The spring sports season has arrived and the Boys Lacrosse team is ready for the season and preparing to compete in Sectionals this year and make a run.
After a devastating loss in the Sectional Semifinals last year to Westhill, Senior Captains Logan Banek and Sawyer Kramer said, “The goal this season is to make it to the Sectional Finals.”
Last year the team went 13-3 in the regular season which means this young team has pretty big shoes to fill this season after losing 12 seniors. Both Senior Captains think that the 12 seniors leaving is a big loss, but they think the younger players have proven themselves and still think the team has a lot of talent.
“Our goals are the same as they are every year, win the TVL League, win the Sectional Finals, and see how far we make it in the state tournament, ” said Coach Pope.
Coach Pope has been in the New Hartford Lacrosse program for 32 years and has built up this program every year since he started coaching. Coach Pope likes a lot of things about coaching with pushing players, practices, exciting big games, and the challenges that come to coaching.
A big difference this year coaching according to Coach Pope is that it is a “whole new bunch of guys and a whole new group after losing 12 seniors. This is also the first group that I didn’t coach at the youth level.”
Even though 12 seniors left, finding a Captain position is hard and it’s hard to lead people, but Senior Captain Logan Banek said, “The captain role is not that hard; we have a lot of guys that are willing to listen and help out.”
Right now the Boys Lacrosse team is 10-1 and 1st in class C standings with big wins against Burnt-HIlls, Carthage, Ballston Spa and Lafayette/Onondaga. Leading the team with the most goals is Senior Captain Sawyer Kramer with 45 goals, the most assists on the team is Sophomore Landon Gentile with 19 assists. The leaders for total points on the team is Senior Captain Sawyer Kramer with 51 points, second on the team is sophomore Landon Gentile with 42 points, and third on the team is Junior Captain Jake Garcia with 39 points. Senior Captain Logan Banek is carrying the faceoff game with a 88% win rate on the faceoffs. The Spartans lacrosse team looks to keep rolling and keep that number one spot.
