Back-to-back, 13-0 and 17-0 shutout losses suffered last week by the Sebastian Middle School and Sebastian River High School lacrosse teams did not dampen the spirits of the teams or the lacrosse program.
The SRHS Varsity Lacrosse team is having its best year.
Although the team has just four wins, that happens to be the most wins ever for a SRHS Lacrosse team. Johnnie Hurst Sr. has led the team with 41 goals this season. That is a school record. On defense, Dan Ramos has 78 ground balls so far this season and has scored five goals. All the players have worked hard on both offense and defense and have been very competitive in most games.
SRHS Head Lacrosse Coach Sean Stinger said the SRHS freshman players have some good experience. The players who came in this year have fundamental skills. Even though the 2015 lacrosse season is only the second for Sebastian middle schools, 13 of this year’s high school players came from the 2014 middle school teams, and five of the 13 freshmen are starters.
Stinger has been coaching at the high school level for six years and at Sebastian for four years. Mike Beaty, the former head lacrosse coach, and Enrique Valencia are his assistant coaches.
Stinger said there is a two-year learning curve in getting acclimated to the sport. The 2015 middle school teams are mostly made up of 6th and 7th graders this year, so Stinger is expecting a solid 2016 freshman class.
The SRHS Varsity Lacrosse roster consists of: Johnnie Hurst Sr., Daniel Marshall, Colin Farina, Daniel Farina, Zack McFall, Devin Thomas, Garrett Roux, Joel Vacchiano, Justice Bragg, Logan Reimsnyder, Oscar Raya, Daniel Colbert, Valentin Cruz, Zach Bande, Daniel Ramos, Clark Dujevolk, Brandon Baker, Brandon Lamb, Blake Hundley, Brandon Prickette and Bryan Rhoades.
Jackie and Robert Farina are in their second year of coaching the Sebastian Middle School lacrosse team, which they started after Robert was approached by the high school coaches about creating a middle school program. Jackie is the faculty coach and also the nurse at Sebastian Middle School.
Along with St. Edwards, the team also plays Oslo, Storm Grove and Gifford middle schools. Robert said 17 of the 21 players on his team had never played lacrosse before joining the program this year. Despite that, he feels there has been solid progress in the defensive area. Athletic players tend to do very well on learning and playing defense; offense takes more time, as it involves stick handling and passing, but Farina says his players are improving there as well.
Despite the improvement, training a team of mostly novice players is a challenge and the middle school team is winless in six games. While a win would certainly be most welcome, Coach Farina sees the season as a success already.
“The team is developing,” Farina said. “We see this and opposing coaches have mentioned it. Better ball handling is seen on the offensive end. Passing is better, and players are learning when to cut and pick up cutters on the defensive end.”
As the interest in youth lacrosse grows, both head coaches are confident the lacrosse teams and programs will continue to improve.