Men's lacrosse looks for fresh start with roster of freshmen

The Norwich men's lacrosse team hopes to achieve big things in the 2009-10 season. The club is coming off a disappointing finish from last season, as the Cadets lost all seven of their conference games and had an overall record of four wins, nine losses.

"We are looking to be a big competitor this year," said Chris Yodonis, 18, a freshmen criminal justice major from Beachwood, N.J. The team goal, he said: To "win the conference."

Coach Neal Anderson has made a lot of changes to the club this year, starting with in a handful of new freshmen players.

"We have a total of 24 freshmen coming in and trying out," Anderson said. "The main goal for the team is to set goals and achieve them every day in practice."

"Our secondary goal is to make and win the playoffs for our league. ," Anderson said.

The team has mandatory workouts every week, as well as intense practices held by Coach Anderson.

"Practices have been really difficult and the intensity level is much higher than last year. I am really excited to see where the team is going. Coach Anderson has really given us the tools to become successful," said Jordan Lewis, 21, a junior communications major from New Orleans, La.

They start training during the fall, practicing a couple days during the week, according to Mattson. "During the winter we did weight training and had captain practices in Shapiro field house," he said.

"We did a lot of off-the-field things together as a team," Lewis said. "We're a real close team. We would play floor hockey every Wednesday night for team bonding."

Because the team is bringing in so many new players, no veteran has a guaranteed spot in the lineup.

"Coach has brought in a ton of new freshmen so that puts a lot of pressure on us veterans who have been here for a few years. It makes practice much better as everyone is competing for a spot every day on the field," said Nate Davis, 22, a senior architecture major from York Beach, Maine.

The team hopes to win more games this year in order to attract additional fans to support home games.

"We hope that we can get a lot of students to come to the games to cheer us on. It makes it more fun when the entire school comes out for a game," said Jesse Mattson, 25, a senior communications major from Essex, Vt. "Hopefully we can put on a good show and win some games and get the program to where we know it should be," he said.

The season looks good this year for the cadets.

The Cadet's first game will be March 6 at Anna Maria College in Paxton, Mass.