on the team, and it pushes the team to get better," Woods said.

"The upperclassmen on the team show us by doing and through their work ethic at practice (they show) the mentality you need to have when you're getting ready to step on to the field; they aren't fooling around before games. They also get us physically and mentally prepared for each game," Shufelt said.

The mindset the team had has been the key to pushing the Cadets forward. Each player seemed uncertain of his position with the team, and that forced every individual to work harder than they had before.

"Every day, every player comes to practice with the mentality that you could be a starter today and then tomorrow you could be bumped from first line to fourth line. So we come to practice with the philosophy that any player can lose their spot," said Michael White, 19, a freshman criminal justice major from Walpole, Mass.

"Coming to the program a year ago it was just a bunch of guys running around on a lacrosse field with no set offense.  But this year we look like a very well-trained lacrosse team and it's due to the mentality we all have: anybody can be replaced," said Sikora.

"As a team this year our main goal was work as a team; not to have any super stars (and) to play crisp and clean lacrosse," Woods said.
 

Playing as a united front has proven critical to the Cadets' success.

"We can only be as strong as the players playing with each other," Anderson said.

"We are a team that never gives up. We never let anybody on our team down. There are 10 players on the team and each one counts on each other to help propel us to the next level and hit our goal, which is a Pilgrim League Playoff. Even when people tell us to quit we keep on fighting forward," White said.

The hard work in practice seemed to carry over to creating team chemistry both on and off the field.

 "Everyone is close. No one on the team is left out. We do everything together because if we leave one person out, there goes the whole team.  Then we all turn into individuals and you can't be a championship team with individuals," Shufelt said.

"We are a very tough team to scout. We don't have one or two players that are stand-outs; we have numerous players that have 20 or more points, and it's hard for any team to scout against (that) because we are constantly sharing the ball.  Everybody is scoring, we don't have any all-stars on the team. We have a really good crop of guys that love the game and want to play together," Anderson said.